Southern Oregon has a lot to offer

Some of which are it's diversity.....of flowers. Yea, just flowers. I wish I could get my hopes up for some other forms of diversity, but I can live with flowers just fine.

 Colinsia grandiflora

 Senecio integerrimus

 Phacelia corymbosa

 Madia ssp.

 Arnica argentea

 

 Pedicularis densflorus

 Fritillaria affinis

Absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!!

Another Botany Bob Adventure

So again, I was wrangled into another adventure. Botany Bob has been assigned to do mushroom surveys for random units of matrix land. Rather than bucking it alone he called upon me to join him since our last adventure proved to be something to remember. This time he took me to a new unit located out in the Applegate.
There again, were really no roads that allowed us to access the land, along with that it was a rare bit of acreage that had NEVER been logged. And when I say NEVER I mean NEVER. While hiking I was dumbfounded to see that there was not one god damn stump to be seen. I have NEVER walked on land that had NEVER been logged. It was something to see for sure. As Botany Bob described it.. "This is some of the most pristine Old Growth I have ever gotten the chance to see. This could seriously be made into a National Park." And I would like to affirm his statement. It was phenomenal.
Here are some of the photos taken that day:

So I may be wrong on some of these. I'd be damn surprised if anyone knew them better so my guess is as good as most. 

 Antitrichia californica.

 Usnea ssp

 A HUGE Psuedostuga menziesii. Those upper branches were the size of trees.

 Dichranium ssp.

 Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus. Also known as Electrified cat tails. ha.

 Eurhynchium oreganum

 Evernia prunastri

 Gyromitra esculenta

 Helvella leucomeleana

 Lobaria pulmonaria

 Helvella

Who says I can't use a Cross Cut?!

So I'm officially getting my feet wet. Today I was able to work in "Wilderness". Now I'm not talking about just the woods wilderness. I'm talking about what has been Federally declared as "Wilderness". It is land that has been sanctioned by the federal government as an area that is to be maintained as though no human has impacted it. For the purpose of my job, and those of trail crew, no mechanized equipment is allowed in "Wilderness". Therefore the job we were sent out to do today, clearing the PCT of any fallen debris like trees, would be done manually. We got to pick our tool of choice, which was a cross cut saw.

This is a cross cut saw... as seen in it's earliest uses by loggers and timber-men to cut those large ass redwoods you see all over west.

Yea. We used one of those. 

Although our trees were not that big (because we've chopped all those down already....), we still had the experience of our own manual labor. Carrying a saw, larger than myself (8ft), and walking for 6 miles will, if anything, make you pay respect to those who did this for a living.

Nick leading they way through the Wilderness.

My first cross cut!!!!!!!! Burly one isn't it.....not really. But it was something to experience. We continued to walk, and talk, and saw another 4 trees along the way until we started to head back to the car.

Here are some of the sights within the "Wilderness" Cascade Siskiyou National Monument, Pilot Rock trail:

Erythronium klamathense

Fritillaria pudica

 Pilot Rock National Monument

Shasta in the distance..

 South facing slope looking into California

Erythronium hendersonii in full bloom at higher elevations! Whereas by Table Rocks (down in the valley) they are already loosing their petals.

Scuffling, it's time for Truffling

Today I scuffled. What the hell is scuffling? It's basically raking, in opportunistic places such as at the bases of exto-mycorrhizal plants like some of the genera Pinus, the family Ericaceae, and wherever we see squirrel digs. Small rodents, like squirrels tend to eat the fungi and then poop out their spores... so basically I'm looking for their favorite shit spots and digging. FUN!

The drive today took us to Grants Pass. We met up with a well known Mycologist named Kaz. What he has done for the academic community I do not know, but I do know that he knows his mushrooms.

My previous attempts at truffling failed. I turned up nothing but rocks and dirt. I figured maybe my eye was just not yet tuned in to the mycological world. Today proved me wrong.

ALAS! My first truffles!!!!!!

 They look like potatoes. Unexciting to most, but after digging for over an hour, while probably getting the worst case of poison oak known to man (I will find out in a few days), to have unearthed these magical little tuber fuckers was the highlight of my day. I screamed "TRUFFLES" loud enough mycologist in Indonesia could hear me. Ummm.. yea, mycology isn't for everyone.

Here are some more photos of mushrooms that I found along with some great scenic shots I got on serpentine Forest Service land.

 Slug-a-wug

 Found this guy in a squirrel dig. i.e. this is a squirrels shit hole!

 Fields of Dodecatheon hendersonii at Limpy Creek Botanical trail head.

 Limpy creek

Sarcodes sanguinea. This guy is a parastic plant that rather than being saprophytic, living on dead plant or animal matter, it actually lives off of fungi! The roots of these guys contain fungi and extend into the root systems of surrounding conifers.

 Serpentine soils covered in Mimulus guttatus.

Rhizopogon truncatus. Bright yellow fungi found underneath Sugar Pines.

Immature Boschniakia strobilacea. I find these guys to be the coolest thing, another parasitic plant.