Tracking Literature

[Alaskajohn]

Something I will be working on this winter is improving my tracking skills.

I found this site with a treasure trove of mostly peer reviewed work. It really is worth a look if you are interested in this sort of thing.

https://www.originalwisdom.com/original-wisdom-resources/tracking-literature/

 

[Sourdough]

When you can track wing tips, you will have the skill to solve many Alaska wilderness mysteries. The faint imprint where the wingtips of the large owl lightly touched the snow, as it harvested the ermine. All the clues you have are where the blood trail terminates, near the tallest tree.

 

[Alaskajohn]

When you can track wing tips, you will have the skill to solve many Alaska wilderness mysteries. The faint imprint where the wingtips of the large owl lightly touched the snow, as it harvested the ermine. All the clues you have are where the blood trail terminates, near the tallest tree.

We have lots of ermines. Cute and curious little buggers. I’ll be looking for wing tips. We have lots of owls too.

 

[Sourdough]

I think the Lynx track is the easiest to identify instantly. Just for giggles you might do what I call "PRETEND TRAPPING". You don't actually use traps, but you actually bait, like a real trapper to see what shows up. You could purchase "lures" for bait, or use food scraps, or the fish guts and heads that you save in the freezer every summer. Fresh roadkill is fun to watch. Some roadkill can be legally moved. Some can NOT be moved.

If you use a snow machine, every morning it is full of fresh tracks. Especially the mid-size predators. Wolves/Lynx/Coyote/Fox/Wolverine

 

[Alaskajohn]

I think the Lynx track is the easiest to identify instantly. Just for giggles you might do what I call "PRETEND TRAPPING". You don't actually use traps, but you actually bait, like a real trapper to see what shows up. You could purchase "lures" for bait, or use food scraps, or the fish guts and heads that you save in the freezer every summer. Fresh roadkill is fun to watch. Some roadkill can be legally moved. Some can NOT be moved.

If you use a snow machine, every morning it is full of fresh tracks. Especially the mid-size predators. Wolves/Lynx/Coyote/Fox/Wolverine

I plan on using snow shoes this year. While I explore and improve my tracking skills, it will help keep my mind and body in shape.

Lynx is another critter in abundance. They are easy to track even in summer. Wolves, coyotes, wolverines and fox are among the critters I want to get better at tracking. Since I plan on going out often particularly in fresh snow, I am hoping to be better at this, 4-5 day old tracks can be a bit fuzzy.

 

[Hooch]

Something I will be working on this winter is improving my tracking skills.

I found this site with a treasure trove of mostly peer reviewed work. It really is worth a look if you are interested in this sort of thing.

https://www.originalwisdom.com/original-wisdom-resources/tracking-literature/

When I was involved in search and rescue, I started taking man tracking classes. I didn't realize at first how much psychological aspects were involved in tracking humans , so after realizing this it really intrigued me.
After that I started taking 3 day field type classes and really had alot if fun with it.
One class I took was taught by a guy that spent 4 years learning tracking with those African Bush People in Africa. The last day of class, we were tasked to track 2 of our classmates down a gravel road who were instructed to make sign in different modes of running, walking, jogging and using the whole road.
At the time we had quite a few personalities on our team who were the type that were very competitive and usually in a pissing contest to be it..or whatever. Most others were followers or some variation.
Anyways, this road was also a popular jogging trail out to a lake and some other trails..so that made the tracking for new folks a bit more challenging.
So were told were tracking 2 male classmates , find their sign, find them ..go. and if we get to the Y in the road, and haven't found them then head back.
All the real competitive folks , most of the class take off n are well ahead..me and another gal are going through each sign..I'm on a track , muddling through sign that got messed up from the the classmates. But they are following sign, a single set of sign that doesn't have much variety in it, so I'm thinking..morning jogger, not our 2 guys. The other gal agrees and since we're supposed to be learning here..I'm resolved to taking my time , focusing on each toe dig, lucky sand half print , kicked rocks, scraped footfall..etc..
I've got my stick, confirming measurements when I can..not getting ahead of sign and then I notice a jump into the weeds and a single messy to me track of long steps off into the brush.
I stop..n look ahead on the road and don't see what I was following continue ..I see the fast groups mess..more in the middle and to the left side..but not my set of sign that wavered from the right to the middle to the right mostly..then off to the bushes n grass.
So I'm following it in to the brush..get about 15 feet in and hear my name called from the brush...
Nailed it..my guys are snickering as they watched everyone rush past them eariler. They ask who was behind me n I say just cindy..not far..so we all hid n wait for her to do the same thing I did..she found us too..and the instructor is meandering behind her.
He tells the 4 of us to head back to the trucks, the guys said everyone blew past them , probably following the old sign from the jogger.
Me n the other gal got free beer n pizza later and bragging rights..but it was a great example to let yourself be a student.
The next day was tracking heal prints in grassy areas..spent most of that morning on our knees ..

