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I took a lot of pictures and I like rambling on about mushrooms and such so this post is probably going to end up being pretty long. Hopefully you have some time to read through and enjoy the pictures. Thanks for checking out our adventure!
Last weekend, my GF and our dog went up to Leadville, Colorado to do an overnight at a high lake with her parents and their dog. It was roughly 3.5 miles to the lake, the last bit being some tough bushwhacking. We left Friday evening and spent the night at their house that night, on Saturday morning we had some breakfast and headed out around 9:30. The trail head is about 5 minutes from their house so we weren't in a huge rush. I used the same setup for the Lady Finger as I did in my last camping trip, hooked to my belt loop with a carabiner. I've got a nice sheath ordered so it's only a matter of time before I get to upgrade the Lady's pants.
For those of you that aren't familiar with Leadville, it is the highest incorporated city in the US. It sits a touch over 10,000ft in elevation. Our lake destination was about 11,500ft, right near tree line. Those elevations make for some tough hiking and catching your breath can be difficult in times of exertion. I spend enough time at those elevations that my body has started to get used to it but it's still surprising how quickly your breathing becomes labored up there. Good training for hunting! :thumbup:
The last thing before I start sharing pictures is that I was really hoping to get some good edible mushrooms while we were up here. The summer was another dry one in my usual spots and I haven't had the motivation to go looking because of that, but the high country has been getting some rain, as it does, and I was hopeful that we would run into some of my favorites...
We had a little drive from their house to get to the trail head and luckily that have some permission to access private property that cuts off a mile or two from the hike. I immediately got into mushroom mode and started lagging behind while taking pictures. The first mushroom I came across was a Suillus species, most likely a short-stemmed slippery Jack Suillus brevipes. Slippery Jacks are in the bolete family and are mostly edible, however they aren't really choice edibles so I almost always leave them behind in hopes of finding some of my preferred species. You can see that I've already fallen behind in the second picture.
The hike on the trail was pretty leisurely for the most part. The trail follows a stream most of the way so there was nice flowing water to listen to and plenty of things to look at. The next mushroom that I took picture of is a species that I've been really interested in trying for it's edibility, but I decided to leave these behind for a couple reasons. Mainly we still had a majority of the hike to go, but also because I'm not quite 100% on my ID of them and I'm really stringent about being 100% certain of a new species before I try eating it. These are known as shripm Russula, Russula xerampelina. They smell faintly of shrimp and apparently taste like them as well.
About half way through the hike, after some nice scenery, we finally ran into some choice edible mushrooms in the form of chanterelles! There some discussion as to which species is more common in Colorado, Cantharellus cibarius or C. roseocanus. Nonetheless, they're both delicious and one of my favorite mushrooms to find. Stumbling on a large patch of gold peaking out from the foliage is one of my favorite things. These ones were growing around rocks so they aren't the prettiest specimens but they'll still taste delicious.
Shortly after the chanterelles we stumbled upon a fairly large patch of young king boletes, often called porcini. In the Rocky Mountains this species was recently reclassified to Boletus rubriceps instead of the well known Boletus edulis. They're practically the same, and another one of my favorite mushrooms. This is the species that I grew up picking so finding these is always a nice reminder of my early mushroom hunting days with my brother and dad.
A little further down the trail we came across another one of my favorite mushrooms, the hawks wing or scaly hedgehog, Sarcodon imbricatus. These are really cool mushrooms because instead of gills or pores they have teeth. I didn't take any good pictures of the teeth on the smaller ones, which are the best for eating, but I took some of a related species that I'll share so you can see what I'm talking about. These and the above two mushrooms are sort of "The Trinity" of late summer/fall mushrooms for me. Lump morels, lobsters, and sweet tooth mushrooms in there and you've got most of my favorites!
At this point I had fallen behind quite a bit and had to hurry to catch up once I finished picking and cleaning the mushrooms. Everyone was waiting for me a little further up the trail where our trail intersected with the Colorado Trail. This cool old sign was at the intersection and we were finally able to see a landmark for our final destination. The rocky ridge in the center of the second picture sits above the lake we were headed to. Doesn't seem to far, but bushwhacking up hill slows things way down!
