14/08/2024
Turning Chicken of the Woods into Ramen 🍜 🐓
NatureWalks with Talia
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- NatureWalks with Talia
Let's explore the outdoors! I guide nature walks and adventures in National Parks in the DC/ Virginia area.
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Family outings, group trips and kid camp options available. Trained as a Wilderness First Responder and Environmental Educator.
15/07/2024
Who can ID the flower of the pain reliever plant Arnica? 😏🌸
Alpine flowers
Mt. Townsend & Tahoma (Mt. Rainier)
July 2024
19/06/2024
North Cascades 🛶 🎒
Summer staff training trip
June 2024
27/08/2023
Treasurers on a foggy morning on Mt. Tam
Evidence of acorn woodpeckers, madrona limbs, a stellar jay feather and an aunt entering the unknown
17/06/2023
Staff Training Trip
June 2023
Ross Lake, Wa
Not a bad spot to get used to this summer 🛶 ☀️
29/05/2023
Virginia in the Spring
29/05/2023
It’s little baby painted turtle season 🐢
11/03/2023
Lagos, Portugal
Beautiful limestone arches and caves line the beaches in the Algarve. Acid rain and ocean water erode the limestone creating these iconic natural structures.
In the nearby fishing town of Salema, locals use the ceramic pots to catch octopus, the regional delicacy.
20/02/2023
Visit to the place holding the record for the most snow in a year, Mt. Baker. ❄️
12/02/2023
XC Ski Day ⛷
15/12/2022
Slime molds, questionable stropharia, and alders with a spray tan 😂
December in Bainbridge, WA
25/11/2022
Licorice Fern (Polypodium glycyrrhiza)
“Here try the roots,” I told a friend, picking a plant from the moss-covered bark of a big leaf maple.
“You can eat it?” He asked surprised.
“I like to break open the roots and nibble on the parts not covered with soil. Like a bunny,” I clarified.
“Hmm it tastes sweet like licorice,” he said, with a smile.
“That’s why we call it a licorice fern,” I explained.
Licorice ferns are often found growing out of mosses on trees, logs and rocks. They have been traditionally used by Native Americans for sore throats. Think the cough drop of the time. You can read more here:
https://www2.pugetsound.edu/academics/academic-resources/slater-museum/exhibits/terrestrial-panel/licorice-fern/
31/10/2022
Bear’s head (hericium abietis)
This mushroom grows like icicles off coniferous logs. Even with snow around you can still find it! and I were IDing a plant and when we turned around Hannah spotted this beauty growing off a log! We cooked it up with butter and garlic as part of our foraging feast last night.
31/10/2022
Feeling like a queen 👑 after finding a king bolete this weekend!
King boletes or porchinis (boletus edulis) are a thick mushroom with a thick white stalk (white inside, not staining blue when cut) and a spongy underside of the cap that does NOT stain blue when bruised. The stalk is finely netted (see 3rd pic). The taste is mild and not bitter.
Cooked up and served on baguette as part of a large foraging feast with and .waite. Thx for being our resident king bolete expert 🤓
16/10/2022
Royal Basin
Olympic National Park
10/15/22
We (mostly) escaped the smoky WA weather and hiked up to the upper basin for some fall colors and alpine water. This hike challenged me to hike 19 miles with 4500 ft elevation in a day. 😅.niles even got me to try a little trail running 🏃♀️! There’s a nice camping spot by the trailhead.
09/10/2022
Mt. Ellinor
Olympic Peninsula, WA
Oct 8, 2022
I took myself on a little NatureWalk today up Mt. Ellinor. Here are some key takeaways from walking sola today. If you are hiking on a well trafficked trail, you may not be so alone after all. There is a vibrant and supportive trail community. As I passed a group of older women on the trail, they yelled out “you go girl!” with big smiles and a thumbs up. As I walked alongside two younger women, we looked out at lake cushman and chatted about other hikes in the area. When I hiked back to the wrong parking lot and had to turn around, folks on the trail noticed and asked “are you hiking it again?” 😂
Mt. Ellinor was a fun hike (despite the 4000 feet elevation in 3 miles. Ha!) From the top you have a great view of Lake Cushman from one side and endless mountain ranges on the other— including a view of Mt. Olympus (see if you can find the mountain covered with a glacier in my photos).
