Chapman Creek Campgrounds and Trail

Yet another adventure off Highway 49, this time near the middle of October. We went passed Bassett's this time, continuing along the river for another twenty minutes or so till we reached Chapman Creek Campground. A clean, sheltered campsite that probably sees a lot more visitors during the warmer summer months. We arrived around ten AM and found the place empty, parking in a vacant site near the trailhead, which is located near the back of the grounds.

Much of the trail is similar in appearance to the above, winding one and a half miles up into the mountains beyond the campsite till it connects with a service road. It was already much colder there then we expected, and gloves would have been appreciated. The trial climbed off and on, a bit more grueling then other's ratings of "easy" had lead us to believe, I'd say it's moderately challenging, at least on the way in, while the way out is mostly downhill and much easier.

The High Sierra's had seen a bit more precipitation then we had in the valley, so mushrooms and fungus were beginning to appear here and there, especially around where the trail crossed the creek bed, which happened several times.

The creek itself was mostly overgrown, the trail moving above and alongside it, occasionally dipping down to cross over stones or small bridges

Continuing along the path we found two instances of Snow Flowers or Sarcodes, deciding to pop up in Autumn instead of Spring like we're used to. These wonderful members of the heath family attach mycelium to tree roots, gaining nutrients from the tree and in turn protecting the plant from pathogens will supplying minerals and water.

Further up the trail we went, feeling as though we had already gone three miles, the last stretch was the hardest, dipping down a short distance before climbing up and around the side of a hill till we reached the top. But it was worth it, as we found ourselves in a small, grassy clearing, Chapman Creek running cold and clear through it's center. Tired, we settled on a fallen log to watch the creek and it's baby rainbow trout. It was rather magical, settling into this place that few people probably visit. As we watched, several birds settled into the small trees around us, picking at the last seed pods and leaves.

We were tired, but curious how much further we had left, so after a short break we trekked on, finding ourselves only moments away from the end of the trail, where it empties out into a well used looking service road.

Back to the car we went, finding the trip out much easier and faster. No one had appeared in the campsite while we were away, so we used it's facilities and headed back down forty-nine.

Inclement weather has actually happened now, and with more snow in the forecast (Hooray) our trips up north may be limited, but Autumn is in full swing in the lower elevations and with a few more days of rain ahead of us, we'll hopefully be heading out for mushroom trips soon. We gave it a shot yesterday, but found almost nothing for our efforts. 

We're also planning a couple trips to the coast soon, a day trip later this month and another couple days in December/January. We'll be visiting our favorite place, Fort Bragg, California, and let me tell you, I am ready. 

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.