Pàdruig's Random Adventure Thread

[Pàdruig]

I am going out every weekend this month due to it being archery deer and elk season and I am trying to take as many pictures as I can whilst staying focused on why I am ultimately out in the woods in the first place. So rather than creating a separate thread for each outing, I am going to take a page out of The Warrior 's book and create a single thread to post my stuff in. Hopefully that is ok with the mods, I will certainly be adding good Becker content as much as possible.

So my hunt this last weekend was a bit of a bust, at least in terms of finding hair to shoot at. One of the most frustrating things is realizing that this last weekend was also the 2 day, buck deer only rifle hunt that takes place right smack in the middle of, not only archery season, but in our favorite hunting grounds. Aside from a quarter of the forest being shut down due to wildfires, we had to deal with an army of orange clad, rifle toting dudes creating the worst possible amount of noise with their diesel trucks and rifle shots (sighting in at the last minute?).

It was rather miserable.

That being said, I was extremely successful in hunting of a different sort. I am not sure if any of you guys like wild mushrooms but I love them, and I love hunting for them too. It is a nice auxiliary pastime when I am wandering in the woods.

Some of the scenery I got to enjoy whilst traipsing about:

The mountains are a wee bit bereft of snow at the moment, the haze you see is from all the blasted smoke created by the wildfires we have been plagued with.

And here is some pics of my mushroom hauls. A whole pile of chanterelle mushrooms, I think I scored a good 5 or 6 pounds, maybe a bit more.

All somewhat cleaned and trimmed:

Becker content!

Who likes Lobster mushrooms? One of my absolute favorites!

Found a ton of them! I usually do not find so many.

Who here likes some Chicken of the Woods? Pretty stuff, and rather tasty too if you prepare it right.

Bearded Milkcap? Actually, I wouldn't eat this one, though I have heard that it can be pickled...

Anyway, I will be back out this Friday. No noisy rifle hunters this time and if there are, they will be poaching... Though I do so enjoy mushrooms, I am hoping for some meat of a different sort this next time around.

 

[The Warrior]

Awesome man. What a beautiful place. I freaking love mushrooms, especially deep fried in butter. That was quite the haul.

 

[Pàdruig]

Awesome man. What a beautiful place. I freaking love mushrooms, especially deep fried in butter. That was quite the haul.

I hated mushrooms as a kid, probably because my folks tended to feed them to us from a can. As an adult though, I consider them to be among the finer things in life. Before packing up and heading home, we made quite the meal. Wild grouse (my buddies were able to shoot a few) paired with potatoes, zucchini and onions, and topped with diced chanterelles fried in butter, I can't tell you how freaking amazing that was.

Not a great picture due to me piling it all into my backpacking pot, but you can kind of see all of the delectable goodness. I forgot my other camp dishes... For any of you Brits, the stuff in the spork is some good home made black pudding, freaking delicious.

 

[The Warrior]

Looks amazing man. Making me hungry, haha.

 

[Xr6x]

Great pics Padruig, Thanks for sharing! I never gave mushrooms a chance for a long time. Now I love em , that vegetable cup looks freaking delicious. Good luck on a Buck

 

[DerekH]

Great thread! Love the pics! Wish I had those kinds of shrooms in these parts! And findable!

 

[JD Miller]

Is that Florida or Washington state Pictures?

Yeah I know it aint Flarida

 

[Aikiguy]

Great thread idea. Looking forward to the updates.

Mushrooms are one thing I have zero experience with. Wish I knew more about them. Keep posting!

 

[acerpower]

Great pics!
I need to learn about edible wild fungi someday. I see plenty of shrooms when out in the woods and it would be nice to bring something back when I have no luck bowhunting (which is most likely)

 

[91bravo]

Beautiful country there Padruig! I am a big shroom fan myself, all types!

 

[JD Miller]

.

 

[Tanker 1/66]

Nice Nice thread Pàdruig I love mushrooms and i love the concept of picking wild ones But it scares the crap out of me lol

 

[Pàdruig]

Great pics Padruig, Thanks for sharing! I never gave mushrooms a chance for a long time. Now I love em , that vegetable cup looks freaking delicious. Good luck on a Buck

Thanks, man. At this point, I am meat hunting so I will settle for anything I am allowed to harvest, Bull Elk, Buck or Doe Deer. We are supposed to get some wet weather coming in this weekend so that is going to help soften the ground up a bit, I hope.... So blasted dry out right now that I am sure any wary critter could hear us coming from a mile away...

Great thread! Love the pics! Wish I had those kinds of shrooms in these parts! And findable!

Thanks, Derek! Hopefully more to come after this coming weekend. I am not familiar with where you at but I do know that my buddy's dad will send pounds of Chanterelles to some relatives in Kansas. They either don't have them there or they are ungodly expensive. Just another reason why living in the PNW is the absolute greatest.

Is that Florida or Washington state Pictures?

Yeah I know it aint Flarida

I am located just south of Washington. The still beautiful state of Oregon, hopefully it remains such, wildfires have been a huge issue the last few years.

Great thread idea. Looking forward to the updates.

Mushrooms are one thing I have zero experience with. Wish I knew more about them. Keep posting!

