Tracking Questions from Readers

"When measuring stride length, do you go from the heel of one print to the heel or toe of the other print?"

I measure stride length from the toe of one print to the heel of the next. Using a stride stick, also called a tracking stick, I can mark the stride length I'm tracking and if I can't find the next sign easily, the arc that the stride stick makes from the toe of the previous track narrows down where to look for the next sign. My stride sticks are 1/2 inch oak dowels, 36 inches in length. You can make one in the field with any decently straight stick at least 18 inches in length.  You can mark measurements by making notches on the stick.


And what am I looking for? Any flattening, disturbance, regularity or color change.

Using a rubber band or a tight fitting rubber washer is a good way to mark the measurements on your stride stick.  With more rubber bands or washers, you can also measure and mark width in the ball of foot; heel width or length for broken heels or raised heels. Half inch rubber washers will last longer than rubber bands and are easier to move when changing measurements.

In the picture below it appears that I am measuring from heel to heel, but look for the black rubber washer on the stride stick. It is located at the top of the print in front of me (see arrow). The end of the stick now can create an arc so I know where the next stride should be.

It's six of one, half dozen of another if you measure heel to heel or toe to heel. I was taught, 30+ years ago, to measure from toe to heel so that's how I do it...........oh, and sorry for taking three paragraphs for a question that could have been answered in one sentence.




"Can you go into more detail about "Pressure releases" and why or how they are important to tracking?"

When an object such as a human foot or animal hoof hits the ground, it disturbs the ground. It may be so subtle as to be undetectable by the naked eye, but it can compress, or gouge, or leave a regularity such as pattern or a line not seen else where. Disturbed dirt and bruised vegetation can provide a color change to indicate passage.  This is the flattening, disturbance, color change or regularity I'm talking about.

As the foot or hoof pushes off to leave the ground, that release also impacts on the disturbance left behind,  much more so in softer ground than in rocky, hard ground. The weight, speed and angle of the foot or hoof leaving the ground also influences what that pressure release looks like, often providing a clue as to what the human or animal was doing.....increasing stride and therefore speed, jumping side ways, stopping abruptly, looking up, moving with a leg injury, and getting tired are some things you can often tell from reading a pressure release.

So to answer your question, reading pressure releases are not critical to being able to cut sign or track. It just gives you more insight to your target, it's condition and what it may be thinking or doing.  Just one of many factors to consider.

Tracking: Rain Affecting Sign

Juwar1974 has made a comment on sign cutting and tracking horses.wmv: "I have a question. How does a heavy rain affect the tracks in the dirt? Does it wipe it out or flatten it. Would it be more difficult? Could you answer this for me, I'd really appreciate it."

Juwar, the worst that a real heavy rain can do is to wash away any sign as well as present obstacles for the tracker that could range from a nuisance to the dangerous such as bad footing for a horse or flash floods in an arroyo.

From the time the tracks are made, from the pressure and release of that pressure on the ground, until the rain washes away all evidence, various sign may be visible such as pooled water in a print depression.

If you are tracking a man and you have some definite direction he is going, leap frogging ahead to an open area such as a field or road may allow you to see him crossing or signs to indicate he crossed. I would also look for and at shoulder or roads or slopes of arroyos or gullies where the disturbance of the wet ground made by the man crossing is very likely to be evident.

           Sometimes a light rain can enhance your ability to determine how fresh the sign is. You will be able to tell if the pocked mark patterns in a print depression are pre-rain or post-rain and this will give you a timeline. Sometimes in a tracking class I will use a water hose or a spray bottle of water to demonstrate what rain can do to a print or disturbed ground.

Aging Sign and Seeing Shine

I was contacted a few months ago by Texas Monthly magazine to help with an article on Sign Cutting appearing in their regular column “The Manual”. It was a little difficult to discuss or explain sign cutting and tracking over the phone, but Texas Monthly did a good job and the article appears in their February 2012 issue. At least they didn't make me out to be a bigger idiot than I already am.

