Peak of the Week: Making Room for Schrooms
The Shasta Cascade color spotter enjoys searching the woods for edible and otherwise fascinating mushrooms.
He sends back these images taken this week near Anderson. Recent rains have helped encourage mushroom hunting in the Shasta Cascade, which we declare to be Peak of the Week.
Gabriel writes (drawing text from Wikipedia searches for his descriptions) that the Pluteus are wood-decomposing saprobes with gills that are free from the stem and pink spore prints. These were found growing upon wood chips.
Bolbitius titubans, also known as Bolbitius vitellinus, is a widespread specie of inedible mushroom found in American and Europe. It grows primarily on dung or heavily fertilized soil, sometimes on grass.
Ink cap (Coprinus lagopus) is a specie of fungus in the family Psathyrellaceae. It is a delicate and short-lived fungus, the fruit bodies lasting only a few hours before dissolving into a black ink – a process called deliquescence.
Armillaria mellea, commonly known as honey fungus, is a basidiomycete fungus in the genus Armillaria. It is a plant pathogen and part of a cryptic species complex of closely related and morphologically similar species.
Deadly Galerina is exactly as described… it is poisonous. Galerina marginata is a specie of poisonous mushroom in the family Hymenogatraceae of the order Agaricales. The specie is a classic “little brown mushroom“—a catchall category that includes all small to medium-sized, hard-to-identify brownish mushrooms, and may be easily confused with several edible species.
False turkey tail looks like one, doesn’t it? That’s because of the concentric circles of many colors seen on the Stereum ostrea specie. This variety is a wood decay fungus that grows on tree bark. Native to North America, it grows year round.
Caution: do not eat wild mushrooms, unless you are expert at identifying them, as many poisonous varieties resemble their edible cousins.
Mushroom Hunting, Shasta Cascade – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
[forecast location=”Redding, CA” numdays=”4″ showdata=”daynames,icon,date,conditions,highlow” layout=”simple”]
Mountain Ash Peaking at Tahoe
American mountain ash (Sorbus americana), a tree that is native to New England and eastern Canada, is peaking at Incline Village, NV.
The exotic has compound, odd-pinnate leaves of a bright yellow and gold color right now, and carries large bundles of berries that will last through winter.
While the native stands of aspen, dogwood, bigleaf maple and cottonwood are past peak at Lake Tahoe, landscaped forests are on a different fall color cycle, with mountain ash providing eye-catching color in mid November in neighborhoods near the Sierra Nevada College campus and the Hyatt Lake Tahoe.
[forecast location=”Incline Village, NV” numdays=”4″ showdata=”daynames,icon,date,conditions,highlow” layout=”simple”]
SoCal Mountains: Past Peak, Still Glowing in Places
We’ve been reporting that Southern California’s mountains are past peak, though as color spotter Alena Nicholas shows us in this post… many spots of bright color can still to be discovered.
She traveled to Lake Arrowhead and Lake Gregory in the San Bernardino Mountains and Idyllwild in the San Jacinto Mountains to find these scenes.
While the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa prepares for the holidays by putting up colorful lights and decorations, nature continues to light up the forest with black oak and Rocky Mountain maple providing orange and red ornaments.
Should you visit Lake Arrowhead, stop into the Gift Gallery to see Alena’s photographs. We extend the same invitation to other photographers and color spotters who contribute your work to this site. Should you have them on display, tell us and we’ll pass the word to others so they can see what you’ve seen and photographed.
Alena agrees that the mountains are generally past peak, but for the observant the glow continues.
Southern California Mountains – Peak to Past Peak – YOU ALMOST MISSED IT!
[forecast location=”Lake Arrowhead, CA” numdays=”4″ showdata=”daynames,icon,date,conditions,highlow” layout=”simple”]
Napa Valley: A Blend of Spring and Fall
Peak continues in the vineyards, reports color spotter Tracy Zhou, with a blend of spring and fall.
Recent rains have encouraged grasses to sprout between the vines, creating a scene that is unusual… the combination of spring green and fall foliage.
Napa Valley – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
[forecast location=”St. Helena, CA” numdays=”4″ showdata=”daynames,icon,date,conditions,highlow” layout=”simple”]
The Tough Get Going
Peak autumn color has now dropped below 1,500′ in elevation. As a rule of thumb, that means there’s another two to three weeks of peak color to be enjoyed.
California’s lowest elevations, are absent of big, bold forests full or aspen, bigleaf maple, or dogwood.
Instead, finding fall color is tougher going. The state’s best color spotters find it by searching river and stream banks, orchards, vineyards, urban forests and arboretums.
