Mushroom Hunting in Nevada County- Part One: Gateway Park

A Note: This started as simply a post about Gateway Park in Penn Valley, but due to illness and a busy schedule I was very much delayed in its completion. In that time The Man and I went on several walks in search of one of our favorite photography subjects; mushrooms. As such I've accumulated many images of fungus and the places we've found them, so I've decided to make a two part post (or three) about our search for mushrooms. So here we go...


Thanksgiving Day, and the month of November really, can be absolutely chaotic and stressful, especially since I have a tendency to get colds fairly often this time of year. I am in fact, wrapping one up right now, but I was feeling healthy enough for tackling (alongside my husband) a full Thanksgiving meal, a birthday cake and two pies, and we're squeezing in a couple nature walks to help alleviate the stress.

Actual Thanksgiving day is celebrated at my Grandmothers house in Penn Valley. We had a good, wet day earlier in the week, followed by warmer weather, so we decided to walk off the meal over at Western Gateway Park, located on Penn Valley Drive.

Things were looking a little drier then we had expected when we first walked over, but, just a little way into the nature/disc gold area proved to be more fruitful then we could ever imagine.

At first there was only some dry looking shelf fungus, but a closer look at the leaf litter revealed a wealth of growth. We told my family we'd be gone for about forty-five minutes, it turned out we were gone for over two hours.

I've spent more time at gateway then I can count, and it's changed considerably over the years. But if you can get there on a quiet day in fall or winter it is worth the exploration. While wildlife has suffered due to "recreational development" The oaks are beautiful and the fungus variety is fantastic. It's also a great place for bird watching. Songbirds, woodpeckers and migratory water fowl can be seen, as well as the occasional hawk.

It's my hope that eventually Penn Valley will take responsibility for the acres they have and start tending to it and it's wildlife, instead of paving over more of it, as they already have.

But anyway, back to fungal exploration. 

The undergrowth here can get pretty tangled and while they do clear the poison oak out on occasion, you should still keep that in mind if you're allergic, and the blackberry brambles are pretty much everywhere, so if you plan on going off trail you should be wearing jeans.

We wandered farther and farther into the trees, every time we thought we had found the best examples of mushrooms we would be getting, we continued down a side path or into a field and found more.

I'm not sure if I'm just forgetting, but I feel like I never saw this variety as a child or adolescent. Chances are I was just never paying enough attention, but either way, The Man and I were astounded by the size and amount of mushrooms we came across.

There are several paths the diverge from the main one in the nature area, but most are small loops that will take you through a copse of young oak and back to the main trail. There is, however, an old loop near the back of the park that takes you around to a clearing, if you cross that clearing there is a fairly less traveled path that leads you along the outer edge of the parks property.

We were exploring some fallen tree limbs in that area when The Man saw a bird land in an oak not far from where we stood. Peering into the limbs I could just make out the form of a large bird of prey. Slowly we inched towards it, making barely a sound besides the click and quiet beep of the camera. Occasionally it would turn towards us, though it seemed more interested in a tree full of noisy birds a few yards away.

Finally, we stood almost underneath the edge of the tree it was in.

We found out later, from my mom (Hey mom!), that it was a Coopers Hawk. I've never been this close to a wild bird of prey before, we felt very lucky. It watched us for a short time as we stood at the edge of the tree before disappearing further into the wood. The light was beginning to sink below the tree line, kissing the top of Crows Nest to the west and illuminating the glass on houses in the eastern hills, so we turned our path towards Deer Creek and the baseball diamonds.

Then we came to the Dog Park that was built a few years ago. It's sort of a sad place, in my opinion. It used to be a horse arena where I first learned to ride, now it's a couple chain link paddocks with dirty gravel on the ground and no trees for shade, or any plants for that matter. Just a black awning type tent and a few plastic chairs. I hope that they plan to add a few tress in there and maybe some nice benches. I also noticed clearing to the side of it of much of the vegetation. My only hope is that they don't intend to pave over anymore of the woodlands, as they already paved a road out to the dog park. For people who don't want to walk there dogs through a few hundred yards of open oak lands to a dog park. 

Sorry, it bothers me.

But back to the mushrooms!

Near where the Mother Goose Park used to be we found this monstrosity.

It's hard to tell but this thing was easily bigger then both my hands splayed out. And brilliantly colored as well. We were very lucky to find it unharmed as well, since it was in a relatively well traveled area of the park.

