For as long as I can remember, the end of summer has been bitter-sweet.
On one hand, it meant the end of long days, vacations, sleeping-in and staying up late. That was the life!
On the other, it signaled the beginning of frosty mornings, turning leaves, blue-bird skies and my favorite pastime of all. Hunting.
There is something magical about the woods in the fall. The intense coloring of leaves brought on by shorter days and cool nights. The smells. It all keeps me returning to the woods time and time again.
Since I was a boy, I have tagged along on my Dad’s hunting and fishing trips. Every trip to the woods serves as a reminder of the things he has taught me and time spent together exploring. Dad doesn’t get to the woods anymore, but he’s always there with me in spirit.
For the past 18 years I have made the New River Gorge area my home. I have been exploring its woods from day one. In that time, I’ve barely scratched the surface of all there is to see. While it would take another lifetime to see all she has to offer, I intend to keep trying to see all I can.
Last summer was an unusually wet one for the our little group of vacation rental cabins in the New River Gorge.
I can remember when Paul Shaw (an Opossum Creek Retreat family member) and I spotted the giant gilled mushroom growing from the side of the tree in front of the Over the Hill cabin. That seems to have been the beginning of the “Year of the Shroom”.
I don’t recall ever seeing so many different varieties of mushrooms in the woods as we did last year. Almost every turn revealed a new (to me) fungus on the forest floor. Some were really tiny and some were huge. There were shapes and colors I never imagined from translucent orange and creams to electric, lime green. And I’m a guy that’s spent tons of time in the forest. It was an amazing adventure every time you stepped into the woods. Every chance I got I was grabbing my camera and heading in to see what new ones I could find.
Paul and I took hundreds of pictures and researched almost every one. Names like Dead Man’s Finger, Wood Ear, Old Man of the Woods and so many more lured me into the fascinating world of fungi.
William Roody defines a mushroom as a fruiting body of a fungus. Most mushrooms are temporary creatures that appear sporadically, depending on environmental conditions. I always thought that most all mushrooms were poisonous and could kill you. After doing some reading and researching I find that there are a lot that are ok to eat. Some are even great to eat.
The most common edible wild mushroom is the insanely delicious Morrell. The Morrell is a local favorite (if you can find them before the turkeys get to ‘em, or someone else). Some locals call the Common Morel “Molly Moocher” or Sponge Mushroom. No matter what you call it, it fares well on the table for sure.
The mushrooms you can find in the gorge area and here around your cabin are plentiful and a lot of fun to look for and look at. Get out there and look around, you’ll be surprised and what you might find. One thing I really like about shrooms, and that you will too, is that they are a lot easier to photograph than birds. To see some of the photos you can visit our Facebook fan page and check out the OCR Fungus Album.
Happy hunting!
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