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That's awesome! I take it northern Virginia is the best place to look? Haha I heard SNP, Faquier county.... ?
I hunt in SNP, in Rappahannock county, although I've found some very nice honey holes in Fauquier as well, out near Delaplane.
All the land was the same in Rapp/Fauquier back in the day, pretty much all orchards that were overgrown back into forest as SNP and other areas got away from farming and stuff. Fauquier and Rappahannock are both on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge, so they get that good morning sun that morels seem to enjoy (basically any facing hill but west in my experience).

All that being said, my lower spots did ok, but when I went out on May 1st to the higher spots out in the backcountry of SNP, I had very little luck. It has been a late year, and in 2013 I remember May 9-17th was the best run I had up in the hills, yielding 37 lbs for the season (with 23 of them coming from my higher spot May 9-17), so I'm gonna go out tomorrow and see what things are looking like. Certainly didn't help getting a frost at the end of April..

About the mesh bag thing, I kind of agree with barndog, as I've only really seen morels spore out once I've taken them home and they started to dry out after a few hrs, HOWEVER, my take on it is: If it could possibly help with me finding morels in the future, why not? Any possibility of adding morels isn't even a question in my mind! But yeah, mesh bags getting caught on thorns/branches is a bit of a pain sometimes. Also, when I end up carrying a bunch, the way the laundry bags stretch out under weight kinda causes the morels on the bottom to get squished, which does suck. I'd recommend onion or potato bags, something with a little more rigidity/support.
 
That's awesome! I take it northern Virginia is the best place to look? Haha I heard SNP, Faquier county.... ?
Also, yeah the mountains in northern SNP (Fauquier/Rapp) usually tends to coincide with southern Michigan as far as the fruiting season, generally coming a good couple weeks after the lower areas around VA. Years ago I didn't know this and I thought the morel season ended late April when I stopped finding them on my property. Little did I know, I hadn't seen anything yet!!

I would like to add, however, that the past few years I've seen more and more out of towners coming into SNP for morels. Lots of young chefs and people trying to make money. It's unfortunate, but they don't know the good spots, and these types of people come and go with time.
 
Actually, it's right across the river from Dutchess, just a few minutes from one of the main bridges. Not sure how to send private messages here, but if you know...
I think I sent you a private message...regarding dutchess
 
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