Mike and I were out poking around the forest with my dogs Sunday. We found one good chanterelle, some witches butter and a bunch of soggy mush. Snow level in the Columbia Gorge has dipped below 2000′.

We stumbled into some sort of Forest Service study area-trees were flagged and a number of them were girdled.

We also found some dumps – how people can come out to a place of such beauty and trash it defies my imagination. One huge dump just off the road was flagged with this plastic bag, tied to some brush,

I spotted this huge chanterrelle from the truck as I was driving by. There was a skif of snow on the ground and it was the only one we found that hadn’t gone to mush.

There were a few other mushrooms out there, mostly waterlogged and a single fresh Russula, and some interesting conks. I did find a log with some huge witches butter; bright orange and rubbery, with clumps up to four inches across. I was tempted to collect it but opted to leave it be.