Ever Elusive Morels

We have been out several times this year chasing the ever elusive morel mushroom....  I imagine that we have spent around 8-10 hours hiking hard for these bad boys to no avail.  Well, our quest has not been entirely fruitless.  We have found around 10 this year but they have all been quite small compared to previous years.

I'm sure the weather has played a role in this as it has been pretty dry so far this year.  We found a few Devil's Urns and what appeared to be a big chicken of the woods from the previous fall.  It was, of course, completely dried up so we marked the cords down and plan to revisit later this year.

Thus far we have only ran into one snake (as shown below).  It was just a harmless black rat snake.  Watching it effortlessly slither up the side of an old, dead tree was both creepy and fascinating at the same time.  It made your jaw drop and your skin crawl all at the same time.  I have seen snakes in small trees but hey, no big deal because they had lots of branches to get up there.  This guy was just moving straight up the trunk, with nothing to really grip.

I will update (hopefully very soon) after some subsequent outings.  Best luck to everyone in the woods, I truly hope you find what you seek, regardless of what that is!!

Devil's Urn -- Small Spring on our property -- Black Rat Snake going straight up an old tree

Redbuds and Dogwoods behind the cabins -- Box Turtle -- Lilac blooms

Old School House west of Little Sac Woods CA