Tracking is one of those outdoors skills, much like land navigation or fire building, where even the most amateur outdoorsman believes he is far more skilled than objective testing shows them to be, while the non-outdoorsman looks at it as some sort of epigenetic skill available only to a small population of indigenous peoples. There are both legitimate experts and almost clueless amateurs writing entire books on the subject. In practice, tracking can range from rural kids trying to follow small game animals, to military and law enforcement personnel pursuing dangerous, armed fugitives. There are dozens, if not hundreds of books on the subject, ranging from the educational and useful, to the most absolute, utterly useless bullshit. There are numerous classes around the country, ranging from quality instruction in mantracking, by experienced combat trackers like John Hurth and David Scott-Donelon, and local courses put on by Search-and-Rescue teams, to nonsense “I learned from an old Indian” courses taught by self-professed experts who couldn’t track a muddy Labrador Retriever through a hospital.1 In this series of articles, I will discuss both the psychological and mental aspects of tracking, as well as the practical, including specific techniques, as well as training and practice methods. While this series is not, specifically, focused on mantracking, we will discuss aspects of that, as well as tracking game and other animals. My introduction to tracking as a practical skill came about because of reading. As I read various fiction and nonfiction accounts of the American westward expansion, I would regularly come across references to tracking, both mundane, and—even to a young, impressionable pre-teen boy—obviously fanciful nonsense. Growing up in the woods, as I did, any apparently useful skill was of interest to me, and tracking seemed like one that should exist near the top of the pyramid! In pursuit of practical, real-world knowledge, I would ask the adults around me for advice and guidance, often to meet responses like “tracking is a lost art!” Others were honest enough to admit, “I don’t know anything about it,” while a few claimed to know a great deal about tracking, but could only point out the most rudimentary things like the difference between a whitetail deer’s track and a cow track, or the difference between a dog’s track and that of a feline. Join the conversation here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/field...paign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link Continue reading...