Along the way up to the lake we ran into a few more edibles. Lots and lots of wild strawberries and raspberries. A few more species of mushrooms including gem-studded puffballs, Lycoperdon perlatum. Lots of people pick these to eat, I find them quite boring and almost always leave them behind.
With all the berries around it was only a matter of time before we came across some bear sign. This was fairly fresh, probably from the night before, but we never did come across a bear.
In this picture you can see some of the terrain that we had to cross to get up to the lake. Sketchy rock fields, thick willows, thick trees. I had to carry the dogs over some of the rock fields. We came from the valley down below.
The climb sure was worth it though! Here's the first peek at the lake we got. The dogs were sure happy to be there!
Before we could enjoy the lake we had to set up camp and get some fire wood gathered and a fire started for the evening... well I actually sneaked in a few casts and caught one nice cutthroat right when we got there because I could see the fish and couldn't help myself!
Here's how I like to store my vaseline cottonballs. In the containers that usually house Airborne or the off brand. Prescriptions bottles work well also! I also got to play with a new lighter on this trip. I typically don't have a problem with Bics at high elevation but some people do, plus I got to use new gear which is always fun. I really like this lighter.
Some previous visitors hiked up a grill grate and left it there so I decided to make use of it for cooking dinner. Here's how I rigged it up for cooking over the fire. It worked perfectly.
Dinner was comprised of elk backstrap and cowboy potatoes like we had last time, but I also added some fresh porcini mushroom to the mix! Also like last time, even though the fish were plentiful, we decided not to have any as a meal. We brought plenty of food, no reason to kill a fish just because... I do really want to try the Lady finger out on some fish cleaning though.
We did a bit more fishing after dinner, relaxed by the fire with some hot coco, and just enjoyed being out there. The stars were beautiful that night, so many of them and so bright! The next morning we made breakfast, packed up camp, fished a bit more, and headed on out. I think we all would have stayed another night or two if we didn't have other obligations! Here are some more random pictures from the trip, some of my favorites. The tree was right by our camp site and seemed to be totally healthy. The fish is called a "splake" and is a hybrid between a lake and brook trout. This is the first one I've caught so I was pretty excited about it.
Thanks for reading or at least looking through the pictures!!
Orion
Last weekend, my GF and our dog went up to Leadville, Colorado to do an overnight at a high lake with her parents and their dog. It was roughly 3.5 miles to the lake, the last bit being some tough bushwhacking. We left Friday evening and spent the night at their house that night, on Saturday morning we had some breakfast and headed out around 9:30. The trail head is about 5 minutes from their house so we weren't in a huge rush. I used the same setup for the Lady Finger as I did in my last camping trip, hooked to my belt loop with a carabiner. I've got a nice sheath ordered so it's only a matter of time before I get to upgrade the Lady's pants.
For those of you that aren't familiar with Leadville, it is the highest incorporated city in the US. It sits a touch over 10,000ft in elevation. Our lake destination was about 11,500ft, right near tree line. Those elevations make for some tough hiking and catching your breath can be difficult in times of exertion. I spend enough time at those elevations that my body has started to get used to it but it's still surprising how quickly your breathing becomes labored up there. Good training for hunting! :thumbup:
The last thing before I start sharing pictures is that I was really hoping to get some good edible mushrooms while we were up here. The summer was another dry one in my usual spots and I haven't had the motivation to go looking because of that, but the high country has been getting some rain, as it does, and I was hopeful that we would run into some of my favorites...
We had a little drive from their house to get to the trail head and luckily that have some permission to access private property that cuts off a mile or two from the hike. I immediately got into mushroom mode and started lagging behind while taking pictures. The first mushroom I came across was a Suillus species, most likely a short-stemmed slippery Jack Suillus brevipes. Slippery Jacks are in the bolete family and are mostly edible, however they aren't really choice edibles so I almost always leave them behind in hopes of finding some of my preferred species. You can see that I've already fallen behind in the second picture.
The hike on the trail was pretty leisurely for the most part. The trail follows a stream most of the way so there was nice flowing water to listen to and plenty of things to look at. The next mushroom that I took picture of is a species that I've been really interested in trying for it's edibility, but I decided to leave these behind for a couple reasons. Mainly we still had a majority of the hike to go, but also because I'm not quite 100% on my ID of them and I'm really stringent about being 100% certain of a new species before I try eating it. These are known as shripm Russula, Russula xerampelina. They smell faintly of shrimp and apparently taste like them as well.
