Big thanks go out to Elaine Moase for offering to lead a foray in her region! Between the two of us, leading up to the foray, we managed to scour Google Maps to find a spot that looked good from the satellite. Sometimes, images can be deceiving. I arrived at what I expected to be a large square grassy field – an ideal parking spot, surrounded by mixed woods. What I found was a clear-cut, accessible by a steep descent from the main road. It was overgrown with weeds. It was also located on a busy access road with gravel trucks buzzing by constantly. The surrounding woods weren’t exactly mixed either – there were pockets of mixed trees, but the majority was dense pine and spruce. Elaine showed up shortly after, and we went to work trying to make the best of it. We found one corner of the forest that looked promising and waited for attendees to arrive.

15 people made the trek to the foray. People came from Edmonton, Sylvan, Innisfail, and Calgary. Surprisingly, no one complained about my excellent parking lot. We ventured off into the woods, expecting to mostly strike out. We ended up finding a fairly decent variety of mushrooms. It was dry everywhere, but moisture was still hiding in the moss. Cheers went up when the first hericium was found. It was followed by boletes, lecinum, agaricus, russulas, etc.

After depleting the mushroom reserves at site 1, we ventured east toward Chambers Creek. Things were drier there, and mushrooms were past their prime. We did, however, find blueberries. That made up for it.  Back at the parking lot, young Thomas found an incredible number of small puffballs on the ground. Well done!