Andre is cooking dinner, rice with garlic scapes and
lentinous ponderosas sautéed in coconut oil, our new favorite mushroom—a favorite
primarily because it was so plentiful. When thoroughly cooked to soften up its
leathery texture, it’s actually quite tasty. It is chewy (Andre says crunchy) and meaty. The cap is
gorgeous, white, actually a bit of a golden colored from tanning in the sun
even though they were rather fresh, with white, serrated gills. They are called ponderosas because of
their size, perhaps the largest mushroom I’ve ever found, especially given that
they were just babies. I wish I
hadn’t filled up on tortilla chips on the ride here, but Zeke and Zoro’s sweet
and spicy relish was so delicious and I was starving after a long day of
hiking, but I enjoyed the little reminder of our time in Grass Valley with that
crew.
We are thoroughly clean after a sunset swim in the hot
springs with the cowboys. Parked
at the Fountain of Youth in Thermopolis, Wyoming, the perfect name for a place
that boasts the largest hot springs in the world, we’re enjoying some luxuries
of life—hot baths (my third bath of the day, even), cell phone service,
internet, electricity, and great music (thanks Twyster). We woke up next to a clear running
creek with sunlight making its way into our upstairs bedroom. I took a quick bath in the cold water
to freshen up while Andre hung our bedding in the sun to air out. We still had plenty of fruit that
needed to be eaten from various harvests, so he made a big bowl of chopped
fruit and berries and I sliced some cinnamon bread that we rescued from a
bakery, and topped it with plum butter. We took our tea and breakfast on the
road, stopping at different spots that looked good, in terms of the potential
of mushrooms.
The afternoon was spent hiking in Grand Teton National Park,
a bit of an arduous and steep hike that we both needed, and poked around for
mushrooms after our porcini surprise yesterday, and a second bath in the Two
Oceans lake. Later, we wandered
about in the rain, watching storm clouds gift the earth and our private flower
garden with droplets of water that made rainbows in the dark sky. We didn’t run into any grizzlies today,
but yesterday we saw two, probably grazing on the same berries I spent the
afternoon munching on—grouse whortleberries, strawberries, and Utah
honeysuckles.
On the drive to the springs, I hit a bird. It was only the second animal I’ve ever
hit, and when we pulled over to check the front end of Butter, I couldn’t bring
myself to get out to see whether or not we were carrying its little black and
gray body, so Andre gracious did.
We were. For a good long
while, I thought about its partner, calling for it later that evening,
wondering why it wasn’t calling back, whether or not it had babies that needed
food. I’ve seen lots of roadkill
on this trip, and it never occurred to me that those animals have a family
somewhere. They probably do, just
like us. The rainbow helped make
the tears subside.
Tonight I am feeling thoroughly hiked out, full of mushrooms
and life, hydrated, and slightly warm from the mixture of hot springs and a sip
of huckleberry vodka. My phone reminds
me to name something I am grateful for each day, and tonight, I am grateful for
this moment.
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