We’ve all been there, we see the perfect Chaga mushroom, dark and crusty, we can already feel the taste of its tea in our mouth, but there’s a problem: It’s too damn high.
Our first instinct can be to cut down the tree, please don’t make that mistake.
Our second option might be to look at the branches and channel our inner monkey to try and find a path that would be safe to climb up to the mushroom. As far as I’m concerned, that’s bad idea #2.
What should we do then?
How To Get A Chaga That Is Unreachable?
I’ve tried to recruit the help of Google to help me with this question, with no success. I then had no choice but to use my brain to solve this puzzle.
What Not To Do
Please don’t make the same mistake I did, don’t cut down the tree. You are not only killing a tree, but you are also risking injuries (unless you are a pro on the chainsaw) and, on top of that, you can be mistaken.
That’s right, sometimes what seems to be a Chaga up there can be something else. I learned that the hard way.
Not only did I only have an ax to cut down the tree, I realized, after 30 minutes of grunting and sweating, that what looked like a Chaga wasn’t one. I rarely felt this embarrassed in my life.
Climb At Your Own Risk
As I mentioned, some of us can climb up trees pretty easily, but I don’t recommend it for two reasons:
1- I don’t want to get sued if you try and get injured.
2- Birch trees don’t have low branches, they usually start pretty high. Climbing birch trees is harder because of this.
What To Do
I should have used this tool instead. Everything would have been better if I did. Well, insight is 20/20 I guess.
The tool is specifically designed to reach and saw high branches, we can therefore use it to reach and saw Chaga mushroom, it’s as simple as that. It’s like it was made for our community.
Using the right piece of equipment not only increases your efficiency but also prevents possible injuries or worse.
The Bottom Line
A pruning tool is the safest and most efficient way to extract a Chaga that is too high.