Kearney Jack - Tracking

by jack Kearney~
TRACKING
A Blueprint for Learning How
by
Jack Kearney
Pathways Press El Cajon

Cover Photo by
joe O'Dell
DEDICATION
This book is lovingly dedicated to my wife, Avis, without

whose untiring efforts it could never have been accomplished.
Her assistance covered grammar, sentence structure, punctua-
tion, and typing, ... tons of typing. Throughout the months of
writing, re-writing, typing, re-typing, correcting, changing, and
typing again, she maintained her same even disposition: whining,
complaining, and footdragging every tortuous inch of the way.
Fourth Printing, April1986

Pathways Press El Cajon
Copyright 1978 by Pathways Press, 525 }effree Street, E/ Cajon, California

92020. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by means electronic'
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission 0 ~
the publisher and author.
Library of Congress No: 77-184 72

Manufactured in the United States
In the last ten years many good trackers have worked
at the El Cajon Border Patrol Station and all of them helped to
build our envious record of success on searches for lost per-
sons. However, in some outlandish places and at some
outrageous hours, the guy I looked up and saw the most often
was Jim Burns, and only slightly less often was Larry Harlan.
The initial motivating force behind our involvement
in Search and Rescue work was our boss, Ab Taylor. He, more
than anyone else, has been beating the drum and selling the
idea of tracking as a rescue tool. It was originally his idea to try
teaching tracking to search volunteers and his dedication to
this pursuit continues to occupy a major portion of his time.
Others who provided vital input, encouragement, or
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS inspiration were Lois McCoy, Jon Gunson, PeeWee Lagasse,
Stan Bush, and the San Diego Mountain Rescue Team.
Many people contributed in some way to the eventu-
ality of this book. However, the three people who invested Jack Kearney
the greatest amount of time and effort are my fellow San
Diego Mountain Rescue Team members: John Wehbring,
Bill Mackintosh, and Joe O'Dell. John took my original
manuscript and promptly demolished it. As the pieces were
put back together it began to resemble a book. Had I followed
all of his suggestions the final product might even have looked
professional. Bill Mackintosh not only proofread and offered
suggestions on the text but took photographs and handled
all film developing, enlarging, printing, and cropping. Joe
O'Dell spent innumerable hours, took long trips, and prob-
ably took a half dozen days from his job in order to set up and
shoot precisely the picture I wanted in order to illustrate a
particular point. With these three people I particularly wish
to share the credit, ... or the blame.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1
MAN, THE TRACKER Page 7
Chapter 2
WHY TRACKING? Page 7 7
Chapter 3
AWARENESS TRAINING
Phase I, Exercise 7 Page 27
Chapter 4
UTILIZING SUN ANGLE
Phase I Exercises, Continued Page 47
Chapter 5
SIGN
What to Look For Page 55
Chapter 6
SLOPE AND GROUND COVER
Phase II Exercises Page 79
Chapter 7
AGING
Phase Ill Exercises Page 97
Chapter 8
S/GNCUTT/NG Page 173
Chapter 9
TRACK /DENT/FICA T/ON
AND DESCRIPTION Page 729
Chapter 10
FOLLOWING A NON-VISIBLE TRAIL Page 739
1
Man, The Tracker
Approximately one million years ago there walked

