Thursday, October 6, 2011

'4 wheeling' camp trip


We bought a 4 Runner two weeks ago from a stranger on Craigslist and took it camping the next day. We lucked out; I think the car is fine, though it'll need new shocks soon.
We drove north of Seattle to the Mountain Loop Highway, an easy access road with many hikes and camping areas. Our plan was to drive on dirt roads with our new car, and we had seen some good ones in this area last year.
Our first day was nice, but we got a little rained out on the second day (and there were swarms of nocturnal 'daddy-long-legs' spiders all over our camp area, which I found disgusting. They were crawling up our legs and jumping off our shoulders. Horrid, absolutely horrid. If you opened the tent to 'use the bathroom' in the night, spiders would invade before you could even zip the door shut!)
I found Ischnoderma benzoinum for the first time!
It has dark purple-brown, fibery upper surface and a white pore surface. But the character that gives this fungus away is the strong anise odor. It is amazing to walk through the woods and find something growing off a log with this smell!
Twins!
a close-up:
Here is a cute photo of Elliott after he cried himself to sleep while Adam and I were rushing around packing for our trip:

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