Mushroom Adventure

For our Saturday Mushroom Adventure, we, Jim and Diane and Terry and I, decided to take the 4 wheelers up the Hess Road to the top to scope out the mushroom hunting. Jim and Diane had found a few up top earlier and so we decided to give it another try. This pic is of Jim and Diane coming up the road. It doesn't LOOK to bad, see the switchbacks....


This is a view of Oxbow from Oregon side on Hess Road.


Jim and Diane coming 'round the corner. A little easier to see the steepness of the road.


My view from the back seat. It is a CLIMB to the top! But a beautiful day to do it.

We found mushrooms of all varieties at first, not many Morels. This is a picture of a cauliflower mushroom, they are edible and this one wouldn't be too bad, but most of the time they come up full of dirt and pine litter and are super hard to clean.

We finally got into some good Morels. We would jump off the 4 wheeler and begin picking. It was great fun. Not bad sized 'shrooms either.

When we got home we divided the 'booty' and got to cleaning them. Notice the difference in the color of some of them. I guess there are white and brown morels.
Here is a little 'Wiki' knowledge for you about the 'shrooms.

Morel
Morchella conica, a black morel, in Poland
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Ascomycota
Subdivision:	Pezizomycotina
Class:	Pezizomycetes
Order:	Pezizales
Family:	Morchellaceae
Genus:	Morchella

As a bonus for the trip we were on top and jumped off to pick mushrooms again and we could hear elk chirping in the trees just out of view. We maneuvered around and saw a whole herd of cows with calves that we had disturbed. They chirped and squeaked and began picking up to move, so we watched as they filed out of the wallow area and disappeared into silence and the thickening forest. AWESOME!!! Made our whole trip!! We took a few odd turns, had to turn around when the trails ran out and made it home by around 8:00 that evening. (don't you just love the longer days).

I guess I'm just into Rainbows!!

Can you blame me? We have had so much rain this spring that I thought my toes were beginning to web!! So whenever the sun shines I run outside to look around. This morning, as I was sitting on the deck doing my bible study lesson I happened to see the Sun Dog. Which is a rainbow too, just not in a traditional sense.

Scientifically speaking: A sun dog or sundog (scientific name parhelion,) is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun.^[1] (formed by ice crystals)

Sundogs may appear as a colored patch of light to the left or right of the sun, 22° distant and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun, and in ice halos. They can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but they are not always obvious or bright. Sundogs are best seen and are most conspicuous when the sun is low. (info taken from Wikipedia)

Not so scientifically speaking: Another confirmation of God's promise!!

All Is Well

Amidst the rain, flooding, mudslides, God demonstrates his promise.

Almost to the bottom of the bridge

Yikes! Almost to the bottom of the bridge. Last night there were logs and trees stuck on the pilings under the bridge. I don't think a boat could squeeze under now at this level. And speaking of boats......



What is the first thing you would do when the water got high and muddy....
We launched the lagoon hopper and took to the river just like so much flotsam and jetsam and navigated around the floating logs and trees.



As you can see, the rain had subsided, the sun was out and the river was full of stuff.

The Force of Pine Creek

Pine Creek takes on a monster personality when full of mud and trees and rocks. This is along the road just out of Pine Creek on Highway 86. Pine Creek straightened out its channel, and began eating away at the bank on the road side. As we gingerly edged to the precipice to look over we could see pieces of the bluff calve off into the raging creek below. It was awesome.

No Habla Ingles

These signs have been up for a long long time, and usually people take no notice of them. But....



when it rains for this many days straight and the water starts to look a little muddy.....I would think it would be prudent to seek higher ground. When this guy gets back.....he will wish he had.

The Road to Nowhere (formerly FS39)

Well, just in time for the summer motorcycle traffic etc., North Pine Creek took out the road. We stopped this group of bikers who had gone under the road closed sign and made it to the other side of the washout. But what they didn't know, but we informed them, was that this was the little washout, the entire bridge at Lake Fork was taken out by the creek as well. So we let them make up their mind, to believe us, or to go on up the road another 5 miles to find the road totally impassible only to turn around and find that this piece had continued to erode and to find themselves stuck, behind the barrier that said road closed.


They turned around and came back across and went on a different route to North Idaho. Smart.
As you can see here, the road wasn't too sturdy.

How High is the Water???

Well, to answer that question...At Copperfield Park the water of the creek was level with the grass area!! You can see logs, bushes etc being carried by...and of course the roaring of the creek.

Butterflies

After we finished looking at the road destruction, we found a pile of butterflies enjoying the mud and sunshine. You can click on the movie and watch Terry harassing the wildlife. Also the roaring you hear in the background is the creek. It was awesome....Thank God the rain let up!

More fun pics

Random Memorial Day pics

Memorial Day Fun

We had quite the crowd over the long weekend. The weather was 50/50 but we still got in some fishing, hot springs, kayaking, games, eats, and music around the fire. Great Fun.

At the hot springs

I'm not even going to try to explain.....but it was fun!



Stacy and Shane enjoying marshmallows, and smores


Melissa and Dan by the fire


Emily and Brian on the boat, taking a break from fishing.


We are gearing up to do some serious crappie fishing.


Shane and Dan and Ally



Emily and Shannen getting worms for the fishing trip

Sara's Birthday

Happy Birthday To Sara. Melissa, Jessica, and Sara made a girls trip down to the river to help Sara celebrate her birthday. So they boated, fished, canoed to the hot springs and chilled around the fire pit roasting marshmallows. Much fun was had by all.