Yippee!!! Rocky Mountain King Boletes are sprouting at about 10000 feet! But first a picture of Vuggie and the VW Rabbit at the Brainard Lake Picnic Area:
Note the pale Rainbow! The mountain to the right is the glaciated Mt. Audubon (13,223′)–an Eocene-Paleocene grano-syenite intrusion (i.e., for you geos, the Audubon-Albion Stock.) Yeah, sexy geology up here.
Okay back to the shrooms:
Could it be? Gotta look beneath the cap to be sure!
YES!!!
Oh, what a Happy Camper. It IS the famous Rocky Mountain King Bolete (i.e., the Italians call them “Porcini”, the Germans “Steinpilz”, aka Boletus edulis!) Yup, old T’s favorite shroom–so he smiles big.
The many trails around the Pawnee Campground (1.5-hour drive from Denver) were full of many kinds of shrooms. And here’s an identification trick:
Carry a small mirror to look under the mushroom cap. Boletes have spongy pores under their caps, not gills. Joy here is checking out the pores under an Aspen Bolete (Leccinum insigne). I know, I know, T gets too excited to check with a mirror when he think it’s a KING.
After find a few Kings, it started to rain, and it rained all night and all morning. We were very pleased with the REI Alcove, kept us nice and dry at temperatures in the mid 40’s.
Making McNugits Omelet in an 8-inch DO in light rain. I shielded the rain with my hat–worked great and dried out the hat too. Oh yeah, the omelet was awesome on a 42° morning. As the Stark’s say: Winter is Coming!
Driving Highway 72 south from Pawnee, we always stop at the B&F Grocery Store in Nederland, CO. It’s got a small cafe inside and they serve “Mountain Burgers” with lots of onions.
We recommend these burgers highly, and always try to get to Nederland before noon to order ’em, as the locals like ’em too and the line and wait can get long for them.
Happy Camping, T & Joy
