The (free) campsite we stayed in just outside of Tahsis runs alongside the Liener River, in deep rainforest under Douglas firs and cedars. The only amenities offered are picnic tables, one per cleared site, and small fire pits, plus a couple of outhouses. We hadn't brought our own firewood, and soon found that all the fallen wood in the area, even bordering the river and road, where the sun occasionally reaches, is soaked through. We had to go into town to collect fire starter and driftwood.
 |
| The far side of the river; a dense wall of boundary plants, ferns, salmonberries, and thimbleberries, and beyond them, old evergreens, standing and fallen, moss-covered. |
It's always dusk under the evergreens, and the mosquitoes are enthusiastic morning and evening. There is a distant smell of bear; old fish, ancient urine, leftover meals, stewed together in two-inch deep fur.
It's prime mushroom country, even in midsummer.
 |
| Polypore with a thick, whitish lip. On the side of a mossy log. |
 |
| More shelf fungi on the end of a log. Conifer-base polypore and resinous polypore? |
 |
| A white, oozy shelf fungus on well-rotted wood. |
 |
| This tiny one was inside a stump. I couldn't get in to see the underside. Note the grey springtail on the edge, and in the centre of the dried evergreen needle, an even smaller globular springtail. |
 |
| Lichen or mushroom? On a small twig I brought out into the light, resting on the grey picnic table. The mushroom is about 3/8 of an inch tall. |
 |
| Looking down into the cup. One side has been knocked out. |
 |
| Yellow slime mold, scrambled egg slime. On well-rotted log. |
These are awkward critters to photograph. They grow in dark places; even though it was 11 AM when I took these photos, it was still twilight under the trees. And they don't respond well to flash; the colours change, even fluoresce. So it's handheld, wobbling on precarious, slippery ground, in the dark. And even so, my camera does better than my eyes. It manages to see texture; I didn't.
 |
| Scrambled egg, up close. |
These were all taken at the same place as yesterday's lot:
 |
| GPS coordinates: 49.91553, -126.62502 |
the little cup looks like a member of the bird nest fungus group
ReplyDeleteI think you're right.
DeleteWe have several free forest campgrounds like that around Powell River. People from the city are amazed at the options we have to get out into the bush without it costing an arm and a leg. Ours are probably more populated than ones around Tahsis but if you go during the week even in summer they might be almost empty. - Margy
ReplyDeleteThere were three other groups staying at the free campsite in Tahsis. We met one of them the next morning at the only open coffee place in town.
Delete