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.