Learning to Track

[Jason]

One of the least mentioned items of living history, is the art of tracking. It seems to me that the hunting pioneers would have been very knowledgeable in this area. I recently picked up a great book on the subject "The SAS guide to Tracking" even though this book is written from a modern perspective, it clearly recognizes tracking as a lost aboriginal art that as applications even today. I highly recommend this subject as something a Trekker should at least have a basic understanding of.

Submitted by: Gene S. - estevens@mc.net on March 15, 2003

_________________
Jason W. Gatliff
Historical Enterprises

Publisher:
HistoricalTrekking.com
MUZZLELOADER Magazine

[Adam Wetherington]

http://www.amazon.com/Tactical-Tracking-Operations-David-Scott-Donelan/dp/1581600038

This book is also useful. It is primarily geared toward man-tracking though. I was fortunate enough to attend one of Mr. Donelan's courses and I was very impressed with the results. I thought I knew about tracking before but realized I hadn't known squat.

Adam

[Sir William]

I've taken several tracking courses with Jim Bruchac of the Ndakinna Center in New York and Jim Halfpenny of a Naturalist's World in Gardiner, MT (near Yellowstone).

http://www.ndakinnacenter.org/pages/calendar.php

http://www.tracknature.com/mm5/

Jim Bruchac teaches tracking skills of the Abenaki, while Jim Halfpenny uses a very scientific approach. They often dual-teach tracking courses in Yellowstone, so you get the benefit of both traditional and scientific methods.

Now I can't walk down a trail without automatically scanning for tracks and other sign - and I'll stop in a heartbeat to examine anything I see, to include wandering along the sign to read the story of what came by and what it did.

[Loyalist Dave]

I have the Tom Brown books. They seem pretty good.

LD

_________________
It's not what you think you know; It's what you can prove

[Hiparoo]

I'll second the Tom Brown books....taught me a lot...the rest you must learn by doing, no amount of book knowledge can teach what the field teaches...."you can't cheat the mountains, the mountains got their own way".

_________________
Ride the high trail-Never tuck your tail

[45.70]

Hello all,

I would have to agree that tracking is something you have to learn from experience. While you can read about how to do it, it's alot better to have some with experience show you and take you under their wing so to speak. I would only consider myself a novice, but it's alot of fun to pick up a fresh trail and see where it goes. Even if you loose the trail, you'll learn something and have fun, too. I guess it's just nice being out walking thru the woods.

Good luck with your track. Garry