Mushroom Hunting in last year’s Roosevelt fire area

We have been crazy busy. Besides getting ready for our summer shows, (three shows in the next four weeks), we also must take time to go hunting for morels. This year there are two fire areas near us the Martin Creek Fire along the Grey's River and the Roosevelt fire along the Upper Hoback.

The weather has finally warmed up and we decided to hunt the Roosevelt fire area. Now the fire is only forty miles away, but the problem is that there are two mountain ranges in the way. To get there we had to first drive to Alpine, then up the Snake River Canyon to Hoback Junction, and finally along the Hoback River to Bondurant before turning up a forest service road along the Upper Hoback.

Its always a pretty drive here and this one was no exception. The rivers are all high and muddy, so we are not missing any fishing and Renita snapped images as we drove. Turning up the Upper Hoback Road, we passed ranches that were definitely on the high end.

One ranch had a large herd of buffalo and a little further up we spotted what looked like white cows, before we finally realized they were a small herd of white buffalo.

They had been kept separate and the older cow’s white fur had discolored from the long winter, but the calves were a very bright white. It’s a good thing that the cows protect their young as any grizzly bear wouldn’t have any problem spotting them in the green fields, (my sister Connie wrote me that white buffalo had special meanings in Indian lore and if so, this concentration must  be really bad omen).

After stopping for pictures, we drove further up the road until we reached the start of the burn area. Posted signs told us we in the commercial morel hunting area, (we are allowed to collect three gallons a day, while the commercial hunters must buy a three-hundred-dollar permit form the forest service and don’t have limits).

A vehicle was pared alongside the road and we drove a bit further before starting our own hunt. There were places where the fire had crowned out, (the hottest fires), but also places where the fire had burned the ground cover sometimes killing the trees.

We hunted four different areas and got in some good exercise, but we didn’t find any morels. (Renita spotted an interesting track, which might have been left by a bear but it was pretty degraded).

Talking with another mushroom hunter he told us that the little grey ones had been found but we didn’t see any places where they had been harvested. He also suggested that the ground needed to warn up a bit before they emerged.

Still it was a great day to be out wandering around in the forest and we did see several deer browsing the new forest floor growth. Fires are an important process in the health of a forest and several successions will take place before the pines reclaim the burned area, (the new grass spurs an increase in elk and deer herds).

Today we are heading out to look in the Martin Creek fire area. Its only twenty miles away but it will entail an almost two-hour drive. If you have ever eaten morel mushrooms you understand our passion.

Clear skies