Mushrooms, Meeting Cousin Moe, Rain, and Hog Nosed Snakes...Part #1

Made it back from Michigan, not so high, and not dry either.....

We gathered just a few Mushrooms...gotta believe we were in between the black Morels, the Greys, and the Yellows the pop out and various times of May....at least that's what we were telling ourselves.  Those "gung-ho" hunters were bringing back bags of 600-700 blacks....they were selling for about $50 a pound at the area gas stations in and around Boyne Falls, and Mesick.  We had our best luck near cousin Moe Houseworth's place in Alanson, in the far reaches of the northern lower peninsula.  In retrospect we probably should have stayed up that way...went out with Moe to a local fish fry and got drunk....instead we headed back to the campsite near Boyne Falls, and ran into a dangerous looking("dangerous looking" being the keywords after some research) snake, and month long mushroom hunter with a bottle of Vodka, and a handful of Morels.

Cousin Moe, Hog Nosed Snake, and then the rains came____

We headed out of Rick's Acres in northern Indiana about Noon on Thursday for the far north country...it was unusually hot and humid for the season, especially considering just how cold and wet it had been around these parts for the entire spring thus far....it was 88 degrees when we arrived at our location, which is some 15 miles east of Boyne City, Michigan, at 5pm....things would cool down, and the rains would arrive by the time we packed up and headed south for Mesick on Saturday Morning.....

After setting up camp next to a small stream, that turns out to be home, despite it's shallow depth, to a collection of Brown Trout...albeit, the ones we saw, were small in size.  Checking the temperature of the spring fed stream, it read 38 degrees on the thermometer...we would not be doing any swimming in this one, although later on, I would try, and my prized Fuji Film Camera, would take a dip....it may not recover...but the chip did, and I saved a few photos, some of those on here today....and more on tomorrow's blog post.

Caps,  aka Morel knockoffs, seemed to be the Mushroom of choice....not a particular good eating "schroom"....but Blacks and some Greys were being found...rather than tell of our failures in that department, it's best to say we were just a bit "in-between" on the season.  I(t appears it was bit early for Yellows, the Greys were south, and the Blacks and caps also were winding down.  Thursday night was spent around our campfire, drinking beer, eating snack, smoking good cigars, and bullshitting the boys with stories of our youth, which I'm sure they had heard from Rick, Clint, and me, a few times before.  Retiring for the night, it was warm but comfortable in the tent...the weather would cool off and go downhill from this point on....

Friday after a few walks in the woods and hills, where Clint, and Rick's youngest son, Guy, found the most Blacks, we decided to head north towards Petoskey and Cousin Moe Houseworth's place in Alanson.  I had "known" Moe for about a half dozen years, via e-mails, Genealogy Research, and phone conversations...but had never met the man in person.  We had a common ground...Houseworth Genes, Conservative( Far Right?) Politics, The Second Amendment...beer, and the outdoors, so I was sure we would hit it off...we did.

After all of us having a greeting and a beer at Moe's place, Moe and me, jumped into his Caddy, and with the rest following in the truck, we headed the back roads towards what we hoped would be a collection point of a handy supply of Mushrooms....we had our best finds on those hills, and in retrospect, probably should have stuck around longer...things Morel-wise went down hill after that.  We should have stayed the rest of the afternoon in the woods, and then went with Moe to the Friday Fish Fry in town.....as it was we headed back south to the camp, where we met a snake, a "gung-ho" mushroom hunter from Jackson, Michigan, and my camera got a bath, all in the name of saving a beer....

Those stories and more on Part #2...coming tomorrow...

back later>>>>

Photos-Moe Houseworth and Me....I stand about 5'11" and 185...so you can see, Cousin Moe, is a bit larger man than his older(by 3 years) 2nd cousin, PRH....The Creek where we camped...we watch some lady camping near us take a small Brown Trout of this spot....they were living in the shallows...and with no depth deeper than a foot or so, it was amazing to see these small Browns getting caught...some of the flowers near out site, and my buddy the Eastern Hog Nose, which at the time, I thought to be a North Michigan Timber Rattler....scary looking dude, ain't he...More photos of the Snake and the Mushroom Hunt tomorrow....