Mush-run/walk at Tendong Hill Namchi

We love walking around looking/hunting for mushrooms, our friends who join us in our mush-hunts also seem to enjoy it more and more every time we do it. We have been fortunate to be part of some trail running events where we get to experience the best of both worlds, running and mushroom hunting.

One such memorable and unforgettable run we had the pleasure of taking part in was the Tendong Hill 10km trail run. This run was a mixed, road and trail run and we couldn't be more excited about it. We started the run from Chemchey, the Indian Himalayan Center for Adventure and Eco-Tourism was the start point and the run ended at the top of Tendong Hill.

It was a cold and rainy morning as we left from Namchi in the wee hours towards Chemchey, we had several people in the group from Gangtok including some first time runners. The buzz was all about a mushrun and not a trail run, at least among our group anyway.

It was our first time visiting Tendong Hill, so we were both very excited to see what mushrooms we would meet on our way to the top. We had already decided to take it slow and easy towards the top and spend maximum time in the forest.

The trail was beautiful and right at the start we were greeted with some mush friends. We found a total of 65 species of mushrooms on the short hike from the start of the hike to Tendong Hill till the top. We couldn't contain our excitement in the jungle and while others were running up in a race to get to the top, we were frolicking in the forest meeting mushrooms we hadn't met before. Very soon this contagious energy spread to the other runners who were passing us by on the trail too. They were perplexed and surprised as to why we were picking and clicking all these mushrooms. By the mid way point of the trail, four or five of us all had mushrooms in our hands. Our little group had managed to capture the interest of every runner who passed us by and they all wanted to know what we would do with the mushrooms we collected.

We were all busy taking photos and calling out to each other with the names of different mushrooms. Some of the mushrooms we found that day are:

?     Cat's tongue mushroom -Pesudohydnumgelatinosum

?     Chicken of the woods -Laetiporous Sulphureus

?     Reishi -Ganoderma species

?     Many species of boletes

?     Several species of Russulae

?     A few species of Amanita

?     Some entomopathogenic Fungi which also included cordyceps species

?     Some species of milky mushrooms

?     A lot of little brown mushrooms which are exactly that, little brown mushrooms that are hard to identify unless you have a fair amount of knowledge about fungi.

?     Several polypores which included the reishi and the chicken of the woods

?     And a whole bunch of mushrooms that we were unable to identify.

The entire time, on the way down, we met runners who were taken aback by the sheer number of mushrooms we were carrying down with us. We had to stop several times on the way down to pick and identify some more mushrooms. Needless to say, we had the most fun among all the participants of this run and our enthusiasm soon spread to everyone who was passing us by. Our group of friends thoroughly enjoyed this run and their interest and knowledge about mushrooms was also greatly boosted by this experience.

We were among the last runners to finish that race and descend from the top of Tendong Hill, carrying mushrooms in each of our hands and in our bags and in the little boxes we had managed to carry on the way up. We managed to collect more than fifty species of mushrooms, several mushrooms we had never met before and some we weren't even able to identify to the species level. It was one of our best trail running/mush running experiences and we hope that you enjoyed reading about it too. 

PS: We don't encourage anyone to consume any mushrooms without proper verification, we are learners ourselves and consider ourselves beginners when it comes to mushroom identification. Never ever eat a wild mushroom without experts verifying the identification of the mushroom. Edible mushrooms have lookalikes which can be deadly toxic if consumed. We don't forage to consume, just here to learn more about nature.

Mushrooms of Sikkim is a team of two people, Bharati Gurung and Pramod Hingmang. We are simply nature enthusiasts and claim no expertise on the subject of mycology.