A beginner's mushroom walk opens Ijams Park's fall fungi series on Friday evening
Ninety minutes with an Ijams naturalist — what a mushroom actually is, how to tell it from a lichen, and how to look at a fallen log properly. Fifteen dollars, ages fourteen and up, and a week of storms should make the woods generous.
Friday at half past five, an Ijams Park naturalist — the park's word is "fun-guide," and they know what they did — takes a small group out on the trails to look at the things growing on dead wood. It's the first walk of a four-part fall fungi series, and it's pitched squarely at people who have never done this: what a mushroom is, which parts are which, how to tell a fungus from a lichen, and how to start identifying what you find without eating anything to check.
- When
- Fri Sep 11 · 5:30–7 PM
- Where
- Ijams Park · 2915 Island Home Ave
- Cost
- $15 · registration required
- Ages
- 14 and up
- The walk
- Up to 1.5 miles on uneven, rooty trail
- Bring
- Water and closed-toe shoes · a signed risk form
- Next dates
- Sep 20 · Sep 27 · Oct 18
What you'll actually see
That depends on the week, and this week has been good to mushrooms. After a run of ninety-degree days with afternoon storms, the low, shaded ground at Ijams Park is about as productive as it gets in September: shelf fungi on the logs, small capped mushrooms in the leaf litter, and the lichens that were there all along on the bark. The walk is a mile and a half at the most, on real trail with roots and rocks, and it stops a lot.
The practical part
Fifteen dollars, ages fourteen and up, and you need to register ahead — the page was still taking sign-ups Tuesday. Wear shoes you'd hike in, bring water, and expect a risk waiver at check-in. If Friday doesn't work, the same beginner walk repeats on September 20 and 27 and again October 18, when the fall crop is at its best.
