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.
- 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
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.
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.
