Mother's Day Mountain Mushroom March

My Mother's Day was perfect.  It was exactly what I think Mom would have liked.  The Girl and I hiked Old Rag with another friend, and before lunch we got a good reminder about being aware of your environment.  A couple hikers were just ahead of us as we approached an area called Trillium Hill for reasons so obvious that we won't go into them here when I heard a sudden noise in the dry leaves to the right of the trail.  When I looked, I saw a bear--and her two cubs!  The hikers who had spooked them continued, oblivious to the ursine presence in the woods, and we scrambled to get our cameras out before the family moved too far away for our zooms.  Luckily, the cubs got distracted by a tree and scampered up the trunk.  They spent the next ten minutes climbing up, calming down and descending, then climbing up again while the mother waited at the base of the trunk, unwilling to leave without her young.  The best pictures I got follow; the resolution may be a little thin on some of them, because I had to crop to compensate for my zoom, but I'm still very happy with what we got.

The mother is watching us; if you look very closely near the top of the frame, you can see one of the cubs through the leaves.

Both cubs are visible here.

The Girl got this excellent shot of a cub's face.

The Girl also got this shot of the mother and one of the cubs.

There was also a mouse, but who cares?

A broad-headed skink at the false summit.  I didn't bother to crop this one; I think he shows up well enough in full screen (click the picture to view).

I was frequently distracted by large spreads of bluets; they're tiny and pretty, and I like them.  Sue me.

Flat Teddy at our "office" on top of the mountain.

The view from Old Rag's summit.  If you look closely, you can see White Oak Falls past that ridge of rock.

I have no idea what this fungus is, but it looked neat.

For most of my childhood and adolescence, I can remember hunting morels in the woods.  For a long time, Dad had a patch in a stand of trees in his back yard.  Mom would soak our haul in salt water, then cook them in a little butter for dinner.  Honestly, I was always more interested in the treasure hunt of finding the mushrooms in the first place.  Towards the end of the walk, our friend led us to a spot he knew, and we both ended up finding about 7 each.  Two or three of mine were pretty dry, and they were all laughably small, but as I write this, they are soaking in brine.  Dinner tonight is a sausage pizza, and I plan to cook them in the skillet of sausage juice as a side dish or appetizer, even if The Girl is afraid to try them.