More about Mushroom Hunting

First the bad news, we have only found about 60 mushrooms so far.  Maybe there will be more but it is getting pretty late in the season even if the weather is only now beginning to cooperate.  Mike and Bill continue to find time each day to do some checking but they usually only find a couple if that.  The best day we had was when Laura and Lois joined Bill and Mike and they picked 20 at the junk pile honey hole.

However, I have an update to a mushroom hunting incident previously reported in this blog.  In early April when Sela and Eli were visiting, Laura took them out through the timber with the dogs.  She told them she wanted to walk the dogs but her Queen of Fun side came out and she decided to add mushroom hunting to the agenda.  This was not particularly welcome news to Eli as he had only come along to walk the dogs.  Besides it was getting close to dinner time.

Sela however wanted to give mushroom hunting a try so they verred off the path into the woods.  Unfortunately they did not find anything and decided to head back home when Laura realized she was lost.  Eli wanted to know if they were spending the night in the woods and Sela volunteered the information that she was glad she had watched all those survivalist shows on television.  Laura felt that Sela's skills would not be needed as they were not going to spend the night in the woods.  She pulled out her cell phone and called her dad expecting him to get in the RZR and come get them.  

Unbeknownest to Laura, Mike was not at home.  Fortunately he was in his truck though and answered the phone.  Laura explained the situation.  Since Mike could not come and get her, he asked her to describe how she had come to be in the spot in which she was standing.   To her best recollection at this time, Laura said "We went down that path after the dam with the hills.  We passed the two hills and went around that corner and then went into the woods and now I'm looking at the creek."

I am a city girl and I have only lived here about four years but I would have told her to have Sela use her survivalist skills and Eli should start looking for a camping spot.  At the very least I would have had to ask for more information.  Not Mike.  He walks the trail through the timber every day in the winter and spent a lot of time traipsing through these woods when he was a boy.  He immediately responded.  He told Laura to go north and she could use the compass on her phone to find the direction.

As previously reported, all three of our intrepid hunters made it home in time for dinner and with an adventure story to tell.  To make sure that they would remember mushroom hunting as a positive experience Mike arranged for Bill, our mushroom hunting expert, to take the kids back out the next day.  Hopefully, things went well enough with Bill that we will be able to recruit Sela and Eli to the Peterson mushroom hunting team in 2019.