our story - why Lichens?

‘’Like a lichen, I’ll stay alive, even in winter or when the rain doesn’t show up’’

William Gilman - Founder of Lichen Maze

Lichen maze has been a my dream for what feels like a life time. My passion about what’s happening in the wild, about this growing mushroom here or the noice breaking silence at night while trying to sleep in my makeshift shelter or trying to understand why the water spiders aren’t eaten by fish… This passion couldn't be kept greadily. The knowledge acquired during the soon two decades long couldn’t be only withhold for myself, how selfish would that be! I had to share all of these and since I do, I learn even more.

The lichen is your best friend out there, it gives you indication about the air quality, the humidity in the air, the amount of water around or even the acidity level in it! It gives you food and does it all year round. It gives you other source of food like insects. Some lichen are also antiseptic. It's like you know you can count on the lichen to always be by your side, no matter what, like dogs are for humans, lichen is for me! I know I’ll find some lichen, I know I’ll learn about my environment and I’ll get food, even during the frozen bite of winter! 

But don’t get carried away, nature is a maze of knowledge and navigating in it isn’t the easiest thing to do! It’s so easy to get overwhelmed by the quantity of information one can gather at once. I have spend many many hours learning about what nature has to offer and what did I learned… More you learn and more you understand that you don’t know anything. At the beginning, I have felt that I was reaching a good percentage of understanding but then, another plant came into picture, with yet another smell or a stum shape I never saw before, rasing my curiosity obviously but also making me panic about my knowledge level, and of course, it never missed, I was in front of yet another new plant family, a sub-spices or the like, that made me think that I was nowhere in my studies. I had to change my strategy and so I became humble about this all, and started to understand what this maze was really about: there is no point in trying to know everything just to say but the goal is to understand what one element does to the other, why is that mushroom growing right there under that spruce and not over there with the others, in the open. Why do I always see fallow deers in bigger groups than roe-deer in that region, why does the woodpecker make that alarm signal sometimes when they see me but not always!

There’s so much out there that it’ll be foolish to try to learn everything. Instead, observing hours after hours, taking the time to just be and feel, letting the animals get use to you being around and letting them come to you. This is how to know nature, this was truely understanding the elements, understanding the symbiosis between everything. I came to understand myself even better because, suddenly … I was part of it!

This is what I want to share to you, this is what I’d like you to discover!

You can spend hours reading books inside your home without learning anything but bringing your books out there will, with time, gives you the needed knowledge to start to understand what’s going on in the wild! It’s a long and hard work but, eh! I’ve done the job for you.

The idea in knowing about nature is to undestant what’s happening around you, knowing what can kill you like don’t eat pretty stuff if you don’t know them or go for lichen they are all good to go (although some should be avoided of course). Having an overview is better than nothing, knowing deeply what you see or feel when in nature is crucial but knowing everything is simply impossible. 

Lichen Maze is based on the idea to not get stuck in this uncrossable maze but rather navigate through it, making mistake or taking the wrong path but then feeling comfortable in whatever is coming to you once in the wild. Lichen maze is designed for everyone ot make it, no need prior experience, it is for private people or groupe, high end expeditions or courses that allows you to have a one to one relationship with nature via the selected activity and with your expert guide that will give you the most you can expect from your expedition or survival course.