03/10/2022
Alpine Lakes Wilderness
Snow & Talapus & Ollalie Lakes
10/01-02/22
“Fall’s like the trees donating their clothes to goodwill 🍁 ” -Erin Heald
27/09/2022
Marmot Pass
Olympic Peninsula
9-25-2022
Fall, fungi and friends
19/09/2022
Olympic Peninsula
Buckhorn Wilderness
Mt Townsend- Silver Lakes
Sept 2022
Mirror lakes, misty ridges, mushies and .niles
12/09/2022
Olympic Nat’l Park
Heather Park - Lake Angeles
Backpacking trip featuring pink rocks, magical mountains, a smoky layer, fireweed, a noble fir, bird feathers, Lake Angeles and 2 girls barely standing after 5000 ft of elevation 😅
31/08/2022
This summer I led 9- day canoeing and backpacking trips in the north cascades for high school students. 93% of students received scholarship and a majority of the students had never been on an overnight expedition like this. Together we canoed around Ross Lake, indulged in colorful sunsets, participated in polar plunges and even danced some cumbia! “This is the closest I’ve felt to a group of people,” one student told me after an evening campfire. It was a summer I won’t forget. Big shoutout to my trip co-leader and photographer of all these amazing photos ❤️
11/08/2022
Today I hiked Cascade Pass to Sahale Glacier with my friend Vishva. Then we ran into some mountain goats on the trail and decided to give them some space. So instead we scurried down to Doubtful Lake (yes it’s really called that) to take a dip. Oh and then eat some huckleberries on the way back. Lots of huckleberries. 🐐
Lots of photos courtesy of
10/08/2022
Mt Storm King 👑
Lake Crescent, Olympic National Park
Port Angeles Sunset
Face-looking tree
05/08/2022
North Cascades & Mt. Baker
Guided a 9-day backpacking & canoeing trip 🛶 🏔
July 26- August 3 2022
Exploring & creating lil families
📸 from my amazing co
26/07/2022
Wildflowers on Sourdough
18/06/2022
Canoe & Backpacking Staff Training Trip in the North Cascades, Wa.
In summary, there was windy paddling, wicked card games, active sock drying and brain-like false morels! Excited to lead student trips here this summer! 🏔
05/06/2022
Pisgah National Forest, Pink Beds
Guided a 5-Day Backpacking Trip for HS Students with
Lessons learned
~Snails are abundant & it’s wonderful
~11th grade boys tell strange jokes
~Bears do, in fact, climb trees & take down bear bags (bear cans in bear country are 🔑 !!)
~Dollys ice cream has flavors for all the local camps 🍦
23/05/2022
Toads, tadpoles and other hidden treasures on our community nature walk today!
After months of observing & studying EE programs, it felt great to get back in the field!
19/05/2022
Morel or false morel?
As we walked through a creek bed around Mount St Helens a few weeks ago, we found a field spongy, mushroomy, beautiful… false morels ⚠️
At first glance Verpas look like half-morels, but as we split them open we noticed cotton threads in the stem, and that the caps were only attached at the very top of the stem.
These mushrooms are called early morels or verpa bohemica and are not recommended for eating. See more info from a page from David Arora’s book All the Rain Promises and More.
Fun fact: If you come back to the early morel spot ~3 weeks later you will likely find the true morel!
Mushroom hunting is always more fun with a foraging partner with 🦅 👀s
06/05/2022
UPCOMING Public Nature Hike: I am excited to offer a nature hike in Prince William Forest Park in Northern Virginia on May 22 at 10am. We will stop to talk about the trees, wildflowers, animals, waterways and mushrooms in the park (and whatever else we stumble across!)🍄. The hike will not be strenuous. It will be 2-3 hours and under 2 miles. This will be my last public walk before I head back to the west coast for the summer!
Sunday, May 22- Manassas, VA - Prince William Forest Park: 10 AM- 1 PM
Please RSVP by sending me an email at [email protected] with your name and number of people attending. I will respond with a participation form and more specifics. I will cap at about 10 people.
I want to offer this hike for free since I know sometimes it is hard to make ends meet. However, if you are in a position to make a donation, that is always appreciated to cover gas, prep & time. A suggested donation of $25/ person can be made to my venmo— or cash is always cool!
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Videos
Girl power! ⭐️ Last weekend I had so much fun guiding a group of girl scouts on a trail adventure. Here's one of my favorite team challenges. . . . Maze of Life. We had our backpacks on hand so we used those as our "stepping stones." Students could take a step forward, backward, diagonally or sidewise to try and achieve the maze pattern I had written down. Students learn from others' wrong steps in order to figure out the pattern. When one student wins, we all win as a team.
Can you find the creepy-head looking burl?! . . . Burl: tree growth caused by various factors including infections from insects, fungus, and bacteria. Compared to a tree cancer. #tree #photography #naturephotography #congareenationalpark
Did someone say candy cane scavenger hunt? Winter Wonderland Walk for Kids! Register today & share with families you know! Email me at [email protected]
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