~pan the earth, for the first time, a creature called "Homo
Erectus", a creature that scientists are willing to agree was
man.
Another million years prior to Homo Erectus there
existed a man-1 ike creature known as "Austrolopithecus
Africanus" who is believed to be the direct forebear of Homo
Erectus. Austrolopithecus is special because he is the earliest
of our ancestors to leave us evidence of his tools, the crude
but sharp-edged stone tools of a meat eater.
The fact that Austrolopithecus was a meat eater tells
our archaeologists that he was a hunter and thus distinguishes
him from all of his predecessors who were believed to be
browsers and grazers.
The fact that Austrolopithecus hunted means he had
to seek out and stalk his food source. We can only guess how
1
I
2 Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How Man, The Tracker 3
he did this, but since many of the lower forms of animal hunt TRACKING IN THE BORDER PATROL
by scenting, this pre-man probably did also. Surely, very It generally comes as quite a surprise when people dis-
early in this period of Man's development as a hunter, he cover that there are still men who practice this ancient art
used his vision to assist him. He must have looked for evi- with as much skill and frequency as did the early cowboy and
dence of game and become aware of sign left on the ground Indian. These men not only track other human beings almost
by the movement of the animals he sought. He soon probably daily, but actually earn their living at it. The United States
associated these tracks with food and began to look for them Border Patrol has been charged with the responsibility of
when hunting. Thus his skill in tracking probably evolved at apprehending aliens who try to enter the United States il-
about the same time as did his earliest use of tools. It is there- legally, and the practice of tracking these aliens, of actually
fore reasonable to assume that the development of tracking following their "sign" through the rugged back country, is a
as a method of locating something you are seeking probably technique that is as old as the Border Patrol itself.
goes back so far in pre-h ~tory as to antedate the presence of In 1911 when federal officers first began to patrol the
Man himself. Mexican Border the original seventy-five man force was made
As Ill~more civilized and less dependent on up largely of ex-cowboys. Almost all of these men were from
hunting as a method of securing food, his skill .in tracking the Southwestern United States where ranching and the daily
undoubtedly deteriorated. However, it never completely tracking of cattle were a way of life. These early officers were
vanished and one need only look into American history to not so far removed in time or spirit from this country's
find tracking a flourishing art as recently as one hundred period of great western migration that they had forgotten
years ago. that tracking was a skill needed for survival by everyone in
Much of our current awareness of tracking derives the early days of the West. Therefore, it is easily under-
from Hollywood's romantic versions of the winning of the standable that these men would resort to tracking in order to
West. These exciting western movies showed us how the apprehend aliens who tried to walk into the United States
daring settlers knew when the Indians were near by keeping undetected. Thus tracking became the earliest Border Patrol
track of footprints on the trails and around the watering technique and the continued emphasis on its use has caused
holes. We learned that both the Indian and early settler relied the Border Patrol to develop the largest pool of expert
on evidence of tracks to tell them if game was available and trackers that exists in the United States today.
how plentiful it was. We learned that a number of Indian It is wrong to assume, however, that all Border Patrol
tribes regularly moved their encampments to follow their Agents are expert trackers. Probably 90 per cent of all Border
food source. However, the most vivid tracking lessons we Patrol Agents are less than expert due to the fact that they
learned were from the cowboy movie's most heroic character, are not involved in an activity that allows them to perfect
the scout of the wagon train. This eagle-eyed hero could take this unusual skill. The largest concentrations of our officers
one look at the ground and know everything that had hap- are assigned to "linewatch" activities and are stationed im-
pened between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean mediately along the international boundary opposite large
for the past eight days, why it had happened, and who was Mexican and Canadian border cities.
going to get the blame. These cities are major transportation hubs and provide
4 Tracking: 4 Blueprint For Learning How Man, The Tracker 5
a jumping-off place for most aliens who try to enter the In train check or traffic check and have little opportunity to
country illegally. Therefore, most agents spend their time develop expertise in tracking.
"on the line" opposite such Mexican cities as Tijuana, Mexi- Quite a number of Border Patrol Stations are located in
cali, Nogales, Juarez, and Matamoros or across from such areas that attract alien workers who are in the country illegally.
Canadian cities as Vancouver, Winnipeg, Torohto, Montreal, Since most of these stations were established during that period
and Quebec. Officers at these line stations are primarily con- of time when the largest number of illegal alien workers sought
cerned with observing and apprehending aliens in the act of work in agriculture, these stations are situated near areas of
entering, and rely on "back-up" stations to pursue those high agricultural activity. These stations can be found in such
aliens who have eluded this first line of defense. places as Sacramento, California; Twin Falls, Idaho; Amarillo,
Still, other Border Patrol officers are assigned to Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Lake Charles, Louisiana.
stations that are many \T]iles from the border but are situated These stations are so many miles from a land border that it is
near major highways ol railways so as to facilitate the appre- quite obvious the officers at these stations do not spend their
hending of aliens on heir way to the interior. These stations time tracking people who are trying to sneak into the country.
are located in such aces as San Clemente, California; Teme- It is predominantly at back-up stations like El Cajon,
cula, California; ndio, California; Lourdsburg, New Mexico; California, or at small line stations where few illegal entries
and Miami, Oklahoma. Officers at these stations are engaged occur that Border Patrol Officers have the opportunity to be-
come highly skilled trackers.
TRACKING AT THE EL CAJON BORDER PATROL

