The weather has warmed up and it feels great to be outside. Today was in the lower 30s. It was cloudy, but warm enough to enjoy a walk in the woods.

We decided to follow a deer trail we call the “super highway.” It passes through our land, across the street, and into a large wooded area.

It is a beautiful trail every direction you look.

Here is a beautiful view from the ridge. The driftless region is full of ridges and rivers.

Here’s a tree rubbed by a buck.

Here is a fallen tree—post mushroom growth.

Mushrooms are beautiful even in the winter.

Now we’ve entered a majestic pine forest.

This mushroom is called Fomes fomentarius, otherwise known as the firestarter mushroom. This is the mushroom found in a pouch on the Iceman (Oetzi) near the boarder of Austria and Italy. He is a well-preserved 5000 year-old Neolithic man. They discovered his body in in 1991 in a glacier.

An inside look at the firestarter mushroom. It is also known as the tinder mushroom.

We climbed another ridge to get another view.

Duke is really enjoying the view. He’s been running up and down the ridges, chasing the scent of the deer. He did try to capture a few turkeys and a possum, but they managed to make their escape.

Here’s Chuck showing the size of this deer rub.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 16th, 2010 at 7:21 pm and is filed under January 2010, mushrooms, winter scenes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.