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Say Hi to Fungi, Twain Harte, Twain Harte, CA (2025)

08/10/2025

Hey Ya'll,

I was in Tahoe a few months ago, and my friend introduced me to a beautiful spot on the south shore with a beach right next to a calm outlet with tons of water birds. As we watched a sunset, I was wandering around and noticed a ton of great photo opportunities, and of course I left my camera in the car😡! I vowed to come back and get something at a later date because there was so much natural beauty to capture there.

A few weekends ago I was back in the area around sunset trying to right the wrong of my previous trip. The sunset was beautiful, but those pretty orange and pink clouds were in a direction that didn't make for a great composition. Then I noticed this cool old wood fence with the water behind, a small isolated bush on a peninsula, and the mountain in the background. The clouds were hanging around the mountain peak, but kept dissipating before they would get in a good spot to use them as a composition element. Even without the clouds the scene made for a great natural-ish framing, and I love the vertical bands of light and dark elements throughout the shot. Unfortunately the Canada geese and wood ducks were too far away to add them in too, but maybe next time I'm there I'll get lucky and they will be in a better spot to shoot.

Hope you dig it too!

Courtney

08/07/2025

Happy Thursday Ya'll!

There are so many things to love about the area I live in. I am fortunate to have so much natural diversity within minutes of my doorstep, and I have to pinch myself sometimes that things like this are literally in my "backyard."

This shot is of a section of New Melones Lake that I frequently take my dog Foxy on walks to. The hike down is through a beautiful oak countryside, and I'm always keeping an eye on possible situations for great pictures. As I was parking my car here a few weeks ago, I notice the clouds were starting to thicken and decided to grab my good camera just in case something cool popped out at me. When we got down to the waters edge, the sun was only illuminating the center band of hills, which was an effect I had never seen here before. I took quite a few pictures as the sunset progressed, and this was the one I liked the most. I love the stark contrast of the golden hillsides sandwiched between the clouded shade in the fore and background.

New Melones Lake is known for its fishing, boating, and camping and is quite large (12,500 acres of surface area). It also has a very interesting history, as I've learned from some of my local friends. Where the lake is today used to be a mining town in the heart of Gold Country called Robinson Ferry in the 1840s, which was then renamed to Melones in 1902. There used to be houses and business all over the valley that served the miners looking for their share of the Gold Rush. In 1944, the New Melones Project was authorized, and was eventually completed in 1980. This completion filled the valley with water, covering the old mining town and the original dam and created the lake that many enjoy for outdoor recreation today.

Hope you dig it too!

Courtney

08/04/2025

Happy Monday Ya'll!

I've been out camping with friends the last few weeks, trying to enjoy as much of the summer in this beautiful area as I can before the season turns. We've been getting afternoon thunderstorms quite a bit near the Sierra peaks and on the east side, but unfortunately there hasn't been much precipitation where I tend to normally find myself on the western slopes.

That's why I was so excited when a friend and I ended up camping on the east side a few weeks ago. As we were setting up camp, I noticed a cup fungi poking out of the underbrush and upon further investigation, saw that it was growing on a soil ridge in this super cool descending size swirl pattern. Cup fungi are ascomycetes, which like morels, don't have gills, and produce their spores on the inner surface of the cups. The spores on these little ones are easily visible (the white dots spread all over), These particular ones are in the Scutellinia genus and generally form clusters on rotting wood in damp habitats. They are considered inedible due to their small size, which is about the same as a pencil eraser base. They fruit from late spring to late fall and are pretty easy to notice due to their bright orange colors.

Funny story, when I took the picture I only noticed the two larger cups in the foreground, and didn't see the three smaller ones until I zoomed in while editing the shot. It's the only time I've seen a pattern like this and it was too cool and rare not to share.

Hope you dig it too!

Courtney

08/01/2025

Happy Friday Ya'll!

