Tracking skill
Are you a tracker? If you hunt or spend any time in the wilderness or have looked for something or someone, perhaps you are. Maybe you were looking for a deer, javelina or someone you were out with and got separated. Maybe a horse wandered off from your group while you were having lunch during a trail ride.
The first impulse is to try to find the animal/subject you’re looking for by spotting them. You might walk around, looking in all directions hoping to see the subject of the search. I’d say that is exactly what not to do. There were many searches I was on where the family of the lost person had walked in every direction looking for their loved one and in so doing, obliterated the tracks I needed to find the person.
Almost all of the lost person incidents I reported to where deputies, firemen or police officers had been the first responders, showed signs of track disturbances. In trying to do their job of investigating the incident, they’d walked over many of the subject’s tracks. There were occasions when searchers lost valuable time looking in ever-widening circles for non-disturbed ground where the subject’s track and direction of travel could be picked up. From that point, searchers could follow the tracks and locate the subject.
When looking for someone in the wilderness, look down first. Unless they can fly, they’ll leave tracks. But there’s a trick to tracking. Contrary to what you see on TV and in the movies, trackers can’t just look at a few tracks and determine all the information they need. It takes time and patience to identify subtle differences in the tracks. In tracking, small things are important. But how do you see the tracks?
Light is the most important variable when tracking. The tracker needs to stand in such a way that the available light, be it the sun, moon or flashlight, is at such an angle that the tracks create shadows. The tracker should be in a position so that if a straight line is drawn, it would start at the light source, through the track and end at the tracker. In this position, the light source accentuates the shadows made by the subtle ridges and disturbances of the track, thus becoming more visible to the tracker. The worst time of day to track is when the sun is directly overhead - no shadows are produced.
Of course, the type of ground is important - soft soil and gravel make for great tracks while tracks on hard-pan or rocks are difficult to see. Look for track-traps - those areas where tracks would be highly visible such as loose soil and gravel. It might even be necessary to leap-frog from one track-trap to another after determining a direction of travel.
It’s also important to determine the stride distance - the distance between tracks. Once a track is found, sweep the ground with your eyes to find the next track and measure the distance between tracks. If a track is lost, focus on the stride distance previously determined to find the next track. It might even be necessary to go out a number of stride distances to find the next track but at least there’s a general area to focus on.
When I followed a track, I’d use flagging to mark the first track I found. As I followed that track, I’d occasionally tie flagging to a bush so that I could look back and see the direction the person was heading and if I lost the track, I’d tie flagging to that spot and make circles until I found the track again.
Tracking animals is the same; make sure of the sun’s angle, determine a direction of travel and leap-frog from track-trap to track-trap. As tracking skills are developed, the faster it’ll go. One trick I used when searching for a lost person was to find a track, determine a direction of travel, make an informed guess as to where the person was heading and leap-frog to the next track-trap, or what is referred to in tracking speak as a “gate”. A gate is a natural passage between hills, rocks or stands of trees where it would be easier for a person/animal to walk. If I found the track in the gate, I’d saved myself time and continued the tracking. If not, I’d go back to the last track where I’d tied flagging.
Over the years I’ve met and worked with excellent trackers, from the cowboys in Argentina, jungle guides in Panama to searchers in Mohave County. The patience of some drove me crazy but they could track a lizard across a flat rock.
When looking for a person or an animal in the wilderness, don’t go helter-skelter in your search, walking on tracks and destroying clues. Look down first and be patient. Unless they can fly, there will be tracks to follow.