Onward we journeyed to the baseball diamonds, where, on the far side they often dump piles of wood chips and other debris. There wasn't too much to be seen there, just a multitude of what I assume were tiny mycena. 

Some of these little guys were so tightly clustered together they were crushing each other as they grew. I lay pretty much flat on the ground and in many undignified ways to get some good angles of this bunch, thank goodness no one was around to see it. But by then it was pretty late, and time to get back to grandma's house. So of we went, feeling almost like we were ready for dessert.

So there's that, part one complete. Next we will be covering a different area of Empire Mine, and also St. Patrick's Cemetery in Grass Valley. There's a few storms ahead of us, but after that we're hoping to get out to lower Independence trail is search of the elusive Lions Mane. Happy Hiking everybody! 

Empire Mine- Penn Gate Trail

This time around my husband and I took a hike very close to home, Penn Gate is located on East Empire Street and is a very popular shared trail for hikers, bikers, runners and horse back riders. There hasn't been a time we've been there alone, but everyone is very pleasant and there's usually some friendly canines to meet as well.

Things are a little dry and dusty up at the staging area but about a half a mile in or so you climb a hill then descend back down into cool, shaded forests.

The trails here are especially pretty in the fall, plenty of bright yellow foliage to contrast with dark tree limbs and green pines. And today was an especially nice day, after some surprisingly chilly ones.

The Man and I were here for a specific reason, mushroom hunting. We'd found a place off the beaten path earlier this year that had yielded some awesome variety, and with the rains last week we were eager to see what had bloomed since.

While the place had hoped to find riddled with fungus proved less then fruitful, the forest itself was literately covered with tiny mushrooms. I can't claim to know much about the names of the different types I'm showing here, but I'll do my best with Google to find out what they're called.

Bird Nest Fungus

Spiny Puffball

It's been about a week since it rained, but the mornings have been frosty and wet, and the forest was still surprisingly damp. We went towards the back of the park and explored what were probably game trails, getting scratched up by blackberries. But everywhere we looked were mushrooms, on the path, off the path, in the trees, under trees.

These little guys are from the mycena family (we believe) and were obviously enacting some hostile take over of the entire forest. There were areas where it was tricky to walk because there were so many underfoot. We trekked through the woods, exploring the creek bed and taking game trails here and there to see what we could see.

The weather was absolutely perfect, I think mid-fall and spring are the best times to visit Empire Mine, we found a couple seasonal stream beds that are probably gorgeous when there's actually water around. Not mush else to say about this hike, we were out and back in about two hours and saw multiple types of mushroom and fungus, too many to show here without turning this into nothing but a image post, but here are a few more I just had to share, because there are awesome.

We've got a full week ahead with family obligations and the like, though I'm hoping to squeeze in a trip to Gateway Park in Penn Valley and one more hike before Thanksgiving. The Man and I have a tradition of going on hikes after any major holiday spent with family, and Turkey Day may very well see us down at Bridgeport looking for Bald Eagles. Otherwise the next hike will most likely be Independence Trail or Upper Humbug, before the snows move in.

Bierwagen Family Farm

A short little post, for a short little guy. Went with Grandma M and and Maxwell to Bierwagon Family Farms last week for pumpkin picking, or, in my almost two year old nephews case, pumpkin poking.

Bierwagen is one of the last remaining family owned and operated farms in Nevada County, located just off Colfax Highway. It's currently run by the fourth and fifth generations and is open from mid May to December. Their crops include corn, pears, raspberries, blackberries, and of course, a pumpkin patch.

Maxwell in the patch, letting those pumpkins know that he's got his eye on them.

The farm is a big attraction to many local schools, and the day we were there was no exception. If you want to be there without two or three busloads of kids, I recommend going on the weekend. There's also a little snack shack or across the street a ways is Happy Apple Kitchens, an excellent place for breakfast or lunch. 

Anyway, we took our time looking at the farm animals, and Max honked like a goose at them. Then we made our way to the pumpkin patch. Farmland was a new and tricky adventure for our nephew. Rutted paths, big clumps of grass, and dying pumpkin vines proved to be quite a challenge for the little guy, but he got right back up again to continue his pumpkin poking quest. 

