Posted By auntie on October 2, 2012

4.77 miles  ★★★★★

i think the proper name for this hike, which i last did in august, is tefft hill. my main goal was ’shrooms, and i succeeded with a big ol’ hen-of-the-woods, but no black trumpets. great day, great hike. wish it could have been longer. i saw nobody but one little girl (ok, college kid) who came up behind me and scared the crap out of me because i was wearing my earbuds. serves me right. it was kind of nice to see another single woman on the trail. we ladies are, i think, sometimes afraid to go out hiking alone. i know i was for a long time, and it kept me out of the woods for years. which is a shame. i’m not naive enough to believe that there are only nice people hiking in the woods, but really, i think it’s no more and possibly a lot less dangerous than walking on the roads, and i see single women out walking all the time.

beech drop, epifagus americana

the beech drops are everywhere now. these are parasitic plants that feed off the roots of beech trees, and they don’t have leaves or produce chlorophyll. just little flowers.

hen-of-the-woods, grifola frondosa

here is my old friend, the hen-of-the-woods mushroom, known in japan as the maitake mushroom. this was a good-sized specimen… couple three pounds, anyway. yay!

the trail

the trail was littered with golden birch leaves. so pretty.

vetch

last of the wildflowers, too. i think this was some sort of vetch. the leaves looked like it.

bonus purple mushroom

and here’s a bonus fungus shot. i think it’s a purple cort.

oh, and speaking, as i was at the top of the post, of safety, i just did a check of the rhode island website. the official start of hunting season was september 15 (archery, deer). i guess i had better drag out the old blaze orange hat/vest combo. also, i ordered myself a blaze-orange fleece vest from cabela’s. stylish, eh?

Categories: Rhode Island, Walks and Hikes
Tags: 2–5 miles, Exeter RI, RI