weekend up the Pine River

[ilanarama]

We took a spontaneous casual backpack trip up the Pine River valley (in the Weminuche wilderness) this weekend; lower elevation and less goal-oriented than our usual hikes, but we wanted it to be relatively warm at night because of the Perseid meteor shower, and Britt wanted to relax and do some fishing. (I tend to get summit fever and focus on peaks.)

The meteor-viewing was a literal washout, as it rained off and on and was cloudy nearly all the time, but the fishing was successful. And because it's been a relatively rainy summer, the mushrooms were fabulous! Friday night we had trout with Leccinum aurantiacum (Aspen Bolete) - we would have preferred Boletus edulis but the few that we saw were big, soggy, and half-eaten by wildlife and worms. Then on Saturday we gained a few hundred feet of elevation and found ourselves surrounded by vast amounts of chanterelles!







I ended up packing out about half of the dinner and lunch food I'd brought, because we ate trout! with mushrooms! And I also packed out two pounds of chanterelles. I think this is the first time my pack got heavier rather than lighter on a trip...

Comments

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

Mmm, trout- my very favorite fish in the world after striped bass! (Not so fond of mushrooms, but those pictured are certainly pretty.)

Are there restrictions on mushroom-gathering, like a "maximum catch" or something, or can you take as many as you like/can carry out? In any case, such a deal! Aren't chanterelles pricey in the grocery stores?

One of my "Gotta See Before I Die" line items is glimpsing in person one of those ominous-but-cute red mushrooms with the white spots. Have you ever seen one?

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

If you gather mushrooms to sell them, you need a permit, which I think costs something on the order of $50 for a month. If you take out more than 2 pounds of mushrooms for personal consumption, you're supposed to get a free "personal permit" from the forest service that basically attests that you aren't going to sell them. But the chances of running into anyone who would enforce this permit stuff is pretty slim.

It occurred to me it might be worth it to get chanterelles to sell - the copious patches were about 8 miles up, and we could get horses and a pack horse from Britt's folks and ride up to gather them and have the pack horse carry huge amounts out. But...nah. I'm too lazy!

And hee, you're talking about Amanita muscaria - they really are cute! We call them "Alice in Wonderland" mushrooms, because they belong in a Tenniel illustration. If you come visit in an August or September I can ensure that you see lots of them.

[de-wynken.livejournal.com]

sounds nice! I managed to catch a few of the meteors on the rides home at 3-4am this weekend. Also had some local chantrells on pizza friday night, pretty good. (are they really $90 a lb dried? I had a hard time believing that).

I'm thinking about trying for the Piedra Hot Springs again..we tried this spring, but my indian guide had faulty direction sense and her and I and Rowan ended up going left instead of right at the 'river'. Heard the springs are only good when there's lots of water in the 'river'. (it was sorta dry this spring, so once we saw the steep hill down going the right way, and it was getting dark..)

Pine River Valley is nice..did a job at the Meloche place there at the end of the road, the log castle. Pretty area.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Huh, we don't know about the Piedra Hot Springs - this is different from the west fork of the San Juan? Cool.

Britt's family has been friends with the Penns forever, and his brother Clay is the caretaker at the Gregoire place.

Yeah, might have been better to have been in town for the meteors. It was too cloudy in the mountains.

[de-wynken.livejournal.com]

There are primitive hot springs off First Fork road..right PAST the bridge, on the left, before the turn to Chimney Rock. Park at the sheepshed or something trail head and hike *down* and to the right.

mm with the moon out it wasnt a good year for meteors..but a good weekend for the moon at least :)

[goldispikes.livejournal.com]

That is the awesome!!!

I've been on trout trips like that - my ex was an amazing fisherperson.

Are those green onions? What kind of sauce did you make, if any?

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Yes, dried green onions! What we did was fry the trout in a little oil on one side, then flip them and put on Lawry's seasoning salt, the mushrooms, and the green onions, and cover it. The liquid from the mushrooms oozed out to make a sort of sauce and poach the fish. It was really good!

no joy from flickr...

[(Anonymous)]

Sigh

Such lovely pictures that I would shamelessly save and use as backgrounds... except that Flickr continues to give me the digital salute with "spaceball.gif".

I am sad.

And homesick. Even after 30+ years of being away, Colorado still looks and feels like home to me.

Sniff

Eric W.

Re: no joy from flickr...

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

I think I've fixed it! Have sent you email.

Re: no joy from flickr...

[(Anonymous)]

Yup, it's fixed! I now have that lovely valley as a background. Thanks!

By-the-by, I haven't seen any e-mail from you.

Oh, and what did you do to fix it?

Thanks again,
Eric W.

[alembicresearch.livejournal.com]

Love the mushrooms ... not so fond of trout. :-)
I think mainly because I find trout to be pretty tasteless,
and more work to eat than they're worth.
(I love their cousins the salmon, though.)

> Boletus edulis

Yeh, we have wonderful big Boletus e's here too ...
alas they are always full of bugs.

Wish I could go on a backpacking trip!
I haven't done one in over a year. Cranky!

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Mmm, but fresh trout is yum. Especially with mushrooms.

And of course you are cranky if you haven't been backpacking. You should get away from work and beer and go to Yosemite or something!

Wot no badgers?

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

"Eat them up, yum!"

One of my fondest memories of Finland is of visiting Turku's open-air market in September, to find people with huge trestle tables piled a couple of feet high with chanterelles. They sold the mushrooms by volume, using high-tech measuring gear such as a pewter one-litre beer mug...

Re: Wot no badgers?

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Hee, Britt commented that he didn't think I should put the photo up because people might not want to look at fish heads! Did you know that their eyes turn into little hard marble thingies?

There are mushrooms for sale at our farmer's market but they are all cultivated oysters and similar. Besides, I have a hard time buying things I can find for free (with some work) - which is also why I rarely eat fish at restaurants, or buy it, actually.

[barkley.livejournal.com]

Mushrooms and trout! That sounds heavenly.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Oh, it was. Food is always better outdoors. And when you acquire it yourself.

[coeursaignant.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, yummmmmy!

I actually also don't like trout very much, but I suppose freshly caught (!) trouts can be really good. And the mushrooms in your pan make my mouth water....!

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Oh, fresh makes all the difference! But now that we are back at home, I'm cooking the mushrooms with chicken :-)