We got together with our friends, the Powells. Miriam has some awesome experience with hiking around our "neighborhood" and she picked this hike along the eastern side of Hemlock Lake (about a 20 min drive from our house!). This lake used to have houses all around it, but in the late 1800s the state started buying up the land, and by 1947 the last house was purchased and demolished, allowing this lake to be "returned to it's original condition" and used as a water source for our towns and Rochester. It is a beautiful lake, and I love that we have something so amazing to enjoy so close to home!
With two adults and nine kids (my four girls and Miriam's four kids and a fifth who was a friend) we hiked about 3 miles, some of it actual hiking (not just road walking). James isn't a Powell, he's actually the son of a friend of ours (Miriam was watching him for a few hours). He is just 4, and he was awesome on the hike! Very independent, even when he was terrified.
I was VERY impressed with all of our kids and how well they enjoyed the hike, helped each other, and had fun!
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From back-front, left to right:
Nadine, Zoë, Anna, Miriam, Keven
Veronica, Eden, Megan, James, Brennan and Miranda |
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| Goofy Shot! |
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| Millipede |
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| It tickles! |
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| Millipede Ring |
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| Anna hiked down in a gulley (sinking in mud!) to gather a few wild blackberries for us to enjoy. |
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| Our first funky fungus! |
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| It looks a bit like overboiled macaroni and cheese, but it felt more like a rubbery chew toy. |
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| Brennan found many millipedes. |
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| Photobomb! |
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| We diverted off the main track down to the (very small!) beach on the lake where we ate lunch. |
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| More of the interesting fauna we found at our picnic site. |
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| Hiking up from the lake-front picnic back to the main trail. |
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| Who left these deformed balls? |
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| That's a MUSHROOM! |
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| It smelled like one, too. |
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| But was light and "hollow" when you tapped on it. |
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| Nine Hiking Kids! |
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Crossing a gulley. Nica and James were a little nervous,
but both of them were champs crossing with out any help! |
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| Tip-toe crossing. |
This was our third fungus encounter. And it was the first time the kids started naming the different mushrooms! I will try to remember the names they gave them...
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| Strawberry Jam |
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| Peaches |
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| Creme Brule |
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| Mush-ears |
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| Peach Coral |
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| More peach coral |
Eden found a skull, but Nica quickly picked it up and was so excited about the "rat skull". We think it is really a possum skull (which is really just a giant rat, right?)
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| Nica showing her prize skull. |
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| Lemon Toadstool |
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| I wish I had a better camera! I couldn't capture the real look of this adorable 2" mushroom with my clumsy camera. |
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| Miranda points out another mushroom. As the kids were hiking ahead, Anna and I would take pictures of every (new kind of) mushroom we found. The kids ahead would shout out they found one, and sometimes name it. |
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| Lemon Puss |
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| One of Miriam and my favorite spots. Soooo beautiful! |
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| Same spot, different camera setting. |
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| Pinkie- for Nica. But Miranda snapped off the edge of the perfect umbrella mushroom as she jumped in front of me just seconds before I took the picture. Argh! |
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| These were so tiny! |
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| FREEZE! Doesn't work so well with 10 people. but, I was able to get most of them not moving. |
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| I can't remember what Megan named this one. It looked blue. |
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| Kiwi Puffers |
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| These were the COOLEST little mushrooms. Megan found them, and when she tapped on it, the mushroom would squirt a cloud of spores into the air! I got a video of it... We had a hard time keeping little fingers from tapping them after Megan found them. |
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| Pipe Organ. |
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| And, yes, we did carry that HUGE mushroom most of the way in and then returned it to its original home. |
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| I would LOVE this as a view out my window! |
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| Anna investigating the Giant Cocoa Puffer- we think it might've been an older version of the vollyball we carried around. but if you barely touched the brown dirt-looking mass, it would puff up like cocoa powder. |
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| Hiking back- through LOTS of poison ivy- the sides of this walk were covered in lots of inimical three-leafed vines. |
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The End
of this hike, at least.
But we plan on making more trips! |
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We soaked baby wipes with rubbing alcohol when we got back to the van, and wiped off any exposed skin, to hopefully prevent any absorption of urushiol (the poisonous oil from poison ivy). We said our g'byes to the Powells (and James), and drove the 20 minutes home where we threw all of our clothes into the washing machine. Megan, who is very sensitive, took a shower with Tecnu (a special soap to wash of urushiol oil). I even washed the girls' shoes! Travis is the most sensitive, and just finished a steroid course to treat a bad eruption on his arm and chest.
Now, I am going to research these fungi and see if I can't find out their real names...
Lemon Puss= Amanita muscaria var. guessowii (poisonous to eat)
Peach Coral=
Lentaria byssiseda (or similar)
Our volleyball=
Calvatia gigantea And who knew, we could've fried these up in butter & eaten them!
Kiwi Puffer= Tulostoma lloydii (maybe)
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