Been camping quite a bit lately, and have come across some super pretty things I wanted to share. These gorgeous little flowers are know as Waxy Checkerblooms (Sildalcea glaucescens) and are all over the place in meadows and near water right now. They are in the mallow family and are common in meadows in lodgepole and alpine forests and bloom from June to August. A friend and I were camping recently near a stream, and when we arrived she was wandering around talking about how pretty these cute little purple flowers were. Since I had my good camera with me, I took it as my personal responsibility to get a good shot of them. Luckily they grow in decent size patches, so after checking the light and wandering around for a bit, I picked this particular flower for the shot.

I took about 10 pictures prior to this one, as I was playing with the angle, how I wanted the light to hit it, the background, and what plane I wanted the focus on. After looking at everything, I decided the white veins and the center cluster were my favorite parts, so I decided to focus the shot on those. When editing the shot I noticed the black splotches on the right side petals and was debating when or not to remove or leave them in the final shot. After thinking about it, I decided to leave them in, as they provide a visually contrasted path from the unopened blurry bud to the center of the flower.

Hope you dig it too!

Courtney

07/28/2025

Hey Ya'll!

Since it's been pretty hot this summer with minimal rain, fungi has been pretty sparse around here. But luckily I went camping on the East side of Sonora Pass with some friends to do some 4 wheeling and fishing a few weeks ago and found some cool stuff to share on that trip.

These super cool little flowers are known as shooting stars (Dodecatheon alpinum), and I've been trying to get a decent picture of them for years. They have such cool shapes, colors, and textures, but for some reason I've never taken a picture of them that I actually liked. There was a stream running past our campsite, and one morning when I was up before everyone else, I walked along the edge and came across this group. Since I wanted to highlight the flowers on their own, I decided to long expose the shot so the water in the background wouldn't be distracting. As I walked around thinking about composition, I noticed from one specific angle I could get the tops of a nearby plant to point directly at the flowers for a cool leading line balancing off each other type thing. They are common in wet, semi-aquatic habitats in CA, AZ, NV, UT, WA, and OR. During my research I found out the flowers of this species were considered good luck by the Nlaka'pamux people, who used them as amulets and love charms. I can definitely understand why, as they are quite beautiful to see.

Hope you dig em too!

Courtney

07/24/2025

Hey Ya'll!

Been a while since I posted because I've been super busy with morel tours the last few months. I met so many awesome people doing those and feel privileged to have the chance to share my love of all things fungi and nature with them. Now that the morel season is over, I've been getting all the back office stuff done on some exciting new tours and workshops which I'll be announcing shortly (stay tuned!).

Since it's been pretty hot this summer with minimal rain, fungi has been pretty sparse around here. But luckily I went camping on the East side of Ebbets Pass with a friend a few weeks ago, and found some cool stuff to share with you on that trip.

These cute little mushrooms are know as Scaly Pholiota (Pholiota squarrosa) and were growing out of an Aspen stump near a stream we were camping by. They are very aptly named as the cap has these scales that are "hairy" and make for awesome textures and subtle color changes when they curl and dry. I kept an eye on the sun and how it was lighting them the whole first day, and decided the morning peep through was the version I liked the most. They grow in clusters on Aspens, and sometimes other hardwoods and conifers from late summer through fall. They are also are potentially toxic and can cause gastrointestinal distress in some people, so probably best to stay away from consuming them.

Hope you dig em too!

Courtney

05/21/2025

Morels are everywhere right now if you know the right places to look! They won't stay long as the season is shortly coming to an end! Come join the fun while you still can!

Here's some pics from recent tours. I have met so many awesome people doing this, and love when they share pictures of all the delicious things we learned about and found along the way. Not only are morels out, but Spring King Boletes and wild onions are also popping up too, both of which are absolutely delicious.

If you would to learn from local experts how like find these tasty treats on your own, what environments they prefer, add to your general mushroom and overall nature knowledge, and have a great time doing it, we still have tours dates available Fri, Sat, and Sun every week until the season ends. Come join in on the fun and get your share of the season's delicious bounty!

Sign up at: https://www.sayhitofungi.com/guided-forays/p/morel-madness-1

See you in the woods!

05/07/2025

2025 MOREL SEASON IS IN FULL SWING!

Tours have been going great these last few weeks! We've found all sorts of delicious edible fungi like Puffballs, Spring Porcini, and of course Morels! Come join local experts who've done all the legwork so you can look in the right areas at the right elevation.

