After an unusually quick start to spring, and very warm March; April seemed a bit more normal and morel season seems to be on target within a few days. John, Dani and myself were able to do a quick overnight hike in the Southeast part of Minnesota along with our 10 month old beagle Dixie. While hiking approximately eight miles, we spent a short amount of time foraging and trout fishing. I would not say it was a serious foraging trip, as we spent less than 90 minutes total foraging. However, as always, we kept an eye on the trail and nearby woods.
We found several nice yellow morels - literally right on the edge of the trail...and I wonder how many we walked right past. Here is Dani with those mushrooms we found along the way.
We stopped near the top of a ridge and set up our campsite before venturing down to the creek bottom to catch a few brookies. We were practicing "leave no trace" camping with home made alcohol stoves and staying in hammocks. Our campsite was well placed on a flatter portion a hundred yards off the trail.
The temperature dropped overnight to 34 degrees. Rain and snow started to pile up on my improvised shower-curtain-turned-rainfly. By 5am I was so cold I climbed out of my hammock and made a cup of coffee. Then I made another one. As I sat in the early light drinking my instant coffee, I realized there was a nice standing, dead elm less that 30 yards from our campsite. The kids were still sleeping so I grabbed and onion back and my foraging stick and went to check it out. I found over a pound of nice big yellow morels right there, 30 yards from our campsite. Noticing another dead elm 50 yards from there, I walked over and found another pound or so. Once the kids woke up we were all so cold and wet that we packed up and quickly hiked the 3 miles back to the truck. My impression of the area, however, is that given a couple good days of foraging, we could probably fill a wheelbarrow with morels. We'll definitely schedule a return trip next spring.
Here is a photo of some of the morels we found by the campsite...we had already eaten some by the time we snapped this pic.
