Sporific Treasures of Hiking

I've wanted to read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods for a long time, but very rarely can force myself to pay full price for a book. So when the chance came to pick it up for a quarter at the local library book sale, I didn't hesitate. It was a wonderful book and I loved how he so skillfully wove the historical and environmental information in with his personal tale. It is unrealistic to think that I ever would or could hike the AT, but it is fun to dream about. One of the reasons that I could never do it is that I would feel compelled to stop and snap photos of every living thing I passed. I'd probably average about four miles a day...and 4000 photos. The unlimited variety of plant and animal life is one of the biggest draws of hiking for me. With that said, onward to our next edition of Treasures of Hiking. Our focus today is fungus. I'm not even going to attempt to identify these specimens, as I will likely only mess it up.

What makes mushrooms so cute? Logically it makes no sense. Mold that grows on decaying matter in the dark shouldn't be cute.

The coloring of these fungi made a sharp contrast to the burnt wood they were growing on.

It saddens me that so many of the large bracket fungi get smashed by wandering idiots, so I'm always pleased to find ones that are intact...

...or have taken to defending themselves with the help of more noxious neighbors.

No idea what this is, but it looks like something on an alien planet.

Anybody else seeing the dancing mushrooms from the Fantasia version of Nutcracker?

These look more like barnacles than anything. Perhaps FungusWoman will drop by and give us a hand with some more insiteful identification.