Wilderness Tracking

I am reading Wilderness Tracks by Barbara Butler. It is good but not written a very instructional way. It does a very good job of giving examples and conveying a great deal of useful information. Because of the lack of “how to” I am formulating my own extracted from the book.

Practice Drills

1. At the trail head.
When you are about to go on a hike in a wilderness area leave your own intentional track some where near your car or a point you will return to before the end of the hike. Try to leave your track somewhere others will not tread over it. Make a note of the time. As you hike pay attention to the weather conditions, and what you are walking on, dirt, clay, sand, pine needles, leaves, snow, or duff (decaying plant matter). Notice how the weather degrades your own tracks as you walk.
Return to your first tracks and take note of how much time has passed and how what weather conditions have aged your original tracks.
- This practice stars building your awareness of the aging of a track on different types of ground in different kinds of weather.


2. Examining the evidence with no mystery
Let a jogger pass you on the trail. Look down and make note of where his feet are striking the ground. Wait till his has moved and then get down and get a good look at his tracks. Get a mental reference for his gate and start tracking him. In this case there is no mystery. You know how long ago the track was left, who made it, what direction he was going in, about how fast, size, weight, and the weather conditions since the track was first laid. As you follow, you know there will not be any track over his until you are passed again or some one comes from the other direction. Use this time with the fresh track to really learn how to use shine. Shine is the flatness and sharpness a print has when it is first made. If you walk with the track between you and the sun you can more easily pick out the distinct flat and the gate of the runner.
Then comes a fork in the road. Witch way did your jogger turn? Can you tell other things like if he stops? Did he hesitate before picking a path at the fork? Does the slope make tracking easier or harder? Does the shine fade?


3. Cross traffic
Well used public trails in a wilderness will have loads of human traffic and it will be seam pointless to make note of any one set of animals of tracks in the mess, but here is something you can do. Look for an animal trail that junctions on the human trail. Animals will use human trails at night so an early morning hike will yield some more interesting prints to follow. At every point the human trail is met with an animal trail stop and search for evidence of freshly disturbed plants, like a leaf turned over, a broke branch, and stem pushed down, displaced duff, or a print! Follow the track to where the animal leaves the human trail again. Doing this forces you to study the ground and identify the gate of the animal. This is a challenge but it yields experience and skills where track jogger does not yield as much.


This is all info I have gleaned from Butler so far and I am working on these three drills myself. I will post more as I learn more. Please let me know if you have any tips!

Good ideas on the tracking!

I actually got to practice this about a week ago. I woke up and found my wife was gone. I figured she had gone out in the yard to feed the birds so I got cleaned up and dressed. By now she should have been done and back inside... but she wasn't. I then did a quick walk around the property and did not find her. Checking the back of our property I found her boot print leading off in the very light dusting of snow but no return prints.

So, I grabbed my normal stuff I take with me, locked up the house and started tracking her. Much of the dusting had already melted so it was just a print here or there. At one point she joined up with a public trail with lots of other foot prints. In the few and far between patches of snow I was able to stop, observe and make out a bit of her print here or there (it's a fairly unique tread) so I knew I was still on her trail. I finally found her a few miles away taking a bunch of scenic nature pictures at a marsh.

Since I had locked up the house and I doubted she had keys with her I was concerned about her taking a different route back and me missing the return trail... a wife left standing out in the cold is not a happy wife. As a result I kept checking not only that I was following her but also for a return track.

One thing learned... her print was fairly distinct with a big logo imprinted in the snow. If you were trying to avoid being followed wearing something without a distinctive tread would be advised.

Thanks CulexPipiens, for sharing. It seem the book is mostly examples like yours. Examples teach the principles and then come the long hours of practice. It sure makes going for a hike more interesting.

The Wilderness Tracks book give a good deal of info about the habits of animals. Animal tracks can be used to age human tracks if you know the animal habits.

I will add more when I have more time to practice.

Please do.

I can see knowing how old human tracks are to be quite useful but also following animal tracks if that becomes a primary source of food to be important to.

Does the book go into anything on condition of the track? i.e. defined edges? or somewhat melted/weathered? or any other indicators that could also point to the age of it?

This is a very pertinent subject. I'm sure glad that you guys are here. I'm planning to retire in a few months and I am going to start spending more time in the outdoors. Experience is always the best teacher.

