My path in learning the wonderful art of Tracking led me in 2017 to Virginia, where I had the honor of participating in the “Tactical Acuity for C-IED” course held by David Michael Hull (Hull’s Tracking School) and Cornelius Nash (Enhanced Tracking Applications) precisely in the lush and flat county of Nelson County, located a few miles away from the Kentucky border, and close to the famous Blue Ridge mountains.
In light of my recent trip to Nevada and Texas, dating back to the end of January 2019, I had the opportunity to improve my training through a training developed not only in a completely different season (winter this time, while the beginning of summer on the occasion of my previous trip), but also on lands that to define antipodes could not be more appropriate.
One of the cornerstones of every Art (and in this the Tracking, both Man and Animal, is no exception), consists in a patient and methodical training carried out in different and often evolving environmental conditions. In fact, it is not enough to crystallize on a specific terrain and study it in an equally specific season, but it is necessary, for the purposes of holistic cognitive learning, to analyze the footprints found on it with different climates and terrains.
In fact, it is intuitive to believe that the footprints on the sand are much more visible than those left on a bed of dry leaves in a beech forest after a certain period of drought; if on the one hand this statement is true, on the other hand it is imperative to be specific about the sand we take as an example. Is it sand from a beach or sand from the desert? By comparing them, in fact, the two types (given the quantity of water present) obviously appear very divergent.
In this way, based both on the climatic conditions and on the various soil species, I will now go on to list, in an overall way, the differences I found in the three different American states on the basis of the experiences I have acquired.
VIRGINIA (in Lovingston, Nelson County. JUNE 2017):
As mentioned, the area is almost flat (with the exception of some hills), characterized by gentle slopes on which it is easy to find areas entirely occupied by conifers. Towards the Rockfish River, an impetuous stream that easily overflows in the autumn season, the land has long been cleared to make it pastures. The earth, red, very similar to that of Africa, is extremely humid and captures traces well, also making it easy to read them through the transfer (that is, when our soles take part of the soil or other material and deposit it elsewhere in concomitance with the next steps). Since the evenings are extremely humid (a light rain often fell), the vegetation of Nelson County is very luxuriant and, in some places, quite dense. Going into it inevitably involves also leaving aereal spoors (marks above the ankle resulting from damage to branches, bark, shrubs, etc.). However, the aforementioned area of conifers undoubtedly represents an inconvenience for the Tracker, forcing it to slow down and carefully examine every detail to identify the correct trackline to follow. The same goes for the wooded areas that overlook the Rockfish River almost impenetrable: the massive fall of leaves, even if they are placed on soil often characterized by mud, makes it difficult, in some places, to easily read the traces.
NEVADA (at Paradise, Clark County. JANUARY 2019):
The resort of Paradise, close to the training center of the Nevada National Guard, Las Vegas section, is in the middle of the Mojave desert, and surrounded by mountainous reliefs on all sides.
The Mojave desert is characterized by small precipitations and by an extremely varied flora (there are in fact about 2000 different plant species), especially in the California area. Here, in fact, the vegetation that extends around Las Vegas is dominated by Cladodes (Opuntia ficus-indica), interspersed with Hedgehog Cactus, scattered over an expanse of gray sand and tiny rocks.
On the day of training the temperature was around 12 degrees, yet a strong and incessant wind whipped every simplest movement. The reading of the most recent traces was therefore decidedly easier, even the contours of the pattern being visible, but the incessant action of the wind tended to cancel, as if it happens, the details of the older ones, making the continuation of the work of the Tracker.
TEXAS (at Pedernales Falls, Blanco County. JANUARY 2019):
Located within a grandiose natural park, almost in the center of Texas and not far from Austin, Pedernales Falls offer a spectacle of the majesty of Nature that can hardly be forgotten. The area, called Hill Country, is a succession of hills with low vegetation American Smoke Tree (Cotinus obovatus), Carolina Cherry Laurel (Prunus caroliniana) and Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis), where entire expanses of cacti almost totally cover some land used. to pastures. The area of the Pedernales waterfalls is no exception, which however declines abruptly in a slope occupied by enormous boulders, among which the water has made its way. Reading the traces in this territory means getting used to terrains that change within a few meters: from the arid land of the Sophora secundiflora groves, in fact, one passes to a land impregnated with humidity, with a bright reddish color, particularly suitable for constituting an excellent track. trap (that is, a portion of land where the traces are clearly visible), up to the large boulders where it is necessary to trust to find some transfer of earth or other occasional signs.
The continuous training in different climatic conditions (better if adverse, as, as they say, you learn more in moments of discomfort than in those of comfort), together with the analysis of different types of terrain make the path in the world of Tracking not only more consistent, but also more effective: every moment of dirt time corresponds to a new experience, and, even if not always obtained in a simple way, to a new trackline followed and interpreted successfully.
About The Author
Article by Kyt Lyn Walken. Official Representative and Instructor for Hull’s Tracking School and Certified Conservation Ranger for the NGO Conservation Rangers Operations Worldwide. Kyt will be in the UK running a workshop 18 – 20 February, 2022 Telford, Shropshire (U.K.) “The Art of Tracking Class” with FERAL YAMYAM BUSHCRAFT School.
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