It’s been just over 3 months since I installed the Lost Creek Fungi Hunt along the Lost Creek Hiking Trail near Chatfield, MN.
This public art installation, set up as scavenger hunt along 5.5 miles of dirt and grass trail, is the first of its kind that *I* have ever attempted and that I know if in all of southern MN. Fifteen life size crochet mushrooms are mounted on dead wood along the trail and will stay in place until June 2025.
If you’ve been out to hike the trail and experience the art, tell me more! If you haven’t, here are field notes from the last few months of art in the outdoors.
June - Washout!
June started out all sunny and a group of nearly a dozen folks attended an art reception on June 8 and then hiked a few miles of the trail with me to see mushrooms.
Then heavy rains made parts of the trail impassable for several weeks in June, with a bridge on the west end of the trail washed out from flooding. A community hike had to be cancelled due to rain, but with some sun and laying of limestone on muddy parts of the path, the trail came out just fine. Now when you hike, you can spot a few places where flooding eroded parts of the trail or carved creek beds deeper.
The art endured the downpour without harm. Some pieces got very soggy. Their waterlogged weight was more than I anticipated when I first installed, so I made an emergency hike in mid-June to put a couple new staples in things that were sagging. Easy fix. I’m not worried about wet fibers, they’ll dry when the sun comes back.
July - Squirrels and spiders
A quieter month for me, but the woods were doing plenty with the art while I was away.
Squirrels have nibbled on many of the pieces. It’s bad for the environment to put out thread and yarn for birds and squirrels to build nests with, since artificial fibers don’t insulate or repel moisture properly. But in little quantities, a tuft here and a nibble there, I suppose it’s okay. Most of the time, I can see the squirrels (or whatever toothy visitors it was) gave up after a few minutes of nibbling, finding the crocheted yarn too much effort to chew through for just a little bit of fluff for nest-building.
Spiders LOVED the mushrooms, though. One Artist’s Conk on the far east end of the trail is always hosting a gorgeous intact spiderweb. I brushed it away once when I visited because I wanted to take pictures, but I think in future I’ll leave the spiderweb be and capture that, too.
As for the rest of the art, it’s collecting bark fragments and leafy bits and one of them has a spot on it that might be bird poop. It’s all very au naturale here.
August - Trees fall in the forest
I did my first through-hike of the trail to check on all the art and do maintenance. I’m going to do this every few months to keep an eye on the art and make sure it stays in good shape, since I’m still not entirely certain how different seasons will affect the art and the trail.
Recent storms had knocked a few trees and branches down when I hiked through. Nothing that blocked the trail entirely, although I did have to wiggle my way through what was essentially the crown of a tree, laid out with all it’s twiggy branches across the trail.
Never fear. I sent photos and an email to the Bluff Country Hiking Club, which maintains the trail, and they went out with chainsaws to make a clearer path. If you’d like to help with this kind of work, I know they would welcome you at whatever commitment level you’re able to provide. It takes many hands year-round to keep the trail open.
One of the fallen trees was directly over the trunk I’d installed some mushrooms on. I pulled them off so they weren’t damaged by trail clearing and put them back a few weeks later. However, another set of mushrooms, these False Turkey Tail, had to be completely relocated a few hundred yards further west along the trail because the dead trunk they had been stapled too was completely uprooted and in the underbrush!
This is something I’d thought might eventually happen. I’m putting art on dead wood after all, and it’s going to continue to decompose as time goes by, so I was anticipating that potentially by the end of the year, there might be a trunk or a log that wasn’t in good condition for hosting art anymore. But 2 months in was sooner than I expected! Pretty cool, though, to see the life cycle of the woods playing out right in front of me.
One thing Fungi Hunt fans have asked me is whether I think any of my crochet mushrooms will grow mushrooms of their own. I don’t think this is likely, since the yarn is made from artificial or animal fibers, neither of which are a good site for mushrooms to grow, not to mention fungi take several months to a year to develop to the point where they produce visible mushrooms.
Mold, on the other hand, is much more fast-moving. I can already see it on many of the mushrooms, particularly the white ones, which are starting to form rings of greens and browns. I think this was hastened along by the rain we had early on. There is also some discoloration from rusting of the wires, screws and staples used to shape and mount all the art, which is adding some interesting rings and patches of color. I love it. The art is changing!
September - Here come the hikers!
Two events on back-to-back weeks this month!
Kalvin Stern of Fiddlehead Knob came to teach ~20 people about mushroom farming at a free event, and then we all took to the trail and hiked 4 miles to see mushrooms out in the woods. I love having an expert on the trail with me so I can ask them “what is this? what is this!?” and get instant answers. Kalvin taught me to identify three different mushrooms on this hike alone AND so much about how fungi develop from spore to visible fruiting bodies on trees or the ground.
I’m usually a solo hiker, but it’s fun to hike with a big group and swap knowledge.
In addition to this shroomy hike, I also collaborated with some local naturalists to do some youth hikes. Debra Collum, Sandy Sullivan and I took a dozen kids out on a mile of the trail. Deb showed us how to identify wild ginger, buckthorn, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, jewelweed, and stinging nettles. Sandy identified moonseed (a wild vine in the grape family), knotweed, and American hog-peanut. I showed everyone a fallen Artist’s Conk, all my crochet mushrooms, and a tiny puffball that we all squeezed to make the spores come out.
I love that I get to organize events like these because they’re as much for me as they are for everyone else who attends them. I want to know what that plant in the woods is. I want to know what kind of mushroom I just found. I want to know what that bird sound was.
Looking ahead
October I’m headed back out for fall maintenance, because the trail is closed all of November for hunting season. Get out there while the fall colors are creeping through the trail and see the last mushrooms of the season.
I have more events yet to come, including one in January and another in the spring. If you’d like to organize a group hike, invite me to come along! Or, if you’d like to hike with me, maybe we can coordinate for a hike-along on an upcoming maintenance hike.
As always, hike safely and follow all trail rules. No foraging is allowed, and dogs are not permitted, except on one mile of the eastern end of the trail just off County 2.
Happy mushroom hunting!
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