Sep 23 Lobsters are in season at Caraway Creek

 

This is the first time I have seen Lobster mushrooms in North Carolina. They are along the Caraway Forks Trail. Lobsters are a fungus that grows on another fungus. Milk caps and russula mushrooms are often the host fungus. there is no shortage of those. I have eaten lobster mushrooms once but did not think they had much flavor. 

Sep 11 Hiking in Balestrand Norway

 

Himalayan balsam

Balestrand is located on a large fjord. The only land that can be developed in located along the fjords. The rest of the land is steep terrain with along no roads penetrating away from the fjords. We climbed a steep hillside today at the fringe of town. It was unrelenting. I broke away from the grouip so I could spend time with all the different vegetation I was seeing.

Foxglove

Sep 10 Hiking in Fjaerland

 

Today's hike is from the small town of Mondal, ancestral home of the Mondale family. The Backroads crew drove up a valley on a rough road. We were told cows were kept up this valley since the land was nor suitable to being farmed. Milkmaids would live in the small cabins we saw along the way. Cows need to be milked so they stayed here under cold weather set in.

The area is very lush with vegetation and fungi. There was also an odd orange lichen covering all the freshly unearthed rocks along the road. This was identified as Orange Sunburst lichen.

This is the top of the valley. Near vertical walls were a series of waterfalls cascading down toward us. A sizable creek formed alongside the road. 

An old shack still serves as someone's getaway.

Orange Sunburst lichen