Two of the best arboretums to see gorgeous fall color through the end of the month are the UC Botanical Garden in Berkeley and the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Arcadia.
What is special about arboretums is that a variety of exotic and native trees can be seen together, at peak. And, because they are all identified, you know what peaks when.
As seen in Frank McDonough’s photographs from the LA County Arboretum, redbud are nearly past peak (just as they are at 800′ in the Sierra Foothills), though other species, like the American elm shown here, still have a way to go.
There’s little question that, in November, the going get’s tough for color spotters. Though, the best of them keep going outdoors to find it in the most amazing places.
Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, Arcadia (482′) – Patchy (10-50%)
Special Report: Sandhill Cranes
As trucks and motorist sped by silently in the distance at dusk, the Sandhill Cranes began arriving by the thousands.
Black ribbons of the big birds could be seen above the horizon at first.
Then, they shouted as they flew in, trumpeting, squawking and cawing as they descended and found the perfect spot in the middle of the wetland to stand together, feed and guard each other from foxes and coyotes that might be hidden in the grass along its edge.
This scene has been replayed each autumn night for millions of years. Seeing it is a touchstone to eternity and to the essence of life in California.
The spectacle is free at a number of Central Valley and northeastern Shasta Cascade wildlife areas. Some of these areas require guided escort. Others are open 24/7.
Sandhill Cranes can be recognized in flight by their fully extended necks and feet and on terra firma by their red crowns, that contrasts with the ash-gray of their long-legged, long-necked bodies. A white cheek and black legs and toes signify mature cranes, a California Fish and Wildlife folder advises.
CLICK HERE to learn more about crane tours and how to find their wildlife refuges.
[forecast location=”Woodbridge, CA” numdays=”4″ showdata=”daynames,icon,date,conditions,highlow” layout=”simple”]
Train Spotting Meets Color Spotting
Railfans consider the Keddie Wye to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Western Pacific Railroad World.
It is a railroad junction in the form of a “wye” on the Union Pacific Railroad in Plumas County at the town of Keddie. The wye joins the east-west Feather River Route with a branch line (the “Inside Gateway”) north to Bieber. What makes the wye so attractive is that locomotives and their trains traveling across it provide photogenic subjects for train spotters.
Though, at this time of year, orange-colored peaking black oak in the forest near the wye are just as attractive to color spotters, as Dennis Hayes demonstrates in his vibrant photograph of the Clear Creek trestle taken on Hwy 70/89 over Spanish Creek, about 1/3-mile northeast of the Keddie Wye.
Keddie Wye, Plumas County – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
[forecast location=”Chester, CA” numdays=”4″ showdata=”daynames,icon,date,conditions,highlow” layout=”simple”]
First Report: Sanborn County Park, Santa Cruz Mts.
The Santa Cruz Mountains have lovely pockets of fall color: at Roaring Camp and Big Trees Narrow Gauge RR in Felton, at Big Basin Redwoods State Park in Boulder Creek and along Skyline Drive.
Sanborn County Park (Santa Clara County Parks District) is an oft-overlooked location to spot bucolic color. It’s found by taking Skyline Blvd./Hwy 35 from Patchen Pass to Saratoga Gap.
Color spotter Leor Pantilat scores a first report for this location and reports that along the way, “You’ll drive through some fantastic sections of yellow and orange bigleaf maples. The bigleafs are the best they have been in years after slightly above normal precipitation last winter (bigleafs like water).”
He opines, “In the preceding drought years a good deal of the leaves fell prematurely before turning. Black oak is also peaking with California hazelnut providing some extra color in the understory. At this location the peak should continue for another week or so… until the next winds blow through.
The park has over 22 miles of trails. Hike of the Week is the Lake Ranch Trail, a shaded, easy hike between Lake Ranch and Black Road.
Sanborn County Park, Santa Cruz Mountains – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
[wunderground location=”Saratoga, CA” numdays=”4″ showdata=”daynames,icon,date,conditions,highlow” layout=”simple”]
Bishop: Look East to See the Sunset
Videographer Skandar Reid shows how to watch sunsets in the Eastern Sierra… turn toward the east.
That’s because sunset light bends through the atmosphere at high elevations to create a phenomenon called alpenglow that colors high peaks to the east.
That happens in Bishop where sunsets beyond the Sierra illuminate the eastern White Mountains with their alpenglow. So, at sunset in the Eastern Sierra, look east.
The reverse happens at sunrise… look west.
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[wunderground location=”Bishop, CA” numdays=”4″ showdata=”daynames,icon,date,conditions,highlow” layout=”simple”]