Tours are every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and will run every weekend until these delicious fungi stop popping.

Be sure to sign up early as the season could be two weeks or two months depending on the weather!

Scan the flyer QR code, or go to https://www.sayhitofungi.com/guided-forays/p/morel-madness-1 for all of the info.

See you in the woods...

05/01/2025

Happy Thursday Peeps!

I've been leading mushroom tours the last few months in Santa Cruz and have been lucky enough to come across all sorts of beautiful fungi. The environment out there has a very diverse group of trees and all sorts of different species abound when the temperatures are right.

Since I'm giving all my attention to my tour-takers, I don't usually take pictures during my hikes, but since the whole group stopped to take some pics of this one, I jumped in line to get a good one also. I believe this beauty is called Hygrocybe acutoconica, and is part of the "waxy cap" group. This group has some of the prettiest mushrooms I've ever come across, and they couldn't be more photogenic (stay tuned). They come in yellow, red, orange, and green colors and have a reflective sheen to the outside that is "viscid" (sticky) when young. They are reported as edible, but I've never personally tried them so I can't speak to the flavor. You generally find them in coastal mixed hardwood/conifer forest in the dirt or duff, and usually fruit in winter. I've found most of them this year near manzanita and madrone.

Hope you enjoy!

P.S. If you are interested in upcoming Morel Tours, scan the QR code on the flyer or go to https://www.sayhitofungi.com/guided-forays/p/morel-madness-1 for more info.

04/28/2025

Hey Ya'll,

You never know what you'll run into when you are out morel hunting. I've been out in the woods a ton scouting to ensure my upcoming tours (see attached flyer) are going to be in prime locations and every now and then come across something really cool.

During one of these hikes I ran into a TON of these cute little rascals. I had never seen them before and had to look them up to see what the heck they were. It is called a Sierra Newt, and where I was hiking we must have seen 30 of them crossing the trail. Apparently their mating season was in full swing and everyone was out looking to party. They are very slow moving as they are deadly toxic to any predator if ingested (including humans!). Luckily my dog Foxy just smelled em and kept on down the trail, but if you live in an area they inhabit, make sure you are super careful if you have a little four legged friend with you.

I love their colors, skin texture, and piecing iridescent eyes. One of the "cuter" little critters I've ever seen, and there was no way I wasn't getting a decent picture.

Hope you enjoy!

Courtney

P.S. If you are interested in upcoming Morel Tours, scan the QR code on the flyer or go to https://www.sayhitofungi.com/guided-forays/p/morel-madness-1 for more info.

04/24/2025

MOREL TOURS START THIS FRIDAY, APRIL 25TH!!!

We came across this beauty on a private tour with last weekend. Obviously Gnorm spotted it first due to being super low to the ground and very aware of his surroundings in the woods. He found at least twice the amount the rest of us did, and kept rubbing it in the rest of the day. Once we get him trained up, and on the payroll, we're hoping he will be the ultimate spotter for our tours. 😜

If you've ever wanted to know where to look and find these delicious little morsels, join us for one of the upcoming tours! They are out and popping all over the place now, and just waiting for someone to find them. Don't let Gnorm find em all!

Spots are filling up fast!

For more info scan the QR code on the flyer or go to: https://www.sayhitofungi.com/guided-forays/p/morel-madness-1

See you in the woods...

04/22/2025

MOREL TOURS START THIS FRIDAY, APRIL 25TH!!!

Let's see how ready your morel-eyes are for the 2025 season... comment below on how many you can spot in this picture.

We stumbled across this patch of these sneaky little fungi on a private tour last week. They are out and popping all over the place now, and just waiting for someone to find them.

If you've ever wanted to know where to look and find these delicious little morsels, join us for one of the upcoming tours!

Spots are filling up fast!

For more info scan the QR code on the flyer or go to: https://www.sayhitofungi.com/guided-forays/p/morel-madness-1

See you in the woods...

Say Hi to Fungi

08/10/2025

08/07/2025

08/04/2025

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07/28/2025

07/24/2025

05/21/2025

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