STATION
In 1948 the Border Patrol established a station at El
Cajon, California with a nucleus of four good trackers. Lo-
cated just east of San Diego, the purpose of the station was
to back up the line stations of Campo and Chula Vista.
In the 1950's there were changes in personnel but the num-
ber of officers changed very little. With my arrival in 1961
the station was increased to six men and in the intervening
years has grown to a current complement of about 20 offi-
cers. It is still a relatively small station but its efficiency (the
ratio of aliens apprehended to man hours expended) is
perennially among the highest in the United States. It is a
rare month that fewer than 1 ,200 aliens are apprehended and
our peak months average close to 3,000 persons per month.
Nearly 60 per cent of these are caught as a result of tracking.
Border Patrol agents checking traffic at San Clemente, California. The El Cajon Border Patrol Station's area of responsi-
I
11 /till /,i11y: A Blueprint For Learning How Man, The Tracker 7
bilit y is uniquely shaped and situated so as to almost force its

complement of officers to become expert trackers in order to
perform their duties. Located in San Diego County, where in
1976, 25 per cent of all the undocumented aliens in the
United States were apprehended, it is an area of high activity.
The station is shaped somewhat like a spreading tree with its
narrow trunk setting on the Mexican Border between Otay
Peak and Tecate Peak . It grows upward and outward into a
secondary line of defense to the north of the Campo and
Chula Vista stations. Functioning much like a linebacker in
football who moves to pick up the rushes that elude his line-
men, the El Cajon Station is respoVJsible for taking the second
crack at those people who . h.cive eluded detection and
managed to get several_~to the United States. With
over 1 ,000 square miles of area to patrol, much of it rugged
and mountainous, the El Cajon tracker may be able to stalk
his quarry for upwards of fifty miles . Over the years I have
worked tracks on a number of chases that lasted as long as
three days and fondly remember one that traversed almost
one hundred miles!
My own first exposure to tracking began when I
entered the Border Patrol in 1960. However, since I was
assigned to a line station I really did not start acquiring skill
as a tracker until I transferred to El Cajon in 1961. At that
time, I began tracking from four to ten hours a day, three to
five days a week and have continued to do so for a period
of time that is now approaching twenty years. This is, no
doubt, a solid background of experience for a tracker, but
sometimes the quality of the experience can be even more
valuable than the q uantity. The interesting "catch" to a
Border Patrolman's experience is that every blessed person
he goes after, HIDES. Getting within shouting distance of
my quarry when he is awake, alert, and listening gets me an
absolute zero-if he can hear me coming he will usually cut
Lightened section indicates area of responsibility of U.S. Border Patrol station,
and run before I get there. I may have to track him step-by-step El Cajon, California.
8 Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How Man, The Tracker 9
to the exact bush under which he is hiding, crawl under the learned that with most search and rescue groups tracking was
bush, and dig him out from under the leaves with which he a rudimentary tool at best. Upon reflection, it was under-
has concealed himself. "Close" for me is failure. standable that the average person would seldom have the
There is a high element of sport in tracking and I do not time, opportunity, or motivation to learn this painstaking
have to spend much time in reflection to realize that over the skill. What was much slower in coming was the realization
years my tracking skill has brought me more adventure, excite- that people are almost completely unaware of what an ef-
ment, satisfaction, and downright fun than anyone should ex- fective method tracking is for finding lost persons and, in
pect from something they get paid to do. Being a Border Patrol fact, have no idea how often it is the BEST method.
Agent is not exactly an everyday, mundane type of job. Dealing The San Diego Mountain Rescue Team was one of
with smugglers and felons can be dangerous and risky and tends the first groups to receive our training and is chiefly re-
to keep a person alert and interested. However, if you have the sponsible for spreading the word of our successful "step-
added dimension of being a tracker, ~ou will find yourself be- by-step" teaching technique. Our two-day tracking indoc-
ing called upon to assist other law enforcement agencies in trination course is sought after, and has been taught to SAR
searches for burglers, rapists, murde ers, kidnappers, escaped and law enforcement groups from all over the country, and
prisoners, and arsonists. Y~t the st satisfying tracking ex- has been presented to groups from as far away as Guam. It
perience you are apt to encounter is the chance to search for, is acclaimed because it works. We teach it because the most
and find, a person who is lost in the wilderness. common problem we trackers are forced to cope with is the
confusing tracks laid down by non-trackers in a search area.
TRACKING THE LOST PERSON
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when I began to get
involved in search and rescue work. I can remember teaching
tracking to local volunteers in the late 1960's, but I don't
remember actually participating in a search until about 1970.
The reputation built by El Cajon officers as skillful trackers
of aliens caused us to receive requests for instruction in our
tracking techniques. As search and rescue personnel were
exposed to this instruction they began to realize the value of
an expert tracker and we were requested to assist on actual
searches. It was from these vague beginnings that we em-
barked on our enviable record of live "finds" of lost children
which has propelled us to national prominence.
Prior to 1967 I was unfamiliar with searches for lost
persons but, knowing the value of tracking, I had supposed
that all searchers were similarly informed and therefore
accomplished trackers. It came as quite a shock when I The author conducting field training for search and rescue group.
TO Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How
I have been on a number of searches that found non-