I was also riding in the desert with a group of ladies (much preferable to riding with men) and we came across Oryx tracks. If you have never seen an Oryx, google Oryx or click here. The Oryx is an African Antelope imported decades ago into New Mexico to provide a exotic game for hunters. The Oryx doesn’t have a natural predator here,...maybe Mountain Lions, so they do very well.

The soil underneath the top layer was fairly moist from a rain about a week earlier, so the toe of the Oryx’s hooves left a very sharp and deep pressure release. Combined with deeper and softer sand a few yards away I estimated that the Oryx prints were about 3 or 4 days old. The ladies were asking question on what I was looking at when determining the age of a track, so I explained that a pressure release softens and rounds over time. Comparison to other parts of the pressure release, the rounding or dispersion of the toe dirt kicked up with forward momentum and the evaluation of the same tracks in different soil will let you determine the rough age of sign.

While the photo to the right are horse tracks rather than Oryx, the single set of tracks on the left hand side of he photo are 7 days old. The horse tracks on the right are fresh. While the discoloration isn't too different or not different enough in lieu of the seven day difference, the tracks to the right depict a large amount of toe dirt and a deeper pressure release because the natural element of the wind has not degraded or reduced that yet. The horse that made the tracks on the left was walking slow and dragging his feet up from the soft sand - see the drag marks leaving the pressure release?

When I was discussing sign cutting with the Texas Monthly writers I talked about losing sign then changing the distance and angle from your eyes to the sign would allow you to see sign you may miss being over the top of it. Sometimes you can look in the general direction the tracks are going then see an obvious shine or color change, which may allow you to jump forward quickly (leap frogging) to save some time or to make up time. If an animal crossed through grass, even a suburban lawn, often the bruising of the grass or dispersion of any moisture will leave a tell tale path visibl from the shine.

You may have to change your distance and angle from the Sun to the tracks to see it. Look at the bottom of the photo to the left and find the disturbed ground, then carry your eyes up to towards the top of the photo and you would see a different in the shine or texture of the ground caused by the displacement of the natural ground.

The photo above shows one week old and two week old horse tracks. In the one week old horse tracks, A depicts the degraded walls of the pressure release caving in and gravity displacing that soil to the bottom of the pressure release; B shows the still evident pressure release of the frog of the hoof; C shows the deeper part of the pressure release indicating direction of travel; and D shows the degraded toe dirt after substantial displacement by the wind.  The two week old track is heavily filled in by wind blown sand and gravity.  The wind even blew some small sticks that settled into the pressure release, however the deepest part of the pressure release is still visible indicating direction of travel.    

Tracking - Aging of Sign

One of the harder things to do in a climate that lacks noticeable changes, such as desert environments without moisture or substantial winds, is the Aging of Tracks. There are various factors and components of nature that will help in the Aging of Tracks which would provide discernible changes observable to the tracker  usually in degradation of sharp edges and the changing of the color. Some of these natural factors include:



Moisture such as Fog or Dew - will usually fluff up the topsoil (as the soil absorbs moisture and expands) and make the track appear spongy.

Rain will wash away tracks beginning with the sharp edges, however compressed tracks may leave darker areas where the moisture ran to the lowest part of the compression. Light rain may dimple or pock mark the pressure release. Rain can deliver a timeline for the tracker.

The Wind will erase gradual edges and soften sharp edges. Take note of your environment and judge accordingly.

Heat. Dries out the moisture (providing discoloration) in the ground and combined with gravity, cause the edges to crumble.

Gravity. Causes sharp, regular edges, alongside the compression of tracks/sign to deteriorate over time.

Thumb Test. The tracker, using his thumb, presses down into the soil to produce a sample that he can use to judge age of the track compared to the impression, edges, and coloration of his thumb print.

Cold. Slows down the aging process by retaining moisture.

Animal Tracks. Consider the animal traffic in the area and apply it to the analysis of evaluating the age of the sign.  In the desert during the hottest months, often lizard tracks across other ground sign indicate that the ground sign was presented no later tha the early morning hours, providing a time line to the ground sign. 

Print A at Right is 36 hours old. Note rounding or smoothing of edges defining the track. Light wind has made distinguishing print marks of the footwear very difficult to read.

