Major support for Oregon Field Guide is provided by... [ ♪♪♪ ] MAN: My rappel!

MAN: Oh, my gosh, it's beautiful.

MAN: Good morning, everybody.

Woo!

Let's do it again!

MAN: Nicely done!

MAN: Oh, yeah!

Fourteen and a half.

Yes, that was awesome!

[ people cheering ] There you go, up, up... ED JAHN: Tonight on Oregon Field Guide: There is nothing appealing about the name slime mold.

WOMAN: Oh, yeah!

But don't let the name fool you.

Then, it's a photo essay made for the love of lava.

But first... WOMAN: Oh, my God.

Yeah, this is kind of scary.

...meet two women who are opening up the world of bicycling to everyone.

[ laughing ] We start our show with a question: What does an Oregon bicyclist look like?

Seriously, now think about it for a minute.

Now get that image out of your mind, because our stereotypes are all wrong.

I'm Kailey Kornhauser.

I'm a PhD student at Oregon State University.

When I moved away to college, I was friends with a lot of people who rode bikes, and I thought that I had to look like them and bike like them to be a "biker," like, to be a cyclist.

And then I started seeing these online communities like Unlikely Hikers and Fat Girls Hiking, and I was like, "Well, what the heck, maybe I don't have to approach this as a way to change my body, I can just approach it as, like, a thing a like doing."

And then I came across Marley, another fat woman who rides bikes.

It's a lot of stuff.

And we were like, "What if we did that in biking?"

KAILEY: All right, ready?

MARLEY: Yeah.

I love starting with, like, a gradual downhill.

Yeah.

I don't think I've ever done this.

I usually start with a gentle climb.

I know!

So All Bodies On Bikes is Kailey and I's idea that all people, regardless of what size body you're in or age or gender or ability level should be able to enjoy riding a bicycle.

This is so cool!

Ooh, fun!

Oh, my gosh!

MARLEY: This is a big movement.

You know, like 60 percent of women wear over a size 14.

There's just so much possibility there.

KAILEY: This is Frog Leg Loop.

It's a 40-mile loop around Timothy, Clear Lake, Little Crater Lake, and Frog Lake.

The first day is mostly downhill.

Ooh, this is a little bit spicy.

The route total's a little under 4,000 feet of climbing.

I mean, I think I can make it to that first little tree.

Let's try it.

[ laughs ] Oh, dang!

All right, I'm off.

Sometimes when I'm doing things like this, I like to pretend like I'm an ox, you know, on the Oregon Trail.

Yeah.

MARLEY: Just like getting my family to safety.

[ chuckles ] Your ox family or your people family?

My people family.

There we go, we did it.

KAILEY: So gravel biking is, you know, really just riding your bike on a dirt road, but it's become a whole genre of biking.

[ singing Florence and the Machine's "Dog Days"] But really it's about riding next to people.

For me, at least, that's what I love about it.

Oh, it is a tunnel.

Look at that.

This is cool.

[ chuckles ] Whoa!

MARLEY: Oh, my God.

Yeah, this is kind of scary.

KAILEY: I took my sunglasses off.

[ Kailey chuckles ] KAILEY: A huge other part of our work in biking is really, like, Instagram influencing, as silly as that sounds to say.

We're all about getting all sorts of bodies onto bicycles.

Oh, and do you all train or...?

MARLEY: No.

You just go out and do it.

[ Marley & Kailey laugh ] So it's painful!

MARLEY: Look up All Bodies On Bikes.

It's the most positive, welcoming community ever.

MAN: We decided to just check out Little Crater Lake with my family.

Lo and behold, I saw them.

I was like, "Oh, it's All Bodies On Bikes."

So, yeah, and I follow them on IG.

Big fan.

You're a fan, right, Ellie?

You're a fan.

[ all laughing ] I just like the body positivity and just the inclusiveness.

What's your Instagram handle?

KAILEY: It's one of the ways that I got really into biking, is seeing photos of people that looked really cool in a really amazing place.

One, two, three.

Boop.

But there were no fat people.

There were also no people of color, there were no queer people.

It was really this, you know, the straight, you know, smaller-bodied white men that I was looking at and aspiring to be.

So now there's just so many more people that you can aspire to be.

[ laughs ] And I think, you know, as much as there are some negative sides of social media and influencing, there are some positives.

MARLEY: A big part of being an influencer is just sharing our experiences.

So, like, brands pay me and give us product to then promote on our social media channels.

I only partner with companies that I know, but also, like, they need to hold the same values that I hold.

I get companies asking me to promote their product or be an ambassador, and I'm like, "You don't even make an extra large."

Like, why would I promote you?

And I'm always trying to push those brands to do more and to be more inclusive.

We did it!

It's beautiful.

The mountain is a little underwhelming.

MARLEY: The mountain is underwhelming, but all of this is beautiful.

I'm ready for dinner and the tent.

[ crickets chirping ] [ birds chirping ] KAILEY: This is Timothy Lake, the bike and hiking trail around the lake.

Heading out to Meditation Point.

[ panting ] MARLEY: Being on the bike is almost like a meditative state where I can just be who I am.