After we had thoroughly exhausted the patch, we made our way to the corn field, which was probably almost as exciting for us as it was for Max

I recall coming here when I was younger, but I don't recall a cornfield. We're going to try and head back here within a week or two, they've got produce for sale that we didn't have time to peruse and the orchards were too far away for Max's little legs to go (Or for us to carry him). We were planning to go on Halloween day, but it looks like a big storm is rolling in, so we'll see what happens with that. 

Rains have been a bit more consistent this October than last, when we were having a late heat wave, and we've got a couple hikes planned for Nevada City and Empire Mine, and of course we'll be on the lookout for mushroom and fungus. 

Frazier Falls

Back up to the mountains we go, once again with a gorgeous drive ahead of us. It had rained heavily the day before but we were not expecting much by way of mist or clouds, nevertheless about twenty minutes past North San Juan we were greeted by lowing hanging clouds that the morning sun had not chased away yet.

I'm guessing there's salmon and/or trout in this part of the Yuba because there were fly fishers all along this stretch of river. It took us an extra half an hour to get to our destination because we kept having to pull over and freak out over how beautiful everything was. Honestly, we grew up here- but it never gets old.

This is probably my favorite picture I've ever taken. When I saw this spot from the car I think I yelled and scared The Man quite a bit, but then he saw what I was yelling about and all was forgiven.

Frazier Falls is a handicap accessible trail in the Lakes Basic Recreation area, you can see the signs for it about eight or nine miles down the Gold Lake Highway. The road to it looks paved but almost immediately because gravel. The Accord we were in didn't have any problem really, although there were some pretty sizable puddles and potholes, they were easily avoided. You might not want to come out here in a sports car, but most other vehicles should be fine.

About a mile and a half down the road you get to the staging area. Which is paved... not the road, but this area is. Also, bathrooms- though there just holes in the ground, no running water. They were clean and didn't' smell, so no complaints here. Also some picnic tables and a few BBQ pits, though they looked like they hadn't been used since the late eighties.

This is the view you get just walking a hundred feet or so away from the parking lot, seriously. 

The trail is narrow, but well maintained. It looks like maintenance came in pretty recently.  There is almost no incline here, simply a twisting little path that takes you past amazing rocks and trees to a viewing platform across from the falls.

The falls were not very full at all, for obvious reasons, but we didn't mind. We're usually just happy to be out in the world, with the chipmunks and birds.

The falls from the viewing platform, and an awesome game to play while you're looking. You can see where we'll be standing from here. Those big flat rocks were too inviting to not explore. So back we went to take a look at the top of the falls, and little did we know, we were also about to complete a twenty year quest The Man had unknowingly embarked on as a wee lad.

Getting to the rocks was easy peasy and once there we found plenty of little pools to explore, you can walk right out to where the creek feeds into the falls.

So we got to the top of the falls and The Man stopped and stared, he admitted while he had never mentioned this to me, he had been thinking about this place off and on for some twenty years, wondering where it was and how to get back. And here we were, completely on accident. Level up!

We spent some time here, lying on the sun warmed rocks and exploring the creek, but we were starting to get hungry, so we made our way back to the car for a snack.

When we were driving out to the trail I'd noticed a stand of aspen off to our right, so we drove back to that, parked on the side of the road and wandered out to it. What we found is probably one of my new favorite places to be. A beautiful golden meadow surrounded by tall, ghostly aspen. Sadly they had already lost most of their leaves, but it was still a magical place.

There were also large, old birdhouses scattered among the trunks of the aspen. I'm guessing they are or were homes to owls of some kind, as this field seems like a perfect hunting ground. We spent a long time wandering the edges of the field. On one section of the aspen, people had carved their names and the year. One of the oldest ones (that we could make out) was from back in '81. But no one had been carving names there for some time, over a decade now, which is nice. While I liked seeing the old names and dates, I'm not a big fan of hurting trees.

At this point I was tired, I mean bone tired. But The Man had an interest in continuing, so we made our way back to the Bear Loop Trail. We trekked out to the first lake, and found out why we were really there. We approached the third intersection and were greeted by two ladies who were lost, lucky for them we had parked next to their vehicle at the staging area and were able to get them back in the right direction. If you're going to be hiking Bear Loop I cannot recommend enough getting on Google Earth and giving yourself a good mental map of the area. There are many, many side paths people have made while exploring, and if you don't have a good sense of direction, you can very easily get turned around.  Also, there is zero cell reception up there, so don't plan on relying on that.

Two miles out and I was beyond tired, so we took a short rest and talked with some chipmunks before we started our journey back.

