Notes:
Found by Mike Thomas. Below are some initial notes he sent me today. These photos are from the second site he mentions in the notes. He will be sending me the dried specimens along with more detailed notes shortly:

“I was able to collect one decent specimen at the spot I spoke of originally [along the shores of Paradise lake (Magalia), elevation ~3000’]. In a 100’ foot circle I located roughly 30 mushrooms. I say 30 due to it was impossible to get an actual count. It would seem the beasts of the forest have answered the call of the feast! The forest floor was literally littered with stems and pieces! As I wished not to waste your time, I decided to go else where. I tried forest that was dominated by oak and had no luck. Seems an evenly mixed forest is the way to go. I tried forest dominated by fir and no luck there as well. I finally climbed about 500’ in elevation and found 3 perfect specimens- out of 7 in a 100’ circle. So I have 4 all together. Unfortunately no buttons. We have healthy Ponderosa pine growth here, and unlike searching for ‘humps’ in fir litter, the ability to distinguish ‘humps’ in Ponderosa litter is greatly diminished. Not to mention the extraordinary amount of gophers we seem to have this year that seem to exist for the soul purpose of frustrating persons such as myself. I knew buttons would be tough to find… Sorry. Oh, one more thing… The smell: None of these had a distinct smell at all. I had three other people smell these and only one claimed a ‘slight’ fishy smell. I personally smelled a very slight wet duff smell. If it was to smell of fish, then it was very fresh fish. ;) This includes many of the ones I left behind of even not so great of shape.”