There was some drug and alcohol abuse in my family.

There's almost some mental illness in my family.

So I've had depression and anxiety since I was a teenager.

This is pretty awesome.

I think finding the bicycle, getting medication has really changed my life.

KAILEY: You know, there's all these barriers that limit people's access to biking.

For me, like, the mental barrier of no matter how much I bike, I will typically be the slowest person.

Oh!

MARLEY: Need help?

Got it.

Thank you.

MARLEY: You know, I've been left behind so many times, and it's like, nobody wants to be left out.

And I just always felt like I was the one who was left out.

And so I feel like now that I'm in a position of relative power... Hi, friends!

Hi!

...I can make sure that doesn't happen to anyone else.

So, thank you all for coming to the All Bodies On Bikes ride.

So we started leading rides, and people were onboard with, like, a no-drop ride.

Going on group rides can be really freakin' scary and intimidating, and it doesn't have to be.

A no-drop ride is where nobody gets left behind on a group ride.

We're going to take care of each other out there.

Basically, you intentionally have somebody called a sweeper at the back who makes sure that everyone gets where they're going.

Great, let's ride bikes!

And we just had a really, really great ride.

We had like 60 people show up of all sorts of ages, and it was...

I just feel so happy about it.

[ breathing heavily ] KAILEY: Luckily, it's not too steep, but it is a long climb.

Most of that happens on the second day.

MARLEY: Yeah, we're chugging up this hill.

There was a couple other bikepackers coming down, and there were pleasantries of, "Hey, have a great trip!"

WOMAN: Hey, wait a minute, you're-- And then they like slammed on their brakes, was like, "Whoa, you're-- You're--" All Bodies on Bikes!

Yay!

You guys are celebrities.

You guys are awesome!

KAILEY: Were you prepped to say that?

[ all laugh ] It was actually really cool.

I didn't ever expect to meet them.

You don't get to meet movie stars every day.

[ Kailey laughs ] [ ♪♪♪ ] KAILEY: A film crew followed us from Corvallis to the coast on a bikepacking trip.

It was just so cool to, like, share that experience.

♪ I see the city In the mornin'... ♪ MARLEY: There's a scene where, you know, I take off my dress and jump into the ocean, and the first time I saw that, I hated it so much.

I'd never seen my body like that before.

And now, I don't know, I have underwear companies being like, "Hey, will you model for us?"

I'm like, "Yeah, great, let's do it."

Like, it's empowering.

And now it's like I can't stop getting naked on camera.

Like... [ laughs ] It's wild.

That's awesome.

Seriously, your guys' movie was, like, ridiculously inspirational.

There might've been tears.

There were tears.

I just got signed to Pearl Izumi as, like, a professional athlete.

Yeah!

Yeah, so... Yeah.

KAILEY: It's interesting.

Like, I had for so long felt ashamed about my body size or it was something I was trying to change about myself, you know?

We should have like six miles left.

Sweet.

Getting there.

But from the moment I started writing about myself as a fat person, something changed in me, and people really resonated with it.

It definitely solidified in my head, like, okay, that was the right thing, to start, like, loving myself, because it turns out a lot of people like this version of me better than the one who was trying to make myself smaller.

[ laughing ] MARLEY: I quit my corporate job a couple weeks ago, and now I'm doing this, which... What is this?

Good question.

[ laughs ] Wow!

I have ideas and I have potential.

We did it!

I'm just excited for where this could go.

Wow, what a view.

And it makes me feel like we're on the right path.

[ both laugh ] [ ♪♪♪ ] [ birds chirping ] There's something strange that grows in the Northwest forests.

It comes in bright colors, but it's not a plant.

It releases spores, but it's not a fungus.

It can move, but it's not an animal.

It can be hard to find, but chances are, you've probably seen one before.

Can you guess what it is?

Here's a hint: it has a really unappealing name.

I want to introduce you to two fascinating individuals.

This is Kelly Brenner, a writer from Seattle.

They can pop up anywhere almost overnight.

And this is Crow Vecchio, a volunteer ranger at Mount Rainier National Park.

Never overlook any piece of rotting wood.

They're not formally accredited scientists, but rather naturalists in the classic sense.

Nope, nothing there.

Their curiosity of the natural world inspires them to explore, observe, record, and share their findings.

Nope.

Nobody home.

And though they work individually and have never met, they are on a similar hunt.

I think that is just fungus.

They share a common obsession... What have we got here?

...for an obscure and overlooked organism...

This is good.

Oh, yeah, there we go!

...slime mold.

[ footsteps approaching ] People walk past me on the trail, and they just-- Once they see the camera, they mostly ignore me.

Hi.

Hello.

Most of the time when I'm in the forest and somebody says, "What are you doing, looking for mushrooms?"

I'm like, "No, I'm looking for slime molds."

"Okay, bye."

[ laughs ] WOMAN: What are you filming?

Slime molds.

Ah, okay.

[ both laugh ] Nobody ever stops to ask, "What's a slime mold?"

I don't know why.

Anytime I'm out in the woods, I have my eye tuned, looking for a slime mold.

Anyone who has hiked in the Northwest has seen a slime mold but likely didn't know what they were looking at.

