For those unfamiliar with this NAMA event, it is held at a different location every year, always selected for a time and place where mushrooms are, or at least should be, coming up. This year, contrary to several past years, the selected location had extensive mushrooms, that is if you were over 10,000’ in elevation. The seasonal monsoon conditions favored several southwestern states this year, including Colorado, at least over 10,000’. Every afternoon we were treated to those showy cumulonimbus clouds rolling in accompanied by thunder and lightning. Our last night there we even had a prolonged shower at the camp. It was good to see rain again!

This annual foray is a great experience to visit other parts of North America to meet like-minded people and see the mushrooms of that area. Many forays are always held, a full team of sorters and identification experts is on-hand to put names on things and each year, examples of all the mushrooms found are described and vouchered. This year the foray was attended by over 250 people, many that were friends that I’ve made over several past forays. It was great to reacquaint with old friends and make some new ones. Just like our local forays, attendees to the NAMA forays are friendly, easy to talk to and pleasant to be around.

For me, the draw for these forays is always the mushrooms. I thoroughly enjoy seeing the wide variety of different mushrooms in different parts of the world. As such, I went out on every opportunity there was to sign up. There were daily all day and four to six half day trips each day so there was ample opportunity to visit different habitats. It is always pleasing and somewhat surprising how many things I recognize. I typically recognize most things I see at least to genus. Even things that appear to be a species I recognize, I am unwilling to try to put a species name on them. I’ve been wrong too many times. Many familiar genera were found: Amanita, Russula, Lactarius, Hebaloma, Suillus, Hygrophorus,

Albatrellus, Leccinum, many Cortinarius, etc. A total of just over 150 species were identified and vouchered. While the tables holding the finds from each foray were sagging under the numbers found, many were repeats. The most collected species for the trip was the familiar Amanita muscaria (variety flavivolvata).

I had heard reports that a species I was looking forward to finding was abundant this year: the famed red-capped porcini of the Rockies, Boletus rubriceps. And yes it was. They were big,