trackers clomping randomly through an area because they
decided the area would not reveal tracks and therefore, they
felt no harm could be done. I could have easily followed
tracks in the area and so could at least eight or nine of my
fellow officers at El Cajon. I have heard or read of countless
2
other searches where the subject was never found, or found
dead, in terrain where our tenth or eleventh best tracker Why Tracking?
could have easily found him alive in eight hours, if he
could have gone in alone before the area was trampled by
well-meaning but short-sighted amateurs.
To a non-tracker this may sound like outrageous boast-
i.ng, but it is based on years of exp rience and sound confi-
dence in our men. Daily, routinely, long distances we fol-
low aliens who illegally cross_the bo der, tracking tflem to
their hiding places and bringing them back to the station
Tracking can be a great aid to any investigation be-
without raising the eyebrows of fellow officers. It is our job.
cause it is an outstanding information gathering process.
Every man at El Cajon does it, with varying degrees of skill.
Tracks are clues, and they are by far the most plentiful type
Border Patrolmen at other stations do it and have been doing
it every working day for generations. Outsiders may marvel,
but within the Border Patrol it is not considered noteworthy
:o
of clue that a lost person or law violator will leave behind.
the eye of an expert tracker, a bit of evidence will appear
JUSt about every place that the person he is seeking has
enough to elicit comment.
moved. In ideal circumstances this means a clue just about
None of us are clairvoyant; none of us are blessed with
every 18 to 20 inches.
extra sensory perception. We are not unusual people with
A common training exercise for beginning law enforce-
eyes of eagles, hearts of lions, and souls of saints. Not one of
ment officers and beginning searchers has the instructor drop-
us was raised by the Shoshone or suckled by timber wolves.
ping bits of evidence along a trail and then grading the
We are an unimposing gaggle of bandy-legged, pot-bellied liars
students on the number of objects that are found. This trail
and .libertines who have become expert at what we do, by
of litter may include such things as a pencil, a gum wrapper,
doing it daily and making a lot of mistakes.
a cigarette butt, a coin, or a matchbook cover. It is a fun
The purpose of this book is to short-cut the learning
exercise and everyone usually has a very good time. However,
process by eliminating those time consuming mistakes. Any-
the instructional value is co_mparable to teaching a person to
one reading this book who has 20-20 vision (with, or without
glasses), patience, and enough motivation to practice the
71
system outlined herein, can become just as expert as any one
of us.
72 Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How Why Tracking? 73
accurately shoot a basketball by having that person begin by two people walked on opposite sides of the road,
throwing it into a swimming pool. Over the last eighteen meaning that there was at least a six foot separation
years I have followed sets of tracks leading to the finding of between them even if they had been walking abreast.
tens of thousands of people and certainly I have found things However, this was not always the case; at the steepest
that they have discarded or lost. But, on the average, the part of the hill the female lagged behind and crossed
finding of this kind of litter only occurs about once in every over to walk in the footsteps of the male. Again this
three miles of tracking. was strong evidence that she was not being coerced.
On the other hand, the information that can be as- Once atop the h ill they viewed the surroundings, made
sembled by a tracker who finds no other evidence than tracks some kind of decision, and returned in the direction of
can sometimes recreate an entire chain of events. the car. On this return trip they stopped twice prior to
Several years ago El Cajon Border Patrol Officers as- reaching the car and had some kind of face -to-face en-
sisted on a murder case in which an attractive young lady counter, a struggle ensued, and then the killing. The
was found stabbed to death within fifty\ feet of her auto- murderer then departed the area to the west where his
mobile which had broken down on a dese~ted dirt road. The tracks were lost on the grass lawns and paved streets of
circumstances posed many questio~-d she encountered a housing area.
car trouble and while walking to get assistance had she been The information that the trackers supplied did not
accosted by a stranger who happened to be lurking in the solve this case, but it made a great contribution to the eventu-
area? Had she been kidnapped and brought to the area to be
killed? Had she come to the area with someone she knew? All
of these possibilities and many others existed initially . For-
tunately the agency having jurisdiction called our El Cajon
office immediately and requested tracking assistance. We
responded promptly and within two hours we could tel l the
following things with a fair degree of certainty:
The female had been driving at the time the car
became disabled. The murderer had been riding as her
passenger. When the car stopped, the female had got-
ten out and walked towards the front of her vehicle
while her passenger, whose tracks indicated that he was
an adult male, had departed from the passenger side
and walked around the rear of the car giving the victim
an excellent chance to run had she felt threatened. The
male and female milled around the car a bit then
started walking a dirt road towards the top of a hill.
During this walk of nearly three hundred yards, the Why tracking? Because of this cherished m emory from Sequoia National Fores t.
al solving of it. When the young man was brought to trial this the person being sought he has made a tremendous contri-
information supported his contention that the crime was not bution.
premeditated but had resulted from his losing his temper at I can remember quite a number of searches that ac-
taunts that had been thrown at him during an empassioned complished nothing for several days and, once the victim's
argument. track was identified, plummeted to a successful conclusion
