Hunting The Elusive Mushroom: Part I

Mushroom hunting has got to be one my most favorite things to do in the fall, here in Oregon. Although some call it "mushroom picking", I prefer the "hunting" part.

Pictured here is a chanterelle. It's pretty common here in the Pacific Northwest, if you know where to look. Some people pick or hunt 'shrooms for profit. If you do that, you gotta have a permit. But we just do it for our own consumption and because we like the outdoors, and it's way more fun to hike with an objective rather than hiking just to get to the top of a hill.

My husband and I have our spots that we go back to year after year. Unfortunately, sometimes others find our "honey spots", and we have to try to beat them to it the next week.

Today and yesterday were great days for finding this wonderful delicacy. We found probably about 5 lbs yesterday, and 3 lbs today. But hunting here for the chanterelles is not always easy.

First of all, the mushroom picking season just happens to coincide with the deer hunting season. So we have to make sure that we talk really loud while we are in the woods so stupid people wont shoot us. We also wear bright clothing and our bright orange I-am-not-a-deer hats. We rarely hunt mushrooms on the weekends, because that is when most of the deer hunters are out. And I'm sure it pisses them off when we are making so much noise in the woods, trying not to get shot, that all the deer are scared away. Don't get me wrong, I love venison, but I'm only tramping around a very small part of the forest, and the deer have so much more room. Away from me. When we bring our dogs with us, we put bright colored bandannas around there necks so they don't get shot either. Unfortunately one of my dogs looks like a wolf, and another looks like a small bear. And some hunters don't care which season it is. If they see it, they will shoot it.