Jun. 2—CHATFIELD, Minn. — Recreating coral shapes using yarn put Lydia Hansen on a path to learning mycology, the study of fungi.

That interest is now literally along a Minnesota hiking path.

Hansen, a fiber artist, installed her latest works, crochet replicas of Minnesota mushrooms, along the Lost Creek Hiking Trail in Fillmore County near Chatfield, Minnesota.

She was installing a recreation of a false turkey tail mushroom onto a standing dead evergreen tree Sunday, June 2, 2024. Hansen wanted the piece at eye height or a bit higher. After securing some of the 12 items that make up the piece, Hansen was in over her head — the piece was too high for her to staple without help.

She beckoned for one of her installation assistants, her brother, Levi Hansen.

“It’s part of why I brought you — you’re tall,” she said.

“I feel so appreciated,” Levi said.

Her brothers Levi and Jonah Hansen and her friend Odin Simon hiked with her to install the Lost Creek Fungi Hunt pieces Sunday.

A real turkey tail mushroom would grow on a similar dead evergreen. Using dead trees, longs and stumps doesn’t hurt any of the living trees. She also installed each of the mushrooms on or approximately at places people would encounter them in the wild.

“I’m keeping it as accurate as I can with my limited knowledge,” she said.

Where she could, Hansen installed most of the mushrooms a bit higher on standing trees for visibility and to keep the mushrooms out of the elements. The pieces are made of yarn, wire and sometimes fiber fill. The art and wooden interpretation signs that identify the mushrooms will be on display along the trail for a full year. Hansen said she surveyed the trail for spots where the pieces would be visible and not easily covered up by snow, falling leaves or wildlife.

A few, for accuracy, needed to be on the ground. Hansen created crochet puffball mushrooms. Although the pair of light gray spheres seem simple, they were the hardest to make in part because they are found on the ground and more susceptible to the elements.

“I can’t do Minnesota mushrooms and not have puffballs,” she said.

She made small “feet” she used to screw them into a stump. The inside is sculpted styrofoam she found on the Buy Nothing Rochester Facebook group.

“I needed something that wouldn’t mold,” she said.

One of the easiest pieces was the curly, textured chicken of the woods.

Hansen produced the colorful piece from a backpack. It is one continuous piece that Hansen folds back on itself. The abstract shape is a similar pattern she uses for coral and for tactile yarn sculptures, she said. The abstract shape of the mushroom played into building the piece, Hansen said.

“It actually makes it easier to make because I don’t have to worry about symmetry,” she said.

Hansen stumbled upon her techniques replicating fungi. She found her pieces look even better with context in their natural environment. She has made indoor pieces using logs and lumber.

“I like them even better when I see them in situ,” Hansen said. “When they’re component parts, you’ve got to just trust the process and know it will turn out.”

Hansen said she’s curious how the pieces will weather all four Minnesota seasons. Hikers on the 10-mile bluff hiking trail will have a chance to see them first hand through June 2025.

The Bluff Country Hiking Club, the Fillmore County Historical Society, Tim Gossman and Bill Bailey helped fund the project.