All in all, great hike, Though we well certainly be returning in May for the snow melt and fields full of green. The next couple of hikes are going to be closer to home, I think. Those damn curvy mountain roads really take it out of me. 

Anyway, hope you enjoyed. This weeks adventures involve me taking my not quite two year old nephew to a local farm for apple picking and the pumpkin patch. Wish me luck!

Big Bear Loop Trail

A couple weeks ago the King Fire in Eldorado County was choking the air, to the point where you could not see the next hill over. So we made plans for a day trip into the mountains, where the winds still blew and the sky was not a sickly shade of grey-green. Of course, the night before a storm rolled in and the next morning was clear and beautiful, but plans are plans, and into the mountains we went, chasing the last remnants of the storm.

The communities on this section of the Golden Chain highway are small, and with summer over the roads were almost completely empty. We were able to stop often and take in the sight of the mist lifting and the autumn colors along the Yuba River.

We made it to the town of Downieville in good time but found that our favorite place to eat, Twin Rivers, was closed for the off season. In fact almost every restaurant in this tiny town was closed. Except for La Cocina Da Oro (The River Kitchen), and they were packed. About thirty bikers had rolled into town some twenty minutes ahead of us, and had flooded the tiny restaurant to capacity and then some. So we got our food to go and headed down the river to eat.

Downieville is as picturesque a town as you could ask for, I want to retire here and start a chipmunk rescue, I'm serious.

After an awesome meal we continued our quest further up and further in, toward the Sierra Nevada Buttes and the Lakes Basin. The highway winds along right next to the river, and even with the water at low levels, it's still a gorgeous sight.

About half an hour later and we were up another three thousand feet or so and the view was breathtaking.

The Lakes Basin Recreation area is part of the Tahoe National Forest and is an excellent example of the High Sierra's ecosystem. Lakes, ponds, and marshes, copse of Aspen in sunny areas, meadows and seasonal streams. There are trails every few hundred yards off the highway, or you can simply pick one of the many lakes to explore. On this particular trip we were on the lookout for The Bear Loop trail, which takes you on a relatively easy trek through and around four lakes. 

Even parking at the trail head (that had a bathroom, oooh joy!), we could tell we were in for a treat. Mist was rising in the last patches of sun filtering into the forest,  and the chipmunks, squirrels and birds were out in abundance, digging around for whatever forage the rains had revealed. The light was fading fast, so we headed out with no real intention of finishing, just exploring.

Onward we trekked, the terrain changing from forest to tumbles of rock and small hills with wind beaten trees holding on for dear life. Then back into the woods we delved until we reached our first lake, Big Bear. The trail was well marked, and I believe there is another trail head at Elwell Lodge, further down the road. We saw maybe four other hikers while were out, though none of them seemed inclined to go far. We passed them up, as we could see a tall rock overlooking the lake that called our names and asked us to climb it. 

Big Bear Lake

The Rock What Called Our Names

We spent a lot of time forging a path to the top of that rock, forcing our way through extremely tough, low growing shrubs that could withstand me putting my full weight on branches thinner then my wrists (which are tiny). I'm from the valley, so I can't even imagine how many feet of snow pile up here, but from the toughness of the plants, it's probably too much.

A few scratches and bruised shins aside, totally worth climbing that rock. Unfortunately it took up quite a bit of time, and we had an hour and half drive home through twisting mountain roads ahead of us. So after a few more minutes of poking around, we decided to turn back. I'm very glad we did, because if our timing had been different we would have missed some excitement hiking out.

A doe and her two offspring were foraging along the trail as we hiked out. We moved slow and steady and besides a few curious looks were able to move alongside them for quite some time. It was a really nice experience, and I'm very glad we were there when we were.

Almost back to the car now, discovered some interesting shelf fungus among the fallen trees, but the light was fading fast and the darkness spreading and home called with promises of hot tea and showers.

So there it is, my first blog entry. Having completed it, there's a few things I'd wished I'd taken pictures of, just to document them. But I haven't blogged since the heydays of Livejournal, and I certainly never kept a photography/cooking and baking blog. But I think I'll enjoy it, and I hope you will as well.

Going back up into the mountains soon, hopefully tomorrow, actually. There's a waterfall that's been calling our names, and it's been raining since the wee hours of the morning. With any luck the rain will stick around a bit and we'll have another misty hike to enjoy. Then the week after that