Help!

When I was younger so much younger than today
I never needed anybody's help in any way
But now these days are gone I'm not so self-assured
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors. . .

- Lennon/McCartney


Okay, OK, OK, calm down a bit now. Yes, I need help. I'll explain that. But, really, I'm not that desperate. :) I do really like the song, though. Really, who of us that grew up in that era doesn't? Anyways. . . . .

While I was trudging around Wazee Lake County Park this Saturday (see my previous blog-entries) I happened to notice quite a few late-season mushrooms and other higher fungi. This really surprised me, as I figured it was a little too late for them. As a result, I was not prepared to do anything but photograph them in situ. Next time I'll actually collect some, bring 'em home, and study them far better so I can get an accurate identification. That being written, what follows below are some photos of some of the fungi that I saw. If any of you out there recognize anything or have any corrections of what I've got here; PLEASE LET ME KNOW - my curiosity is very piqued on these, especially on the first set of photos.

So, let's get to the photos, shall we? :) Here ya go:

These two photos show something that has boggled my mind ever since I noticed them on the ground. Are these fungi? Are they plants? I certainly don't know! They look cool as heck, though; but I really, really would like an identification on these. This is where I need YOUR help the most. I've looked around a little on the 'net, thinking that these were some type of club fungi or something close to that; but I could not find anything even closely resembling them. There were about 2 dozen of these brown whorls in about a 10 foot by 10 foot area along a walking trail through a mixed-wood forest, predominantly coniferous. These photos show a good representative sample of what the rest looked like. Note the quarter for size-reference.

These two photos show a very common gilled mushroom that I saw on my walk. They were scattered all along the trails I was on in various habitats and were easily the most common 'shroom that I saw. I realize that these photos are not much to go on; but, like I wrote, they're all I have. The only thing I'll exclude is a Russula species, as the stipes were relatively soft compared to what I've read about Russula. Again, this is in mixed forest, predominantly coniferous. These photos were taken from a roadway, the road is no more than 10 years old. I saw lots and lots of different kinds of mushrooms in between the road itself and the actual wooded area of the woods (about 15 feet on average). The soil here, by the way, is almost nonexistent, consisting of sand with very little organic cover on top of that. In the open areas, grass takes a while to get growing well and still grows fairly thin. But, hey, I'm used to the very nice black clays/loamy soils of glaciated central Minnesota.

After a bit of research, I do believe that this is Suillus Luteus, aka "Slippery Jack". These caps weren't viscid, but were sticky. Again, photo taken from the roadway area.

This is one I'm much more certain on. Suillus Americanus. Everything I've read about it points to this species. And, btw, YUCK, what an awful mushroom. :) I will write that these particular samples appeared a bit greener than the texts said, and the photos don't really show that well. Prolly just a bit of regional color variation. There were about 3 dozen caps of this growing in a 5 foot by 5 foot area just outside the tree-line in the roadway.

The only easy 'shroom I found all day. A nice (but small) edible puffball. (Lycoperdon Pyriformes, but don't quote me on that.) These were also fairly common. This sample was split open by squeezing it between my fingers.

Up Around the Bend

You can ponder perpetual motion
Fix your mind on a crystal day
Always time for good conversation
There's an ear for what you say

Come on the rising wind
We're going up around the bend. . .

Yeaaaaahhhh!

- J. Fogerty


Everybody has family reunions. Ours, too. I remember when I was a kid, and we'd go to these reunions. They'd be affairs where a bunch of the "old folks" would sit around and BS, eat tons of food, and occasionally fish or play softball or whatever. Sometimes there'd be kids my age there, and we'd play (those were the fun ones). Sometimes not (lots of kissing elderly ladies while mom coached, "You remember her, don't you?"). Well, about 10 years ago, my sister, Jackie, pretty much started the "our generation" reunion. I haven't been able to attend all of them, but the ones I've been at have always been fun. Now I get to sit around and BS, eat lots of food, and fish or whatever. :) Ya ya, it's amazing how things change when you get older.

