May 14, 2018
What: Morel Mushroom Hunting
Location: Madison County, Nebraska along the Elkhorn River.
Conditions: Sunny and warm, 80 degrees.
After a few days of rain, followed by a day of warm sunshine, things have really taken off around here. I checked two separate spots today, both along the Elkhorn River in Madison County, Nebraska. My first spot was definitely the most productive and I ended up hiking for about 3 hours longer than I had anticipated. The forest edges produced a few mushrooms, but my most consistent mushroom hunting was definitely in the heart of the timber. I’m getting the impression that things got too warm around here too early with little to no moisture. Seems that the open areas and field edges which are typically first to pop have all been a bust for the most part. This makes me think that these areas got too warm before we had rain to pop any mushrooms.
It seemed like every cottonwood tree I could find that did not have leaves and still had most of its bark produced at least a few mushrooms. All the morels found today were yellows and the size seems to be trending upwards. If you have been following along with my reports, you know that I have been checking a certain double root ball fairly regularly. After a few days of only finding a few very small mushrooms, I decided to check it one more time. It was too good of a spot to not produce and I knew it was just a matter of time. And it finally produced!
Something tells me we do not have much season left as things are heating up very quickly. I suspect that the hills are starting to pop and our season has maybe a week left, hope I’m wrong. Check out the video below, I included a video on what we look for and what trees are producing mushrooms for us. Happy hunting from us at RYG!
