Mushrooms & Horses

It is pouring rain and that means the fall mushrooms are starting to sprout. I love hunting for the edibles. And I love finding new species, like last week - I found a blue Chanterelle. I've been hunting and eating the yellow & white Chanterelle for years and this is not only the first I've found, but the first I've ever seen too.


I know it looks black and it sort of was at first sight, it is also known as black Chanterelle. The blue color could really be seen on the stem and after a day in my refrigerator. Note to wild mushroom eaters - next time I'll leave it to respore in the forest. The taste was inferior to the yellow & whites and the mushroom itself was tougher/chewier, not tender at all.

So I have also been riding a lot lately. Yesterday, I rode a local trail that I hadn't been on in about six years - Tiger Mtn Trail. It has sort of been taken over by mountain bikers, but half the trail is still designated horse only. Oh, and I did find a handful of yellow Chanterelle there. Most of our trails seem to be in conifer forests, but much of this trail does wind through some decidous forest.





We did find a couple other mushrooms out on the trail, but feel fairly confident in identifying them as not edibles...

probably in the Entoloma genus...

probably in the Gandoderma genus


A root wad that was covered in moss and ferns. But most of this forest was very dark and everything gets covered in moss and ferns.


This is my good friend Shirley who accompanied me on this ride. She is on her new horse Palamo.


And the new picture you were waiting for, Big and I standing on the edge of a sharp drop off.

Oh and I want to throw in a couple of pictures of my friends who rode with me on the big prize rides last weekend.


This is Eric (also the husband of my friend Shirley above) on his horse Darlin and ...


Bobbie who is building a bond with my horse Hawk and ...


Catherine on her horse Gracie who drove over 100 miles to ride the prize ride with me and gets all her friends to rent my horses for these prize rides and ...


my friend Julie on her horse Surprise who used to ride with me all the time when she lived up here, but she moved Medford, OR and she drove several hundred miles with horses to spend the weekend and ride the prize rides with me and her friend from Oregon, Jan on her horse Bo, and her other friend from WA, Joanne on Julies horse Star.

Some final mushrooms as seen everywhere on the prize ride on Sunday (none seen on Saturday)...


Ganoderma also known as the Artist Conk and ...


Russula which were popping up everywhere, absolutely everywhere (too bad they don't taste better, rather blah, slightly bitter).

Hope you enjoyed - Smiles - Debie

See more pictures of mine & Bigs adventures on our website www.echoriverranch.com