This year's "our generation" reunion took place at Fisherman's Point campground just outside of Hoyt Lakes, MN. It's a very nice place; but from Black River Falls, WI, it's a pretty healthy haul of about 6 hours. I took a little longer than that this year, because I had a few spots to stop at along the way. This is the story of one of my drive, up to just south of Superior, WI. The rest is in the next blog-entry (Get Together).

About 9 a.m. on Friday, I pulled out of the local Hardees and hit I-94 westbound. The weather was overcast but not raining - we've had enough of that for the last 10 days or so. A short hour later I pulled onto U.S. 53 and nosed the car north. The clouds broke up and it was very sunny and nice. I put on my sunglasses and started singing along with the radio.

Morning shows were being broadcast on most of the local stations. Since I think that ALL morning shows suck (play the music, dammit!) I ended up playing station check until I picked up a station that I never come off. It was about an hour north of Eau Claire, WI, when my car radio finally latched on to a good signal from KQDS out of Duluth. Harrrrr, nothing like quality tunage for the whole weekend. DS rules!!!!

After a few very pleasant hours, just north of Solon Springs, WI, I found an itty-bitty county road that turned west towards Pattison State Park, my planned stop. About 45 min. later, I was there. Pattison SP is a very nice place, and has the tallest waterfall in Wisconsin - Big Manitou falls. It also has Little Manitou falls, much shorter but very, very pretty. Both falls are on the Black River, (no, not the same one as in my previous posts - there are 2 Black Rivers in Wisconsin) Little Manitou is just upriver from Big Manitou.

When I was done at the park, I turned the car loose and sped north on Wis. 35 into Superior. The rest of the story of the trip will be in later blogs. I spent about an hour and a half at the park - scoping out both falls, hiking a trail or two, and visiting the nature center. Needless to be said, I also took a few photos for you all. And me. :)


This is a photo from one of the overlooks, and quite the view, IMO. Of course, the foreground is Wisconsin, but the promised land, er, Minnesota :) lies in the background. Duluth/Superior harbor is obscured by the trees on the right. The platform is at Big Manitou falls' pre-plunge level.


This photo is from the same platform, looking at Big Manitou falls. It could have been a better shot, but I'm not good near steep, deep ledges, (I think it's called acrophobia) so I held the camera at arm's length, closed my eyes, and took the shot. :) Big Manitou falls is 165 feet high - the fourth highest waterfall in the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains.

This photo was taken from another platform that was a little closer to the falls. From here, it was difficult to get the whole falls in one shot, this is just the upper part.

This is the best view of Big Manitou falls that I took. This is taken from an overlook on the other side of the river, only a short hike away. At the top left of the photo is the overlook that I took the previous shot from. Directly below that, at the left of the fall's pool, is an old copper mine test hole. Prospecting for copper was done here (and elsewhere nearby) about 120 years ago.

The trail on this side of the river wends for about a mile downstream of the falls, lowering down to river-level. This is a photo of the far-side embankment there. Notice the completely different nature of the stone from the previous photos. This is sandstone, while the falls drop over basaltic traprock that emerged during the great North American rift event (circa 1 billion years ago).

This is a picture of some photogenic fungi growing on a pine stump near the top of Big Manitou falls. I'm not sure what kind it is, but it sure is pretty.

About 3 miles upstream of Big Manitou falls is Little Manitou falls, shown here. This one is 31 feet high. Just out of view to the left is another copper mine test hole.

This last photo was taken up at the park's nature center and describes the life of Mr. Pattison, the reason why the park is here in the first place. He was born in Niagara Falls, NY; came to the Duluth/Superior region; got rich; and then donated the land for Pattison State Park to the state of Wisconsin. Thank you very much, Mr. Pattison - I found your park most enjoyable.

Oh, and one more thing. Unlike most of Wisconsin, the northwest region (as well as the northeast region of Minnesota) hasn't recieved any of the last 2 weeks' worth of rain (the stuff that's been in the news kind of rain). Very dry here is an understatement. One of the things that I noticed at the nature center was that, from photos, there appears to be only about 1/5 of the normal flowage over both falls. One could be disappointed by that, but I wasn't. They still looked cool to me. I hope that all of you enjoyed the story and photos. Let me know what you think!