About half way through the hike, after some nice scenery, we finally ran into some choice edible mushrooms in the form of chanterelles! There some discussion as to which species is more common in Colorado, Cantharellus cibarius or C. roseocanus. Nonetheless, they're both delicious and one of my favorite mushrooms to find. Stumbling on a large patch of gold peaking out from the foliage is one of my favorite things. These ones were growing around rocks so they aren't the prettiest specimens but they'll still taste delicious.
Shortly after the chanterelles we stumbled upon a fairly large patch of young king boletes, often called porcini. In the Rocky Mountains this species was recently reclassified to Boletus rubriceps instead of the well known Boletus edulis. They're practically the same, and another one of my favorite mushrooms. This is the species that I grew up picking so finding these is always a nice reminder of my early mushroom hunting days with my brother and dad.
A little further down the trail we came across another one of my favorite mushrooms, the hawks wing or scaly hedgehog, Sarcodon imbricatus. These are really cool mushrooms because instead of gills or pores they have teeth. I didn't take any good pictures of the teeth on the smaller ones, which are the best for eating, but I took some of a related species that I'll share so you can see what I'm talking about. These and the above two mushrooms are sort of "The Trinity" of late summer/fall mushrooms for me. Lump morels, lobsters, and sweet tooth mushrooms in there and you've got most of my favorites!
At this point I had fallen behind quite a bit and had to hurry to catch up once I finished picking and cleaning the mushrooms. Everyone was waiting for me a little further up the trail where our trail intersected with the Colorado Trail. This cool old sign was at the intersection and we were finally able to see a landmark for our final destination. The rocky ridge in the center of the second picture sits above the lake we were headed to. Doesn't seem to far, but bushwhacking up hill slows things way down!
Along the way up to the lake we ran into a few more edibles. Lots and lots of wild strawberries and raspberries. A few more species of mushrooms including gem-studded puffballs, Lycoperdon perlatum. Lots of people pick these to eat, I find them quite boring and almost always leave them behind.
With all the berries around it was only a matter of time before we came across some bear sign. This was fairly fresh, probably from the night before, but we never did come across a bear.
In this picture you can see some of the terrain that we had to cross to get up to the lake. Sketchy rock fields, thick willows, thick trees. I had to carry the dogs over some of the rock fields. We came from the valley down below.
The climb sure was worth it though! Here's the first peek at the lake we got. The dogs were sure happy to be there!
Before we could enjoy the lake we had to set up camp and get some fire wood gathered and a fire started for the evening... well I actually sneaked in a few casts and caught one nice cutthroat right when we got there because I could see the fish and couldn't help myself!
Here's how I like to store my vaseline cottonballs. In the containers that usually house Airborne or the off brand. Prescriptions bottles work well also! I also got to play with a new lighter on this trip. I typically don't have a problem with Bics at high elevation but some people do, plus I got to use new gear which is always fun. I really like this lighter.
Some previous visitors hiked up a grill grate and left it there so I decided to make use of it for cooking dinner. Here's how I rigged it up for cooking over the fire. It worked perfectly.
Dinner was comprised of elk backstrap and cowboy potatoes like we had last time, but I also added some fresh porcini mushroom to the mix! Also like last time, even though the fish were plentiful, we decided not to have any as a meal. We brought plenty of food, no reason to kill a fish just because... I do really want to try the Lady finger out on some fish cleaning though.
We did a bit more fishing after dinner, relaxed by the fire with some hot coco, and just enjoyed being out there. The stars were beautiful that night, so many of them and so bright! The next morning we made breakfast, packed up camp, fished a bit more, and headed on out. I think we all would have stayed another night or two if we didn't have other obligations! Here are some more random pictures from the trip, some of my favorites. The tree was right by our camp site and seemed to be totally healthy. The fish is called a "splake" and is a hybrid between a lake and brook trout. This is the first one I've caught so I was pretty excited about it.
Thanks for reading or at least looking through the pictures!!
Orion
