2025 Wild Rivers Mushroom Festival Review
On November 7th, Sandy and I began our 4+ hour drive from Eugene to Brookings to attend their Wild Rivers Mushroom Festival. Of course, with all our stops, the 4+ hour drive quickly ballooned into more of a 6+ hour drive. While I am a slow driver, many parts of Oregon’s coastal highway are just too spectacular to zoom past. There are also mandatory stops for lunch, buying cheese at Face Rock Creamery in Bandon and checking for mushrooms at interesting looking pullouts. This attractive bolete caught Sandy’s attention when we stopped for lunch at the Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge. It was just one of several spectacular parks and lookouts that added to our total drive time. As for the weather, it couldn’t have been more accommodating. After a week of steady rain, the skies cleared just in time for our drive to Brookings and it stayed sunny the entire week.
The last time we visited Brookings for the festival was in 2021 when Sandy taught a class on making mushroom ornaments using air dried clay. That trip started in the rain, poured the entire time we were there and continued to rain on our drive back home. While Sandy had a great time teaching her class, it did limit other activities we could attend during our trip. On this occasion, we were free to take classes, enjoy mushroom hunting and even revisit the giant redwoods in California. Given the great weather we were experiencing, it was impossible not to include lots of hikes down to the shoreline just to admire the views, listen to the sounds of the ocean and enjoy the sheer peacefulness it invokes. Our relaxing ocean walks were in stark contrast to the excitement of both new and experienced mushroom enthusiasts who came from far and wide to attend this event.
The actual mushroom display was held at the Chetco Brewing Company in Brookings. The building that they occupy has a very large warehouse area that was ideally suited for the mushroom display. To celebrate the festival, Chetco Brewing made a Porcini brown ale and a Porcini stout. Both were quite delicious. In addition to beer, they also have a vegan food truck called Off The Wagon in one corner of that warehouse. With a combination of beer, food and mushrooms, what could be more harmonious?
While the Wild Rivers Mushroom Club has a relatively small number of members, they are no slackers when it comes to putting on this event. They did a spectacular job of putting together their mushroom display and placing it in a very popular brewery was quite a brilliant decision. This arrangement of having both the mushroom display and classes within blocks of one another made commuting between them very convenient. When we attended this event in 2021, the mushroom display was at a golf course about 6 miles from where the classes were held. It was obvious that a good deal of time was spent on identifying, labeling, and creating a natural woodsy setting that really added to the mushroom exhibit. In all, over 200 species were on display and there was no shortage of people eager to see them. The total mushroom count was certainly aided by having lots of volunteer foragers and some truly heavyweight ID’ers in attendance.
During the weekend event, Sandy and I attended an all day class put on by Jon Sommer and Rachel Zoller. The class started with presentations on mushroom ecology and identification. Then we all went to the woods to assemble a diverse collection of mushrooms to bring back to the classroom. Both Jon and Rachel led forays to a super secret spot about 10 miles north of the brewery and just off to the left on the coastal side. With plenty of mushrooms collected, the final segment of this teaching class was to apply our newly learned ID skills. Although the lower right segment of this photo may look like we all have our heads bowed in prayer, we actually have them immersed in mushroom ID books. Given the relatively short amount of time we had to educate ourselves, I’d have to say we all did quite well. We may not have gotten to species level on some of them but our instructors certainly got us most of the way there. To close out this eventful trip, I will leave you with a picture of Bulgaria inquinans, more commonly known as the Poor Man’s Licorice. Sandy and I found this spectacular looking cup fungus when we hiked to see the largest Myrtlewood tree (Umbellularia californica) in Oregon. The hike, just east of Gold Beach, was mostly uphill but not very steep and the trail was only about half a mile long roundtrip. The tree itself has seen far better days so you may not want to wait too long if you are interested in seeing it in person. If you want to see an overly melodramatic YouTube video of it, check out the one done by Dan McCoig.
In any event, we recommend you put the Wild Rivers Mushroom Festival on your calendar for next year. Just leave enough extra days during your trip to experience all the great hiking opportunities you’ll have in the Brookings and northern California areas. Sandy and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best in the coming year.
Ron and Sandy
