Salmon River / Lemhi

**Salmon River/Lemhi is dialed in for true morels right now—you're in the narrow window where soil temp and sustained moisture align perfectly.** True morels are firing at high viability because soil has held 50°F+ for five consecutive days paired with consistent VWC around 0.26; this is textbook morel emergence weather. Spring kings, red-belted conks, and false morels are waking up but haven't yet pushed primordia—they're 7–10 days behind the morels and will explode once soil hits 55°F steady, which is imminent at this elevation given the warming trend. The limiting factor is desiccation: you've only pulled 0.6" rain in the last week, and with no SWE buffer at this elevation, you're burning down moisture fast. Chaga and birch polypore are technically viable but soil temp is still 4°F below their sweet spot. Watch the next 48 hours closely—if you get another 0.3–0.5" of precipitation, you'll extend the morel window and kickstart the secondary species simultaneously. If it stays dry, morels will peak and crater within 5–7 days. **Hot tip:** Hunt north-facing slopes and shaded drainages where soil stays coolest and moisture lingers longest; you'll find morels pushing later and in greater density there while south aspects dry out.

Generated by Claude (Anthropic) from the structured weather, soil, and phenology data on this page. The LLM can misread edge cases — treat this as a starting hypothesis, not a guarantee. Always verify conditions on the ground before committing to a long drive.