Idaho Springs Mushrooms and Medicine

Join the girl guides of Uncharted Outdoorswomen for a private Women of Colorado event guided by Melissa!  Melissa grew up foraging with her family all over Colorado.  She usually travels backcountry roads via her offroad vehicle, which she fixes herself!  Below is a list of gear to bring and plants we plan to identify.  The objective is to introduce you to how to find and identify medicinal plants and mushrooms.

This is a rain or shine event, but no lightning!  Be prepared for Colorado weather even if the forecast doesn't predict it!  Our hike will be an easy one near Idaho Springs, Colorado.   We plan to walk a maximum of 4 miles round trip with little elevation gain.  You will need to obtain a foraging permit in advance of the event from the USFS if you intend to remove any plants or mushrooms for keeping. 

What to bring:

- layers, including a rain jacket

- hat and sunglasses

- waterproof boots

- a sharp knife

- foraging basket or mesh bag (not plastic)

- field note journal

- water, snacks, medication

They will learn about plants that can be used as non-traditional medicine.

We plan to identify the following: - Bolete/porcini, edible

- Oysters, edible

- Puffballs, edible

- Coral, edible - Russula, hard to distinguish edible versus poisonous - Fly agaric, poisonous  - Columbines - Blanket flowers - Bergamot - Alpine buttercup - Baneberry - poisonous

Please remember while we time events as optimally as possible to ID as many plants as we can, we cannot control what is available for viewing/foraging.