Great pics!
I need to learn about edible wild fungi someday. I see plenty of shrooms when out in the woods and it would be nice to bring something back when I have no luck bowhunting (which is most likely)

Nice Nice thread Pàdruig I love mushrooms and i love the concept of picking wild ones But it scares the crap out of me lol

Thanks, guys! I am not familiar with where you are all from so I am not sure what sorts you could be on the look out for.
A couple things you could do though:

• See if there is a local mycology/mushroom hunting group that you could take part in, at least for a little while. Those folks tend to have a wealth of knowledge and can impart the basics, especially when it comes to finding edibles in your particular area.
• If there are no groups around to take part in, find out what the 2-3 most common and prolific edibles are in your area and just start familiarizing yourself with where they grow, their appearance, texture and consistency, but don't eat anything until you can assure yourself that you are consistently picking the same ones every time you go out. There are a lot of look-a-likes that can make you hate life in a hurry....

Over here, chanterelles and winter chanterelles (yellow feet) are some of our most common and prolific edible mushrooms. There is a false chanterelle that the unwary picker can easily mistake for a real chanterelle and will give them the runs in no time. However, despite saying that, the two are very easy to tell apart due to some very telling factors. You will certainly not see the experienced mushroom hunter making that mistake.

Beautiful country there Padruig! I am a big shroom fan myself, all types!

Thanks, man. One of these days, you should come up this way, I think you would have a blast. A bit colder and wetter than you might be used to but I still think you would have fun. Pertaining to mushrooms, I have a enormous picture journal of sorts. I catalog and record every specimen I come across, especially if I am unfamiliar with it. I will take pictures and then see about identifying it later. When it comes to fungi, you can never quite know what to expect.

For instance, I had never seen this before until this last weekend. I believe it to be a cluster of chanterelles that has been overcome by some sort of mold. What I find curious is that the caps have a different color of mold than the stems and it is a very uniform covering. Yet the mushroom structure itself was still firm and healthy, no signs of rot or softness of any kind. I was finding these all over, very curious....

 

[Awesom-o-4000]

CHICKEN OF THE WOODS! that is a fine score

 

[Pàdruig]

So unfortunately I do not have many pics to update this thread with. I got into quite a bit of action this last weekend and though I couldn't quite manage a kill, I got a couple bulls talking and my buddy's son managed to down his first animal, a spike bull elk. I got pretty close to a gorgeous herd bull who was not only angry but was extremely vocal. However, I was constantly fighting the wind, he was a smart elk, and he just plain couldn't be troubled to leave his little harem of cows, all the makings of for having no shot....

Regardless, I had an amazing hunt, it was an absolute blast. Next weekend is the final weekend of archery season and I will be back at it again. Hopefully I can come up with some good action pics.

Here are a couple of some of the area I was in this last weekend. Accompanied by a pic of the knives I took with me, that 14 makes for a terrific skinner! It made short work of that elk hide, I wish I had the presence of mind to snap a couple pics. Hopefully this next weekend, wish me luck!

 

[The Warrior]

Beautiful place man.

 

[Cap’n Smudge]

I used to live out that way. We hiked every weekend, pretty much all weekend during decent weather. Beautiful part of the country (I really miss it at times). Both sides of the Columbia river out towards Hood. I also love mushrooms. It used to drive me nuts to see all the chanterelles and lobster mushrooms on the hikes. We were not able to harvest in most of the areas. There were a lot of problems with people poaching them back then (around ten years ago).
I did collect a bunch of black morels (legally)on a hike somewhere towards the coast (from Portland).

 

[Don W]

Beautiful country! I love wild mushrooms. Thanks for taking us along on your weekends.

 

[Pàdruig]

Beautiful place man.

Thanks, man. I am a fortunate dude. Getting a bunch of rain dumped on us right now, which is absolutely wonderful. Should help drown those wildfires and clear the air out of smoke

I used to live out that way. We hiked every weekend, pretty much all weekend during decent weather. Beautiful part of the country (I really miss it at times). Both sides of the Columbia river out towards Hood. I also love mushrooms. It used to drive me nuts to see all the chanterelles and lobster mushrooms on the hikes. We were not able to harvest in most of the areas. There were a lot of problems with people poaching them back then (around ten years ago).
I did collect a bunch of black morels (legally)on a hike somewhere towards the coast (from Portland).

I actually had no idea that mushroom poaching was a thing. I do know that there have been several mushroom hunters out and about whilst I've been hunting. Ballsy folks.... Not only are they putting themselves in with us archery hunters but there was also a rifle hunt going on last week as well.
I do know that, technically, mushroom hunters are required to obtain a permit. I never bother because I am not doing it for commercial purposes but I still think I am required to. Maybe that was their answer to poaching?

Beautiful country! I love wild mushrooms. Thanks for taking us along on your weekends.

You are most welcome! It really is a pleasure. I will be going back out this coming weekend, hopefully the cards, rather, the wind, will be more in my favor and I can bring home an elk and/or deer.

 

[Cap’n Smudge]

I actually had no idea that mushroom poaching was a thing. I do know that there have been several mushroom hunters out and about whilst I've been hunting. Ballsy folks.... Not only are they putting themselves in with us archery hunters but there was also a rifle hunt going on last week as well.
I do know that, technically, mushroom hunters are required to obtain a permit. I never bother because I am not doing it for commercial purposes but I still think I am required to. Maybe that was their answer to poaching?

A lot of them are worth good money. I used to see poachers once in awhile with these big burlap bags full of mushrooms. You could easily haul out $$a grand$$ or more in a day during the right time me of year.