Foray Log 25.2022 - South Central Oregon Coast
Golden Falls- near Coos Bay, Oregon
Foray Log- South Central Oregon Coast, February 5, 2022
Scouting out new territory to mushroom hunt is always an adventure. If you have never been to a place before, it is hard to know exactly what you are getting yourself into. My friend Beth and I decided to get way out of town and go explore about 4 hours south of our forests into the south Siuslaw, Elliot State Forests, and BLM land off the Umpqua River. We researched the area with a mix of google maps, OnX maps, BLM maps, state forest maps, blog posts, newspaper articles and observations on iNaturalist. We were on the hunt for Black Trumpets, Craterellus cornucopioides, in the Tanoak forests of southwestern Oregon.
Beth came to my house at 6:45 where we packed up our gear, enough food for a few days and spirit ready for adventure. We had not been out to the woods together for months, maybe even a year and we finally made it work despite our families, farms, small businesses and recent COVID illnesses. Our goal was to get to a mutually agreed upon spot on some BLM land near the Umpqua River as soon as possible. We only stopped once for gas off I-5 to fill up before heading into the woods.
We turned off the main road with a hope it would lead us to the right plot in the checkerboard that is BLM and private property throughout the coastal range. The maps we had showed the road dead-ended, but we drove down it anyway and were surprised to find one of the most well maintained forest roads we have ever been on. We parked on the shoulder in a place that was not so steep- unlike the sharp cliffs we passed on the way up. First, we walked to a more deciduous part of the forest where there were a grove of alders growing near a seasonal creek, but the underbrush was too dense for us to walk in, so we decided to walk up the road and climb an embankment to access a bit of Hemlock and Douglas-fir forest on the side of a hill. I immediately found a patch of sweet Mycena sanguinolenta and Winter Chanterelles, and stayed there photographing them for an absurd amount of time while Beth walked circles around me occasional shouting that she found more and more Hedgehogs and Winter Chanterelles.
On our way back to the car, we noticed some stunning bright red and bright blue mycelium colored sticks peeking out of the forest floor. The Chlorociboria was a bright turquoise blue but did not have any fruiting bodies on it yet. I took some samples home and will try and grow them out on agar to see if I can get an ID on them. The red stick is still a mystery to me. I am not sure what mycelium will turn wood red, almost the color of a lobster mushroom, and will have to do some more research to find out.
We drove back to the main road and out to our next destination, Loon Lake. This ended up not being such a great idea and I wished I would have payed more attention to my topographical maps when searching for this place. Our drive was stunning to Loon lake in a moss covered canyon with a creek running beside us. The few places we did stop only featured moss and lichen. The boulders were impressive but the trees growing out of the cracks were even more so. We drove for hours searching for a place to go in BLM, but all of the access points would have required rock climbing gear or permission from private land owners.
Finding a place for lunch ended up being the best stop of the trip. We found a small piece of lush forest that was sandwiched between a cliff of boulders and a rushing creek. In this little forest we began to see the familiar sights of winter fungi like Auriscalpium vulgare, the grey Mycenas that carpet the forest floor, Pseudoplectania melaena, the spectacular Hygrocybe and more Hedgehogs and Winter Chanterelles. I climbed over piles of sticks and branches to get a better look at a bit of purple that caught my eye. Stooping down to look at the fuzzy purple, I realized it was attached to one of the buried branches and I was seeing the Trichaptum abietinum, polypore that has a violet purple pored surface when it is fresh. These had to have been the most perfect specimens I have ever encountered.
Last month I read the book Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard. In the beginning of the book she shares a story about finding bright yellow mycelium running throughout the forest floor. She noticed it first when she was a child and then again when she was beginning her forestry career. I have been actively looking at fungi for over 2 years now and I had never seen a bright yellow mycelium weaving its way in the duff. When I went to pick up the Auriscaptium vulgare attached to it’s Douglas-fir cone, I finally saw the bright yellow threads that Suzanne had talked about in her book. There in the dark brown forest floor was a web of brilliant yellow woven just under the top layer of litter.
We decided to head west to the Oregon Coast and then south to find more Tanoak habitat. So far we were seeing familiar territory in the Douglas-fir and Western Hemlock habitats as in the forests closer to home. Our first stop was a county park outside of Coos Bay called Nesika County Park, where there was river access and a campground that had a flock of domestic chickens and ducks. We walked through Myrtlewood trees to the make-shift dirt stairs cut out of the earth with branches that served as handrails to access the river. We carefully walked down the stairs and over large root structures to the rock beach of the wide river. On one stump there was a nice flush of Trametes versicolor and in the moss covered rocks there were some mycenoid specimens too. The river was a perfect calm pace and there were various ropes and other things tied to the tree branches that reached for the water so people could swing off and dive in. It really would be the perfect summer camping trip.
We continued down the long gravel road a few more miles to our next destination the Silver Falls and Golden Falls at an Oregon State Park. We parked in the gravel lot next to a grove of Myrtlewood trees that had spilled their marble sized seeds all over the ground. The leaves smelled like a spicy Bay Leaf and the weather was perfect and sunny. We decided to hike to Silver Falls first and it took us about 10 minutes to hike in. We did not see any fungi, but were stunned at the view of the beautiful falls pouring off the rocks from above. When we got close enough it was like we were in a swamp cooler because of all of the overspray and wind the falls were generating. It was an awe inspiring place to be. We stood there basking in that magical moment for a while.
We peeled ourselves away from the falls to go hike down the opposite path to see the Golden Falls. The daylight was quickly disappearing and we wanted to make sure to see it before dark. So we hiked over to the Golden Falls in a Myrtlewood forest and Maples. The Golden Falls were surrounded by ocher cliffs and being there just before sunset made them glow. We could not get as close to the falls because of the large rocks and trees in the way, but we got close enough to take some photos before turning around and heading back to the car.
We watched the sun set from the car as we drove toward the Pacific and then took 101 north, homeward bound. It took us about 2 hours to get to the spot Beth was camping, and another hour-and-a-half drive for me to drive home after being fed some excellent homemade food. I ended up driving and traveling for over 17 hours and came home exhausted.
The next day I worked on some experiments with the Sarcoscypha coccinea I found on my travels. I sectioned the cup to look at the paraphyses and measure the spores, and when I added Melzer’s reagent to the slide, the paraphyses reacted and turned green! I added a drop of Melzer’s to the hymenium surface of the cap and found that it also turned green. Seeing immediate and bold chemical reactions like this are still so exciting for me.
Resources:
Melzer’s Reactions https://www.liquisearch.com/melzers_reagent/reactions
Art of the day
“Golden Falls” -Digital Photograph by Autumn Anglin