On other occasions I have gotten a great deal of insight within hours. Once the correct track description was broad-
into the way a person was thinking by information that I cast over the radio other searchers remembered seeing the
have gathered as a result of following his tracks. The fact that print, and a travel pattern quickly emerged that enabled a
the tracks show the person being followed made a sudden trail to be plotted to the victim's location.
turn and took a circuitous route around a parked vehicle
shows he had not wanted to be seen by the vehicle's occu-
pants. The fact that the subject departs \from a trail and
hides, indicates that he probably did not wa,nt to be seen by
others walking along the trail. )
At times I have had the trac~ following meet
with the tracks of another person, the number and position
of the sets indicating that a conversation probably took
place. On some of these occasions the second set of tracks
have returned to a nearby farm house, thereby providing me
with the opportunity to talk to someone who has seen and
tal ked to the person I had been following.
Sometimes, in following the tracks of aliens who have
entered the United States illegally, I have passed close enough
to a farm house so as to arouse the barking of dogs. By
simply talking with the occupants of the house to determine
at what time the dogs had been provoked into a similar
Why trackinq? Because of this cherished memory from Indio, California.
barking spree I have been able to pinpoint the time that the
alien passed by. In many cases tracking will allow you to focus your
These examples constitute only a few of the ways that search in a rather confined area. At other times it can elimi-
tracking can uncover information that would otherwise be nate areas that do not need to be searched and often it is a
unobtainable. Often the addition of only a few key pieces of tool by which you may disprove, or verify, information that
this type of information has been sufficient to solve a case. you have uncovered through interrogation of witnesses.
The tracker does not have to follow a set of tracks to their An example of this occurred a number of years ago
conclusion in order to prove his value; often if he does when I arrested the driver of a vehicle who was transporting
nothing more than positively identify which track belongs to five illegal aliens into the United States. Interrogation of
I
these five Mexican men revealed that they had made contact matical terms: A soldier marching in formation, at attention,
with this man in Mexico, had made arrangements with him to travels at a rate of four miles an hour. In military parlance
be smuggled to Los Angeles for $200 apiece, had entered his this pace is called "quick time" and is admittedly quite a bit
car in Mexico (two of them having been put in the trunk), faster than a leisurely stroll. One-half this speed, or two miles
and had been driven into the United States in a remote area an hour, is certainly within the realm of possibility of all but
thru a hole the driver had cut in the International fence. the very young or the very old. Difficult terrain could reduce
Subsequent interrogation of the driver elicited his completely walking speed even further, but, for planning purposes, two
different version of the story; he had made a rest stop at a miles an hour is reasonable.
small state campground about forty miles east of San Diego Assuming that a lost person is walking at a speed of
(and many miles inside the United States) and these five men two miles an hour, it is theoretically possible, if he has been
had come up out of a dry river bed area, leaxing numerous missing for five hours, for him to have traveled ten miles
1
companions behind, and asked him for a ride o San Diego. from the point where he was last seen. Since he could have
The smuggler told his story so convinci gly and with traveled in any direction, you are contending with a circular
such attention to subtle detail that I began to onder if there area that has a 20 mile diameter and encompasses 314 square
really might be more aliens in the are e he ha9 stopped. miles.
My curiostity was so arou~ed that after wrapping up the case, Since full scale searches are seldom under way until a
I got in my car and drove the forty miles to the campground person has been missing for at least ten hours, there exists a
and thoroughly checked the entire area. potential search perimeter having a 20 mile radius, a 40 mile
I discovered not only that there were no additional diameter, and an area of 1 ,256 square miles before the first
aliens, but that the only tracks that came up out of that river trained searcher arrives on the scene.
bed were the tracks of two people, a male and a female. It As each hour passes the circle expands and in the tenth
could be further ascertained that the tracks had originated in hour of a full-scale search (twentieth hour since the victim
the campground in the first place and were simply returning, walked away) you are presented with a search area of 5,026
and the condition of the tracks indicated that this had oc- square miles.
curred more than two days earlier. In addition to this I found The number of people required to thoroughly search
no tracks of the five Mexican citizens, nor any tracks be- an area of this size is staggering. In a heavily forested area a
longing to the smuggler anywhere in the area. search group numbering one hundred people could take
Despite the fact that we had a very strong case, our several hours to sweep search a single square mile of this type
position was strengthened at the trial when I was able to of difficult terrain.
testify with conviction to the facts outlined above. The smug- If a tracker does nothing more than establish the first
gler's defense was greatly discredited by this testimony and five steps taken by the lost person he will have established
he was convicted on all counts. the probability of a direction that immediately cuts the
Probably the strongest case that can be made for the search area in half. If he can maintain the direction of the
use of tracking is the one we regularly present in our training lost person's trail for as much as a mile, the shape of the
lectures and which is most easily explained in simple mathe- search area can be reduced from a 360 degree circle to a
pie-shaped wedge that is likely to be no greater than 30 de-