Some look like tiny balls of fungus on rotting logs or strange patches of gooey orange globs.

Some look like fuzzy white mold, and some are a slimy bright yellow blow, descriptively nicknamed "dog vomit."

Everybody should go hunting for dog vomit.

Slime molds have a PR problem, because, for one, they're called slime molds, and that's not appealing.

And it's not representative of how beautiful they really are.

The sporangia, the fruiting bodies, are absolutely gorgeous, just gorgeous.

I mean, they are so stunningly beautiful that there's iridescent, there's like the cotton-candy pink ones, there are some that look like champagne flutes with fireworks in them.

When you look closer and closer and closer, and the closer you get, the more it reveals and the more spectacular they are.

Okay, with the hand lens, you can actually observe the openings of the tips of the tubes, which is where they emit the spores.

KELLY: The orbs on this one on the top of these skinny stalks, a lot of them nod like they're tired.

Slime molds are decomposers of the forest.

Often found on rotting logs, they're commonly mistaken for fungus.

CROW: It's interesting to note that slime molds were originally believed to be fungal, but they do things that fungi don't do.

They move.

When we learned that slime molds move, we had to see this for ourselves.

[ ♪♪♪ ] We ordered a slime mold kit online and set up our cameras for a time lapse.

The yellow is a sample of living slime molds.

Next to them are oats, one of their favorite foods.

When one of them finds a tasty little bit of bacteria, it sends out a chemical signal, and others of its kind that are in the area, they congregate and they consume whatever that food source is.

Somehow, without a brain, they can contract or expand the cell membrane so that it forces the cytoplasm forward or in retreat.

Somehow that action gets coded into their genetics so that they can actually remember where a food source is.

They can also remember what time they were fed in the lab.

If you feed them, say, at 2:00 in the afternoon, give them an oat, keep doing this for two weeks, then one day, don't give them the oat at 2:00.

Guess what?

They're gonna still show up, because they're expecting their lunch.

And that's for real.

How can it do that without a brain?

KELLY: Just looking with bare eye, they might all look the same.

But once you look under the microscope, it really reveals a lot of differences.

And this is also the best way to learn to identify the species, because some of them are so similar that the only way to distinguish them is by looking at their spores.

It's a microscopic time.

It's like a whole different world.

I leave this world behind, and living in that little, tiny world, it's like going to another universe.

More than 900 species of slime molds have been discovered.

They can be found all over the earth, including deserts and in the arctic.

They are one of the planet's oldest living organisms, dating back to the time of the dinosaurs.

They first appeared in scientific literature in the 1700s, yet 300 years later, very little is known about them and very few people study them.

Locally, I don't know hardly anybody who, you know, goes out to look for slime molds, so it's not like I have a friend I call up, "Hey, let's go on a slime mold date."

When Kelly wanted to learn more about slime molds, she searched for a collection in an herbarium.

The closest that she could find was in Canada, so she started a collection of her own.

I'm here in the Northwest with my slime mold collection because nobody else has one.

[ chuckles ] So I have two drawers of this size, and I had to get another cabinet in my closet and start new drawers.

I've probably got about this many four times over.

I would guess my collection is roughly in the 200-500 range.

Thereabouts, maybe.

[ chuckles ] For now.

And counting.

But there's not a lot of people collecting slime molds in the whole world, actually.

One of Kelly's inspirations and role models was a British naturalist in the 1800s.

Gulielma Lister and her father published the first definitive book on slime molds, which she illustrated herself.

The description of hundreds of species, and then just, you know, art of all of these species that she illustrated, and I...

It's so many!

Ms. Lister was an amateur and not a professional scientist.

From Lister's time to today, it has been passionate amateur naturalists, often working in isolation... Oh, my goodness.

...who've taken it upon themselves to champion the little-known and underappreciated slime mold.

CROW: I am not a slime mold expert.

I'm a slime mold hobbyist.

I don't have any credentials.

The only college I have was audited courses because I grew up in poverty.

I have found in the park that people appreciate the knowledge that I have gleaned on my own.

I have found people that appreciate me, so I think slime molds need to be appreciated.

You know, they're underappreciated.

KELLY: So I am definitely, like, reclusive and I love to hide in the forest and I love to be unobserved.

And maybe I have an inner beauty, I don't know, but I love just the weird quirkiness of slime molds.

It's also why I love things like lichens or nudabranchs, because they're just kind of weird and quirky and overlooked, vastly overlooked.

I can relate to that.

I can relate to the organisms that people don't care about.

It's like a personal thing, like, heh, bringing awareness to something that's been overlooked that is deserving of attention is just something that I feel strongly about.

I mean, slime molds... yeah, they deserve attention.

[ chuckles ] Look at these guys!

They're cool!

How cool can you get?

You're orange, you live in the woods, you're structurally absolutely beautiful.

What's not to like about a slime mold?

[ ♪♪♪ ] [ ♪♪♪ ] [ wind whistling ] [ ♪♪♪ ] [ ♪♪♪ ] You can now find many Oregon Field Guide stories and episodes online.

And to be part of the conversation about the outdoors and environment here in the Northwest, join us on Facebook.

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