 

[Hooch]

I still have one of his training handouts in my SAR binder..

 

[Peanut]

I used to over think sign, for example deer. I spend a lot of time in creeks, all critters come to water. A few times I’ve seen deer sign that I interpreted as being them scared or jumped by a predator.

I was wrong, I remember the first time I got it right, something I’d never considered before. Deer do fall down in slippery mud. Far more often than I would previously thought. Now I laugh when I see it… bambi can be clumsy! They jump down to a stream bed and hit slippery clay, Bam!!!

Another funny one… I was up in the peach orchard one morning. I saw an area where the ground was badly torn up by coyote tracks, about 10ft across. I immediately thought it was a kill site. But the longer I looked I realized this didn’t fit. There was no fur, feathers or blood sign. Then I saw it, a peach pit with poop on it. I was laughing so hard I had to sit down. The coyote had eaten a peach but had trouble passing the pit. Looks like he’d spent an hour trying to pass it, ground all torn up!!!

Most animals and people aren’t very smart and they do completely normal things. I now purposely try not to overthink sign. Just look at the sign for what it is... I put a couple of excellent tracking books in the library...

https://www.homesteadingforum.org/threads/tracking.7957/

 

[Hooch]

One of my best finds was a dog that was left on a rock outcropping in a steep canyon after him and his owner got swept down the river trying to cross a area that was too deep and fast moving.
They were both lucky the survived the journey..many people have drowned on the grade of river trying to go down in rafts or canoes..it's a wicked stretch.
They likely survived because it was August so lower flow and the got caught in a eddy by a big rock.
The woman could barely get out herself climbing up the rock and cliff. She managed to get her 90 pound dog out of the water and onto the rock but couldn't manage him up the steep cliff.
I'm sure they were both beat up a bit too so she left him and this is where we were all scratching our heads on..
It was county fair time, she was scheduled to run a booth. She left her dog on a rock in a canyon to run a booth and was talking about it to her friends to get folks together the next day to go get her dog.
A SAR member was listening in because he was running a booth next to hers and talked to the main SAR leader we better go find this dog b4 her friends and the dumb broad get themselves drowned the next day.
Our SAR team is full of dog people too..we had a few dogs on the team and all of us were glad to find a dog and just couldn't fathom leaving our dog on a rock in the river overnight in a canyon with class 5 grade..
I wouldn't have left my dog to begin with..

Anyways, the lady knew somewhere along this road she hauled out but didn't mark it, and didn't know exactly where she got out on the road.

We had maybe 2 hours b4 sunset to assemble, get out to the river n find the dog.

The only way to see the part of the river in the canyon, and that's a big maybe.. is to walk the road and get past the brush..so each member was dropped off about a mile apart and work our way up.

Were running out of light..but at least it's not cold out..summertime weather on a river..
I'm walking up the road and looking down where I can. Access isn't easy because it's steep and trees n brush are thick. Don't want to walk off a cliff ..
From the road I see a single broken weed, bent over towards the road. So I walk up to it standing directly in front of the weed and although most of the grass n weeds bounced back..standing directly in front of it I can tell something pushed it's way through this area.

Could have been a deer..could have been a stupid lady that left her dog. So I go in n a few steps and notice it cuts down to my left..scrambled sign..nothing definitive but it looked fresh and I just kept seeing sign so I start scanning the rocks.

It was hard to see all the rock because the cliff hindered alot of my view..I'm looking and after a minute I call the dogs name.
He was curled up in a tight ball on the rock and part of his body was obscured by the Rock itself..but when I called his name..his big white head and neck pop up, ears cocked and he looks around like hum?? I call him again n hoot and he sees me n stands up..tail wags slightly but he is looking at me like HELP ME STRANGE LADY! He was shivering..probably totally confused why his lady left him..

I was THRILLED!! I might have said it too loud into my radio but it was a great feeling to say , " I FOUND HIM!"

So everyone gets picked up and they head back down to where I get dropped off. They had to find where I got in, actually I had to get back to the road. We had to hook up a rope system to haul him out. Just one hooked to the truck and a change if direction off a tree.

We have harnessing for dogs and by the time the team got him up half way to me he was spent. Poor guy could barely move, cold beat up by the river, now strange people are hauling him up a cliff..just exhausted.

He was such a happy boy..and we were all very glad to have found him. We did not get alot if live finds in our area. Usually by the time SAR is called out..folks have been missing for at least 24 hours and nature can be pretty brutal especially for those I'll prepared or injured.

We head back to the fairgrounds and had the lady summoned out to get her dog. We made sure she knew we wernt pleased she left him.

My training paid off tho..what a great find!