grees. This narrow focusing of the search area reduces the
number of square miles to be searched in the smaller area
POINT LAST SEEN (5 hours of walking) from 314 square miles to 26 square
I
miles and in the larger area (20 hours of walking) from
:' 5,026 square miles to 209 square miles.
This, of course, is mathematical theory. How does it
work out in actual search situations? It has been my experi-
ence that it holds up amazingly well.
In the preponderance of searches on which I have
assisted, we have, in a short period of time, aimed the search
as surely as you would aim a rifle. With the direction estab-
lished, a helicopter has usually been able to fly along this
' corridor, spot the victim, pick him up, and return him to base
camp in a relatively short period of time. What our tracking
usually accomplishes is the concentrating of searchers in a
small area with a high probability for containing the victim.
On these successful occasions the trackers are usually
209
20 HOURS SQUARE MILES the last ones to come up out of the canyon and be trans-
' ported back to base camp. Often the exhuberance of the cele-
\
bration is beginning to die down and many times the trackers
even miss out on the satisfaction of viewing the object of
their search who may have been whisked off to undergo a
medical examination. Surely the television camera will have
departed and the helicopter crew will have finished with their
SQUARE MILES interviews.
5,026
It is during these anti-climactic winding down periods
that the trackers and ground searchers slip into quiet re-
flection as they become aware of the sweat and begin to feel
the aches and fatigue. It is a quiet time for relishing success
and usually the tracker will have ample reason for feeling a
deep satisfaction at what he has accomplished.
20 Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How

