Visited my mushroom tree today

Trailhacker and I got a chance to visit the mushroom tree today. I had tried to go there on my birthday last Tuesday but failed. He has four-wheel drive and could drive on the icy road.

There was a lot of snow on the mountains.

The trail had quite a lot of snow on it. It was easy to walk on.

It was really beautiful on the trail. We spent some time sitting in the sun enjoying nature, dreaming of long distance hikes. Trailhacker plans to take 3 weeks off from work and return to the PCT where he left off near Apache Peak and hike to Hikertown. I'm very jealous. I think he wants to do it alone. Maybe I'll do another solo hike sometime this spring or summer, too.

Our mushroom tree had a few mushrooms. There were none in the places where we had found them before. They had popped up in new spots. There were not many.

I went up to the other spot where I found some and found only one, but it was all rotten. I found some interesting white mushrooms, too, so I picked those to take home and see if I could identify them with my new book, Mushrooms Demystified.

On our way back up the trail we found a few more mushrooms and picked them. Most of the snow had already melted, too.

When I got home I spent some time identifying the white mushrooms. Here is a picture of them still in the soil.

The book has a key so I followed the key and identified them as Russula cascadensis. I guess it's technically not poisonous but it was described as tasting "acrid." I guess tasting it is part of identifying it, but I really didn't want to taste something that wouldn't taste good. It was also described as being reviled by mushroom experts. Apparently they like to kick them and crush them. They are very brittle and during one of the identification tests I broke the stem and it exploded in my face. I can see why it might be fun to kick and crush them. But I can't say I revile any mushrooms enough to abuse them.

Too bad they weren't good mushrooms because they looked really good and tasty growing there. They were very fresh looking. Most of the other mushrooms we found, if they weren't frozen solid, were rotted.

I wore my new hiking kilt and my homemade hiking shoes. I imagine I look ridiculous in my crazy hiking stuff. Oh well. I kind of like my hiking shoes. They work quite well. The kilt is fun to hike in. I enjoy hiking in a skirt. I feel like it puts it all into perspective. It's not "Man vs. Wild" out there. It's just walking. I wore silk leggings to protect my legs from poison oak. I had tried capilene previously but capilene sticks to the kilt bunching it up. Silk worked a bit better, bunching up the kilt a bit less. My plan would be to use the kilt for So Cal on the PCT in the future.

When I got home, after identifying the mushrooms, I spent the rest of the afternoon making patterns for another pair of shoes. I am determined to follow the instructions I got on a CD for making fancy moccasins. I sort of feel tired of making shoes, but I really want to try to make these because if I succeed they will have been made from a pattern made from my actual feet, with a pattern specially made for each foot. They ought to fit well and look good. If they work, perhaps I can backpack in them.

The man who sold me the instructions has been helping me and suggested I make them from upholstery fabric the first time around. Well, if upholstery fabric would work, what about some kind of fabric appropriate for hiking shoes? That could turn out really well, be lighter for warm weather than leather.

I've only gotten as far as making the pattern. I haven't even begun to make the actual shoes.

Frugal score

I scored pretty well at the thrift store today.

I went to the expensive thrift store. I spent quite a lot of money, but I came away with a new and never worn Columbia hiking shirt and a new and never worn pair of hiking pants from Magellan. I also found a sweat shirt that I had been admiring new in a boutique downtown but for a fraction of the price and in the perfect color. I also got a nice fleece sweater and a couple of other things.

I guess I was celebrating because I realized that since I came home from the PCT I've earned about $27,000 and saved about $14,000. I think that's pretty good for someone who lives in one of the most expensive cities in the US.

I found an injured sea gull today

I found a bird today while walking home. It was sitting on the curb. The poor thing was tangled in a fishing lure. It was a seagull.

I picked up the poor bird and tried to use the pay phone at La Bamba market. I didn't have my cellphone. I had a really hard time calling 411. I guess their operators get paid to process calls quickly, not to actually help anyone. So two out of three times I got the answer "no listing" and they hung up on me. The first time I called I got the number but I couldn't remember it because I had to go inside and get some change to make the call and by the time I got the change I had forgotten the number. Then the next two times the operators hung up on me.

I ended up asking a lady walking by and she surfed the internet with her phone and found the number for Wildlife Care Network. I waited for almost an hour. I couldn't get anybody inside the market to help me with the bird. I needed to put it in something so it wouldn't struggle in my arms. I'm sitting there with this giant white bird in one arm and nobody would help me get a box. I could only use torn up boxes out of the trash to put the bird in and I had to dig them out of the trash myself while holding this giant, struggling bird.

I finally got the bird into a couple of broken boxes and it finally calmed down a little bit. Finally the lady from Wildlife Care Network came with a real box and she took the bird.

The poor bird had a fishing lure that looked like a fish stuck in both its beak and one foot. There was a three-pronged hook at both ends of the lure, so one hook in the beak and one in the foot. It couldn't fly or do anything except struggle.

I wonder sometimes about the people in my neighborhood. They never seem to care anything about animals. This is the 2nd time I have tried to get them to help me with animals and neither time did any of them show the slightest interest at all. I blame the Catholic Church for telling people that animals don't have souls. I believe all creatures are sentient.