SoDak Morels 2016

Ended 2015 almost nine inches above average for moisture. Plus two feet of snow now in the Black Hills w/more to come. Dehydrated morels will carry us over until the first fresh morels in about 120 days.

 

Congrats Neal! You consistently are one of the first if not the first in the state to find morels. Good rain/snow next week should help their buddies pop!

 

Found 4 dozen small black morels over past two days, but we had to visit over a dozen patches. Productive spots were where we did well on May 1 last year so we are a full week early.

 

Nine dozen mostly sub two-inch black morels today at 5,200 and 5,800 elevations. Same patches produced May 18 last year. A week of snow starts tonight so we picked all we found.

 

First of the year stream side yellow morels this week, they popped about 10-days earlier than 2015. Last weeks half foot snow is now melted below 6,000' elevation so black morels have again started.

 

Crazy cold nights this week w/more cold to come. Need way more wet. Here is what is working for us now: 4,200' to 6,600' elevations SW or NE MOIST slopes - direction/elevation makes no difference, just spend the time on likely MOIST habitat where you can easily see a two inch morel. Aspen/ironwood/chokecherry/oak dominant w/short juniper and sparingly few pine or spruce and zero birch. Violets, pasque and Oregon grape in bloom. Roughly 30% up since the last snows, remainder fresh white stems. Turkey season still ongoing plus a bazillion mountain bikes so lots of folks in the woods.

 

Let us know if those little ones get bigger Al. First of the year mountain blonde morels today all but one are less than a half inch. Also found 75 black morels. Yesterdays snow gave us plus half inch of melted precipitation, but need much more.

 

Big find on the flat land streams where 162 big yellows were waiting for us! Left about 30 behind as too far gone. Most were around a single cottonwood. Ground cover is knee high or taller.

 

Very dry Friday as we found less than a dozen blacks at multiple sites at all elevations up to 6,500 ft. Need a lot of rain!

 

Still extremely dry, but a sparingly few black morels at highest elevations around Rochford this week. More pounds of oysters than morels. Focused on moist north slopes with thin ground cover, lots of aspen where Chokecherry, purple violets and dandylions just starting to bloom.