Wow! What an adventure! We could have been characters on 'Lost' or the 'Survivor.' Our walk amiable leader, Lou, took us on a spirited walk with short-cuts through brambles, barberry patches and spicebush with the intent of eventually walking around Wonder Lake. We found a lake, but it wasn't Wonder Lake. Fortunately, Paula had her GPS device with her, although with all the rain and cloud cover it took awhile to get a satellite read on our location. In the meanwhile, we pondered over which of a series of 'forks in the road' to take and choosing to vote by democratic rule, we probably took the wrong one every time. Once Paula's GPS located us, we found our way to the nearest road - a few miles away from where we started out. Lou had his cell phone and alerted his wife to keep a look out for us on Cushman Road, a quiet country road with old farm houses. Of course to get to the road, we had to leave the state forest property and enter private land where we were regularly reminded with red and yellow signs that we were not allowed to tresspass. While laughing (nervously) all the way in hopes of seeing the road ahead, we assured each other that we wouldn't be shot by the land owner. Finally we saw a large locked gate ahead with the farm road behind it. Al ran ahead, stopped a jeep and asked where on earth we were. Good! We were on Cushman Road. After we squeezed through the gate or climbed over the surrounding stone walls, we posed for a photo in front of the gate and one of two "No Tresspassing' signs prominently afixed to it. Then we started down the road to discover more mushrooms, some friendly horses and interesting wildflowers. Lou's wife picked up some of us on the first trip to the cars, while Lou and I went back for the rest once we got to our vehicles. We all were soaking wet, but in excellent humor. This will be a walk we will never forget! We all agreed we were glad we came on the walk. We certainly had lots of chuckles.

Afterwards, George and Al went back to Lou's place to identify some mushrooms that had popped up over the past couple of days. They included Boletus edulis, an amanita and a Tylopilus felleus (Bitter Bolete).

These are some of the fungi we encountered:
Gilled Mushrooms: Amanita ceciliae, Crepidotus crocophyllus, Gymnous dryophilus, Marasmius rotula, Megacollybia platyphylla, Pleurotus ostreatus, Plicaturopsis crispa, Pluteus cervinus, Pluteus sp., Russula sp., Schizophyllum commune, Xerula radicata
Polypores: Fomes fomentarius, Ganoderma applanatun, Ganoderma tsugae, Phellinus gilvis, Stereum ostrea, Trametes versicolor, Trichaptum biforme,
Jellies; Auricularia auricula, Tremella mesenterica
Corals: Clavicorona pyxidata
Ascomycetes: Xylaria polymorpha,
Slime Molds: Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa, Stemonitis sp., Tubifera ferruginosa

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