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Follow your nose to find fall fungi By Mark Freeman Nov 11, 2022 01:00 AM A A A chanterelle mushroom is cleaned near Fish Lake. [Mail Tribune file photo] PROSPECT — A successful fall hunt for chanterelle mushrooms doesn’t start on the snowy forest floor. It starts on the dirt road through the forest, with Brian Winkler hanging his head out of my slow-moving pickup sensing that sweet, apricot-like aroma of the golden fungi we seek to mine. Winkler is sniffing the air like a Labrador. His ears would be bouncing in the breeze if they were long enough. It’s all I can do to keep from saying, “You’re such a good boy” and scratching his nape while trying to coax a fresh mushroom hit out of him. “Yup,” Winkler says between sniffs. “I smell them. They’re here.” I pull the pickup into a turnout, and Winkler bounds through the snow-shrouded duff, bag and knife in hand. Two minutes later, he emerges with a fine golden specimen, preserved in snow. “We’re here,” he says. The fall chanterelle hunt is as steeped in the south Cascades as the simultaneous Roosevelt elk hunts for rifle hunters, yet one great difference is clear: Those with a good nose know they’ll be successful finding fungi. Following your olfactories is a key component to turning a fall chanterelle hunt into more than just a long day bushwhacking through the woods. The forest duff and tree canopies that are chanterelles’ preferred habitats are everywhere on public lands in the south Cascades, so narrowing down just where to hunt often is the key to spending more time collecting mushrooms than searching for them. Chanterelles thrive in the deep duff of old-growth Doug fir forests, but they also can pop up in logged areas, on game trails or at the edges of pastures. Because of their vase-like shape, golden color and lack of gills, they are easy to identify if you know what you’re looking for. Most are yellow with smooth caps — except for cream-colored white chanterelles — making them relatively easy to differentiate from such lookalikes as scaly and woolly chanterelles, which have scaly or fuzzy caps. To find chanterelles, look for specks of gold pushing through the forest floor. Gently pull back the duff and find your prize. Often chanterelles literally come up underfoot, with an accidental drag of a heel exposing the fungus. In the Cascades, chanterelles commonly are found from about 4,000 feet above sea level to as high as 6,000 feet. They start popping up first at higher elevations and work their way down later in the season. The hunt in the Cascades doesn’t really end until snowfall covers them. Chanterelles also are prevalent in coastal forests and, in some areas, can be found within earshot of the surf. For Winkler, it’s more a case of following his nose. He’s picked chanterelles for well over a decade, and over time he has acquired an aromatic relationship with the fungi. “If you had to take a handful of dried apricots and mix them with a pine forest, that’s what it smells like,” Winkler says. “And I'm hoping my nose doesn't deceive me here because I think I smell some.” While most mushroom hunters carry baskets to keep from bruising their quarry, Winkler hunts with a cloth bag that he keeps closed so the picked chanterelles don’t throw off a false scent. Winkler discovers two more chanterelles and carefully cuts them at the stem to leave the roots to fruit again. Chanterelle hunting can be a bit hard when the big-leaf maple trees all shed their leaves, many of which are colored similarly to chanterelles. It’s distinctly tougher once the snow falls, so this could be our last shot of the season. A small cluster of bright chanterelles poke through the snow, and they become fruity booty for Winkler’s bag. “That's the one thing about these things, you know; they can take a pretty hard freeze and still be in good shape,” Winkler says. “They look good, though. “'I’m guessing those have it up for a week or so,” he says. They've had a good frost on them two or three times. “I think this one's going to have to go home and meet its demise in a frying pan of butter,” he says. Reach Mail Tribune reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected]