🥾 Guides: Angel & Andrea
📅 Date: Saturday, February 21, 2026
⏰ Time: 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
📍Location: Shield Ranch
🎟️ Cost: $15 adults, $7 youth
Recommended for ages 8+
🌟 Calling all nature lovers, fungi enthusiasts, and curious adventurers! Join us for an unforgettable mushrooms hike at Shield Ranch to search for mushrooms including our state mushroom, the extraordinary Texas Star Mushroom, also known as the Devil’s Cigar (Chorioactis geaster).
This unique mushroom is a true Lone Star State treasure, found in only a handful of places worldwide—Japan, Taiwan, and right here in Texas. Known for its dramatic “hissing” sound as it opens to release its spores, this fascinating fungi is as rare as it is mysterious.
🎥 Watch the magic in action and see why this mushroom has inspired our organization's logo!
🌳 Lace up your hiking boots, grab your curiosity, and join us for a fun and educational outdoor adventure. Don't miss this chance to explore local ecosystems and experience one of nature's rarest wonders up close!
Guided walk on 2 miles of ecologically diverse and thoughtfully designed trails on Shield Ranch, a 6,600-acre protected wildland. Trails have no or minor elevation change and are well maintained, with uneven terrain.
Introduction to the importance and connections of fungi in our ecosystems.
What to bring:
Water
Camera if desired
Walking Stick (to help move leaves)
Good hiking shoes, raincoat.
About Sheild Ranch and Wild for Good
The Fungi Walk is hosted by the Shield Ranch Foundation. By attending a program or reserving the Campsite, you help support El Ranchito scholarships, conservation efforts, and provide access for small nonprofits to use the Campsite.
See the Texas Star Mushroom hiss at Inks Lake!
Angel with the an Eastern North American Destroying Angel or Amanita bisporigera
About The Guides
Angel Schatz: I grew up in Missouri with ten siblings, and the first mushroom I ever learned was fittingly the Destroying Angel. It was my introduction to how powerful and mysterious fungi can be.
Before CTMS, I worked as an experience designer and animator in the tech world but eventually, I left that world to plug into a very different kind of network: the earth’s internet, mycelium. Now I’m a forager, urban gardener, and mycology educator.
Through CTMS, I get to share my passion for the ecosystems of Central Texas and help people connect to the fungal kingdom in ways that are joyful, practical, and community-powered. Whether we’re growing mushrooms from recycled blocks or helping trees survive drought through mycorrhizal fungi—we’re building soil and solidarity.
FOLLOW Angel is the Executive Director. See my Tiny Talk