Does the book go into anything on condition of the track? i.e. defined edges? or somewhat melted/weathered? or any other indicators that could also point to the age of it?

The author give great detail about aging tracks. For example trampled grass will stand back up in a given amount of time but the sun light, time of year, and weather will be factors. The thing she keeps repeating is how important it is to test the age of your own tracks in the places you are hunting to get a known time line for aging.

I let some track near my car this morning before going for a hike but I made a wrong turn on the hike and ended up take to long to get back. By the time I got back to the car I did not have time to go study my own track.

Tim

I hike in a large park near Portland. I have been looking for animal trails that connect to the main human trails. Each time I come to an animal trail I give it a good look over to see if I can identify coyote or bob cat and anything interesting. Well I found something interesting the other day. I went about 15 yards off the marked trail and spotted a green tarp. Camping is not permitted in this park, so I backed up to the main trial, called the park rangers, and gave them a detailed description of the location. They told me that they check this type of report early in the morning the next day since it is the safes time to approach the site.
I did not get a call back from the ranger but when I check the site a few days afterward there was a collapsed tent and some garbage. The green tarp was gone.

A Father and Daughter had lived in this park for 4 years. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1140240/posts

A tourist found them because the locals don't think to look.

Tim

I read your link. For once, a story involving the police had a great ending. It is usual for government drones to get involved and stink up innocent peoples' lives.
In 1969 and 1970 we were living in Tigard, OR next to Portland. I remember a news story on TV at that time about a man that the authorities had found living in Washington Park west of Portland. He built a little hovel out of plywood and cardboard. He had lived there undetected since 1952-17 years! I guess if you are careful you can hide in plain sight for a long time! The police moved him into an apartment in Portland and I never did hear "the Rest of the Story."

I agree... nice to see the "authorities" recognized that this wasn't abuse and they were getting along just fine so they simply helped them out a bit instead of much worse.

I was proud of how Portland PD handled the family in Forest Park. I was problem solving vs rule enforcement, and the problem solving won! I thought I heard the girl wrote a book but I can't seem to find it.

here is a follow up store. The cops did right but the media could not help but mess it up.
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/06/289883.shtml

At this point I carry a GPS with me into forest park because I have found two camp sites. The first one was occupied but the second one was abandon and just a garbage dump. I note the GPS and call the ranger when I find them. I offer to help with the clean up if the tell me when the plan on checking the site out. I feel bad for finding dirty work for them to do.

Tim

It is sad to read something like this. The original story was so exciting I was almost proud (again) of being an American. But I guess the modern America will always sink to the bottom!

I found another camper in Forest Park. I did not feel bad about reporting him because a big storm was on the way and the guy was at a big risk of getting a tree right down on him.

Tim

I would think that you are doing the right thing, Portland Tim. I can't say what I would do in the same situation. I guess that I will know if I ever find myself so situated.

I have been doing a great deal of hiking in Portland area Parks. One thing I have noticed about Forest Park is there are loads of joggers, and people feel safe to be in the park.
There is one park with a wild life area like Forest Park that does not allow dogs and I have never seen a woman by herself in that park.

So there are trade offs.

The rules are dogs on leashes, no camping, and stay on the marked trails.

Well, I don't really obey the staying on the trail rule. Half the dog owner don't obey the leash rule and the wild life suffers some when those two rules are ignored. The camping rule, on the other hand, lower the level of security for everyone who uses the park.

I believe rules and laws should be enforced or abolished if not relevant, and the core reason for the rule or law should be known, and an active part of its enforcement or abolishment.

Take the leash law. 70% of the dog off their leash stay with in 10 to 30 feet of their masters. The other 30% really should be on leashes because they are out of control and spend all their time harassing the wildlife of the park. There are many single joggers who don't have dogs that enjoy the sense of security the dog walker give them.

I personally would love to camp in Forest Park if there was an area designated for that, but I live in Portland so there is a history here of groups of people “claiming” public land for themselves and building their own subculture. In this case camping could quickly become a modern day Sherwood forest with clusters of people competing over turf.

What are your thoughts?

Tim

If there is ever a reason to flee cities... disaster, collapse of deliveries (food), etc. you will see turf wars elsewhere as people try to relocate. Just the mortgage event alone has caused a number of tent cities to spring up. Now imagine much greater numbers and competition over space and resources.