I have never seen as many beautiful fungi as I saw this morning on our walk at Fort Clatsop! We had a hard time getting anywhere on our walk, because we kept coming across new mushrooms. We discovered Boletus mushrooms growing out of the sphagnum moss, little white popcorn mushrooms growing under the trees in the forest, and lobster mushrooms that were the shape and color of a cooked lobster tail. The popcorn mushrooms were so plentiful they made the fall forest look like spring with white wildflowers in full bloom!

In addition to enjoying the diversity of fungi, we looked at some large western hemlocks, Douglas fir, and Sitka spruce. Some of the red huckleberries were still clinging to the branches. We also looked at some evergreen huckleberry. After my lecture last night on plant observation, many group members noticed the arrangement and shape of the leaves in a little more detail.

This evening we had a lot of fun during recap when some of the guests impersonated the staff and put on a little skit. Many of us dressed in costumes for Halloween including the expedition leader who was a southern gentleman dressed in very fine attire indeed. We had a pumpkin-carving contest and the winners were announced tonight at dinner. What a great Halloween it's been!