Off-trail observations

I do mostly plants, particularly wildflowers, and I’ve been so thoroughly trained/brainwashed to stay on the trail, take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints that I am instinctively horrified when I see pix from mycologists who have picked a mushroom, turned it over, broken it up, all in the middle of the woods somewhere lol. It was explained to me that, since mushrooms are just a manifestation of a large underground web of mycelia, it’s not the same thing at all. I suppose I agree. Anyway, I agree with charlie and jharkness - I think it’s a matter of context. And I avoid going off trail on boardwalks at all - around us what looks like solid ground is likely to be a thin layer of peat/moss and then 20 ft of water :-)

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