Print B is 4 hours old. Note the print has retained the sharp edges of the track. With a light wind and time, this track's sharp edges will round and the depression caused by the pressure release will fill in.

One of the best things you can do is to find an area that will not be disturbed, lay your own sign each day and check the changes as it relates to the weather and environment.

Mantracking - Reading the Print

Several friends of mine have asked me to post some articles on tracking. So starting with this post, I'll do some basic tracking posts every so often in case there are any readers interested in learning and practicing this craft.

Cutting for sign. Sign is any evidence of someone or something's passing. Everything that walks on the ground leaves some sort of sign...the trick is to see it and read it.

Sign can be a flattening of the ground; a disturbance such as pushing a twig or rock into the ground; a regularity caused by lines in their footwear; or a color change or shine from the subject's passing. When I'm looking to pick up sign, I cut for sign by moving perpendicular to the direction I think the subject is heading and pick up a starting point...and like I said, we call this 'Cutting for Sign'.

It is valuable to place the area you are looking at between yourself and the Sun as this provides the best light situation, both contrast and shadow wise, to notice disturbances. If I pickup a track, I'll study it to ensure I can recognize it again. Sometimes I'll take pictures, like I did for evidence when I was building a case of Archeological or Environmental crimes as a Conservation Law Enforcement Officer. Sometimes I would even fill out a Track Report with full measurements and pattern descriptions for future reference and identification.

The basic sign you'll see is a foot print, full print or partial. You can tell many things from one or more prints: type of foot gear, rate of travel, and stride (distance between toe of one print to the heel of the next). You can gain some perspective on what the subject is thinking such as evidence left, such as the pressure release created by his footwear, which can show things like him turning around checking his back trail from someone trailing him or even looking up.

The disturbed area caused by the foot, called the Pressure Release, can give you an indication on the individual's weight, balance and speed. Normally the toe of the foot gear pushes sand or dirt forward in the direction of movement and this is called toe dirt.

An interrupted heel can add a little difficultly at first in reading the pressure release, but this can be overcome by comparing several prints or pressure releases to see what is normal.

Mantracking

I spent some time last week with the local Police Department and County Sheriffs Office Combined Search and Rescue (COMSAR) Team conducting an Orientation to Man Tracking. As an Army Range Rider I had worked with this group a couple times in the past on search and rescues in the Mountains. The group was pretty apt students, seeing from the get go that this can help them as they search for lost hikers or whoever. One search and rescue in particular was where I tracked an emotional disturbed old man into the Mountains and found him before he was dead. I brought a medical response team, with a couple of the COMSAR members, and they were able to save this man's life.

There were several members of the SWAT team as well, and they thought Man Tracking Skills are essential for tracking escape convicts or other criminals. Once I tracked two archeological thieves 8 miles before I caught and arrested them.

The basics of Man Tracking are the same for tracking animals and really just involves being aware like the horseback trail rider should be at any given time. Maybe you are separated from your riding partners and need to find them, or maybe you live close to an area with a missing child and you volunteer to help search for the child while on horseback. The advantages of tracking on horseback are obviously that you cover more ground in a quicker fashion, your elevated position often allows you to see sign and disturbances better without putting your ground sign and tracks into play and possibly confusing other trackers.

The tracking subjects that I focus on are:

Principles of Tracking and Signcutting

Print Report

Griding Tracks

Reading Common Pressure Releases

Movement Patterns

Aging of Sign

Use of the Tracking Stick

Reading Above Ground sign

Counter Tracking Measures

Tracking Formations

Conduct of the Search and Search Techniques

Use of technology, primarily cell phone photos and sending those e-mail and use of tracking beacons.

The area I was conducting this tracking school for the City/County COMSAR was pretty rocky and a lot of ground sign was missed, however using lost sign search techniques, often the team would locate the fairly subtle ground I left for them such as a rock pushed into the ground or a rock separated from the soil. See below photo.

If you are part of a local horseback group you may want to consider doing some tracking training to prepare yourselves to help in any local area searches – missing children are common. It is something you can practice each time on horseback to sharpen your skills and adds another aspect to trail riding. Safe Journey.