We will be hosting a foray this weekend with our friends from the Arkansas Valley Mushroom Club on Saturday, June 12th. The fearless leader of AVMC, Irv Broudy was kind enough to ask us to lead an expedition into the high country to look for snow melt fungi and hopefully find some black morels! We will be gathering at the campground at the top of Kenosha Pass at 10 am and will be driving to our final hunting grounds. If you live in the Salida area, meet at 8:00am at Stop and Shop parking lot in town. For all the folks out in Buena Vista, meet at 8:30 at City Market in case there are people there who need a ride. Since it is a pretty long distance to Kensosha Pass, let’s try and maximize carpooling and chip in for gas for those who drive. If you are coming from Denver and would like to carpool or need directions to the meeting spot, shoot me an email at graham@amateurmycology.com and we will coordinate from there.

Weather conditions have been dry, so it’s likely that we will be looking for shrooms near or at the snow-melt zone, so dress accordingly and bring a lunch. James and I have recently found a few black morels, oysters, and many other snow melt fungi. We have been scouting and will select a specific location to hunt by Saturday. Hope to see you there!

While I was working on expanding mycelium I got an excited phone call from James. He said, “You can probably guess why I’m calling…” and I said, “Are you standing in front of some morels?”. “Black morels! About 30 of ‘em!” he said, and before I knew it, I was driving up into the mountains to go see them. I arrived to the spot and hiked up the stream into a grove of aspens. There was James and Clem standing there with big smiles on their faces. We went down to the stream and James sent me down to find them on my own. What was amazing to me is that they were growing right in the middle of the creek about halfway underwater! When I had first read in books that the Native Americans called morels ‘land fish mushrooms’, and I could never quite understand why until I saw these beautiful specimens swimming in the creek like trout. Even though they were soggy, with a little drying out they made a delectable cream sauce over barbecued chicken. But the most amazing part to me was that when they were fresh they smelled like fresh trout! Amazing! Suddenly the name ‘land fish’ begins to make more sense. So the first report of black morels has arrived in Colorado, and with it tons and tons of rain. We may have had a rough blonde morel season but that doesn’t mean no morels for us Coloradans. So keep your eyes peeled if you are around 9,000′ in elevation and are seeing moist aspen groves, especially if the leaves are just starting to come out, you might get lucky and spot some of these gorgeous little morsels! Check back soon for dates to the Amateur Mycology black morel forays, as well as more pictures and HD video of the whole experience. Happy hunting!