Love a Happy Ending Lifestyle Magazine August 2013 | Page 14

MUSHROOMING ON VANCOUVER ISLAND
Anneli Purchase lives on
Vancouver Island, which is
the largest Pacific island
east of New Zealand
One of the most pleasant
ways to get exercise is to
be out in the woods
climbing over and under
sticks, branches, and fallen
logs. You don’t agree? You
wonder why I wouldn’t
rather follow a smooth manmade path through a park?
It’s a classic case of “The
end justifies the means.”
The elusive chanterelle
mushroom is worth it all.
Many years ago, my friends
took me out into the forest
and showed me what a
chanterelle looked like and
more importantly, what it did not look like. It was peaceful in the woods. On the spongy moss
of the forest floor I looked carefully at everything around me not wanting to miss finding
these aromatic peach-coloured mushrooms. In my search, I noticed things I would otherwise
have missed. An abandoned grouse nest with several broken eggs lay forgotten at the base
of a tree. Squirrels scolded me as they scampered along fallen logs and up tree trunks.
Beautiful varieties of poisonous mushrooms tempted me to pick them, but I knew not to
touch them. Two lonely huckleberries were left on a bush. Who could have browsed the
rest? A black bear? In spite of my ursaphobia I was hooked on mushrooming and went back
into the woods many times after my friends introduced me to this hobby.

There are other creatures in the woods besides mushroom pickers. I’ve seen wolf sign on
the logging roads. And there is always the possibility of seeing a cougar, especially if you
have a small dog along to tempt the cat, but in the many years I’ve spent mushrooming, I’ve