Recently, I satisfied a long desire to go mushroom hunting in the woods of Oregon. I signed up for an Oregon Wild Hike with the mushroom expert, Wendell Wood. The inexpensive fee for the hike supports Oregon Wild which works to protect and restore Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife and waters.

With mushroom identification charts and papers in hand, we hiked the Herman Creek Trail in the Columbia Gorge.  Most of us were hoping to find the delicious and edible Chanterelle mushroom as well as to learn about other mushroom varieties along the way. While I was too busy photographing to find my own Chanterelles a few of the other hikers were successful.

I was surprised to find how many edible mushrooms existed, though they are not necessarily tasty.  I also learned that mushrooms are only poisonous if you ingest them. Wendell taught us how to taste a mushroom. After first identifying a mushroom, chew a bit in the mouth. If any have a bitter or peppery taste, then most likely it’s poisonous, and should be spit out. Warning: a few mushrooms taste benign, so if in doubt, it’s better to not take chances with negative digestive reactions.

When I asked Wendell, “What do mushrooms do for the forest?” his simple answer said that the forest wouldn’t exist without mushrooms. Apparently they provide a lot of moisture for the trees and they help to enrich the soil. He also said that the mushrooms we pick are the fungi reproductive process and the bigger parts of the mushrooms live under the soil. I thoroughly enjoyed learning from Wendell and the other hikers, who were gracious enough to let me snap their photos. Below is a gallery of photos from the hike. I’ve tried to identify most of the mushrooms in the captions.