Here’s how I actually use Forayz during fall mushroom season, from scouting in the days before a trip to the walk back to the car. None of this tells you where the mushrooms are. What it does is help you pick a place where conditions and habitat may be suitable… and accessible, so the hours you spend walking count for more.
Everything below works on the web map and in the iOS and Android apps, except offline downloads and saved waypoints and tracks, which are in the apps.
1. Scouting
Fall mushrooms wait on rain. Before I pick a destination, I open the environmental layers and flip through them for the area I’m thinking about:
- Precipitation: has this place had a real soaking recently, or did the storm miss it?
- Soil Moisture: rain on dry ground can soak in without changing much. Avoid areas that are still very dry.
- Soil Temperature: worth watching late in the season, as the high country cools off.
- Hard Freezes: how many nights each area has dropped to 28°F or colder since Oct 1. By late fall, it’s helpful to avoid areas that have already frozen. (New this fall, on the web map and Android now, and on iPhone with the next app update.)
- Snow Coverage: check this before driving to a high trailhead.
The environmental layers show one at a time, so turn one on, look, and switch to the next. Two neighboring valleys can look very different after the same storm.
2. Hunt by tree
Most of the fall mushrooms people want grow with particular trees, so the trees are the best place to start. The Pacific golden chanterelle grows with Douglas-fir and western hemlock, especially in younger to middle-aged forest, and it is much more common west of the Cascade crest. Turn on the Tree Species layer, pick Douglas-fir, and you can see where it grows densely and where it thins out.
You can also tap any spot on the map to see the most common trees there. On my Duckabush trip in August, when I checked the map, the stretch where the mushrooms picked up was right where we’d walked into older silver fir.
For matsutake (pine mushroom) there is a separate Matsutake Habitat layer. It is experimental: it shows where the fungus may live, not where it is fruiting this week. And it is not an identification aid. The deadly Smith’s amanita grows in the same habitat, at the same time of year. Read How to Identify Matsutake and consult with an expert before trusting your own identification skills on this one.
3. Know whose land you’re on
The Public Access Lands layer shows federal, state and local public land. Rules for picking mushrooms differ between national forests, state land, parks and private timberland, and some places need a permit or close areas to harvest. Check the land manager’s rules before you pick.
While you’re there, turn on Forest Roads and Trails. These can help you find less commonly traveled roads away from high traffic trailheads. Suitability and accessibility can vary. For example many forest service roads might be blocked, or could have rough sections difficult for low-clearance vehicles. Some of these minor forest service roads are excellent for travel by foot, and popping in/out of the forest where it looks promising.
4. Download before you lose signal
Cell service can be spotty or non-existent in the best foraging areas. Before you leave home, download the area you’re heading to in the Forayz app so you still have terrain, trails, and other useful data while offline. I also keep a second offline map app on my phone for redundancy. Maps.me for example can give you a full state of offline map data and can even be used for offline directions when you’re trying to decide how to get back to civilization through the web of forest service roads.
5. Mark your spots
When you find something, drop a waypoint and maybe even a short note that you can update over time as you return to the same spot. I add a new line with the date so that I can remember years I might have come out a little too early, or recent conditions preceding a bumper crop. You can also record a track of the whole walk. Tap a waypoint later and you’ll see the current conditions and habitat for that exact spot.
Organize saves into folders, give tracks their own colors, and hide what you don’t need on screen. Show/hide folders as you need them to keep your screen tidy. My map is just one big collection of pins… but you might like to keep things more organized.
6. Check what’s typically fruiting nearby
Tap a town or mountain pass marker to see its fruiting calendar: which species typically fruit in the general area, month by month, alongside the current conditions there. It’s a quick way to see what’s usually up near a place this time of year, and it’s useful for learning the seasonality of new areas.
What’s free and what’s Pro
Free:
Pro adds:
Open the Forayz map, or get the app for iPhone or Android. If you’d rather watch than read, there’s a video walkthrough of the layers from this spring.
Spot something on the map that doesn’t match what you see on the ground? In the app, go to Account and tap Report an Error.
Get the data serious foragers use to find more mushrooms
Free members get soil conditions, the past week of rain, snow, smoke and historical burns. Pro unlocks the layers that help you narrow down exactly where to look.
- Newest burn years, managed burns & burn severity
- Tree species maps (22 species) & timber harvests
- Town and mountain pass fruiting calendars with current conditions
- Offline map downloads in the iOS & Android apps
- 14- and 30-day rainfall windows
- Soil temperature & moisture at full zoom
