My Super Secret Mushroom Spots

We're moving so here are my fall mushroom spots for you to enjoy. Remember to be respectful and limit your mushroom foraging to legal limits. I advise you to not forage alone because bears, cougars, and dangerous terrain. And don't eat anything you haven't positively ID'd from people who know more than you. I recommend the Facebook groups https://www.facebook.com/groups/426474384203464 and https://www.facebook.com/groups/352940311570379 which are run by actual mycologists who will be happy to ID anything you find. You can also join OMS https://www.wildmushrooms.org. That's how I did it.

1. Lobster mushrooms by Elk Flats Trail-Starts late August. 45°45'10.0"N 123°57'52.0"W. It's the slope clearing area. There's a ton all over. Look for orange. Look in the undergrowth. The backside of the hill has a bunch. Mind your feet the closer to the ocean you go-there is a hidden drop into water that will kill you.

2. White chanterelles by McClellan Meadows Sno-Park- September till November. 46°00'31.0"N 121°54'25.6"W. Park in the lot and walk across the street to the trail. Walk about 10-15 minutes and go left into the woods and between there and the top of the hill you'll find a lot of white chants. We've also found a few cauliflower and matsutake and a couple yellow chants but it's mainly whites. There's a ton. Avoid the common lookalike scaly chanterelle and it's explosive diarrhea. Danger: Until they hibernate or die end of September there are dozens of ground hornet nests. You will hear them. You don't want to see them. If you do walk the other way quickly.

Bedshitters: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/417398-Turbinellus-floccosus

3. Chants, matsutake, lobster, cow, cauliflower-Curly Creek Falls Trailhead. Late September till December. 46°03'38.5"N 121°58'21.3"W. Park in the lot and start looking around the trail and the bathroom: you'll find white chants and later in the season matsutake. About 15 feet past the trailhead there's a little empty patch of forest on the right-start walking that way and look for white chants and lobsters and matsutake. Keep going until you hit a medium clearing on a small hill. Check that area for yellow chants and lobsters. Go to the trail, make a right and continue walking while looking for yellow chants and lobsters, and later in the season matsutake. The trail goes downwards-be careful it's a little steep. On the right side of the trail/hill there will be chants or matsutake or lobsters. Continue down the trail till it's flat. There will be a ton of lobsters and yellow chants on both sides of the trail but mainly on the right side. Don't go too far left of the trail bc it's a drop into the river. Stay on the trail for a while and then return same way.

Later in the season: At some point go up the hill till it's flat. If you've gone the right amount it should be a bunch of old pines. There will be some white chants and an enormous amount of matsutake. Also sometimes there are violet chanterelles hidden in the undergrowth. After you head up the hill walk right-it will lead you back to the original trail in 20ish minutes of constant walking. DANGER: Matsutake have two lookalikes and one can kill you. Make sure you identify them correctly. The poisonous amanita is all white and kinda snowy looking and it comes off on your hands like a sticky powder. Matsutake can smell like cinnamon or gym socks and honestly they look nothing at all like the poisonous ones but people are dumb and eat them. https://100mushroomsonvancouverisland.blogspot.com/2015/10/matsutake-and-its-look-likes.html

Food-https://www.mushroom-appreciation.com/american-matsutake.html

Death-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_smithiana

Meh food-https://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Catathelasma_ventricosum.html

Have fun, don't die, bring a knife, and remember don't hunt alone bc it's scary.