IT 3
Awareness Training
Phase I, Exercise 1
It is very important that you understand the basic pur-

pose of this book. It is to teach you how to become a tracker.
An ultimate goal, a long range purpose, is to allow you
to find a lost person by applying your tracking skill. However,
that is not going to happen the minute you put down this
book because you will not yet have acquired the tracking
skill. If you are motivated to work at it, you will become a
skilled tracker; if you are not sufficiently motivated we will
still probably reap the fringe benefit of reducing the likeli-
hood of your ignorance contributing to the unnecessary
death of a lost person.
Tracking is no more difficult to learn than playing the
piano . However, it is not one iota easier either! Eight year old
children can learn to play the piano and they can learn to
27
Why tracking? Because of this cherished memory from Palomar Mountain.
22 Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How Awareness Training 23
track; however, both are going to require dedication to fun-

damentals and lots of practice.
This book is a blueprint for learning how to track. It
outlines a progression of field exercises that must be followed
in their proper sequence. If you follow these instructions
carefully you will construct a solid foundation, follow it with
a sturdy structure, and cap it off with a reliable roof. If you
skip any of these vital steps you will have a very unsafe
structure. If you simply read the blu~print and do not follow
its instructions, you will have constructed nothing.
Preparation and Equipment ~

Tracking requires very little equip ent beyond a pair
of eyes which unaided, or aided by enses, provide 20/20
vision. However, experience has shown that som.e special
items can be very helpful.
Clothing depends mostly on local conditions and
weather; wear whatever is normal for the area where you will Tracker utilizing tracking stick to determine step interval.
be training. Sturdy clothing for brush is obvious. A broad measuring tape in their pocket. Stiff rulers or yardsticks are
brimmed hat is handy for shielding your eyes from sun glare, undesirable because they are so unwieldy and plastic rulers
or for shading tracks at mid-day. By deliberately blocking the break too easily in extreme cold.
direct rays of mid-day sun from reaching the tracks, you cre- A small notepad and pencil are needed for recording
ate a situation that allows you to use a standard signal mirror to measurements, making notes, and making a drawing of the
reflect low-angle lighting onto the shaded area. This low-angle track you are going to follow.
light accentuates shadows and makes the tracks easier to see. Trail tape should be carried to mark tracks once you
A walking stick is a must. It should be at least three feet get beyond the beginning training phase (it also has other
long and sturdy enough to give support when negotiating steep uses on searches). Plastic surveyor's flagging is popular with
slopes. I prefer a long metal ski pole that reaches about to my some search teams, but my personal preference is strips of
armpit. When the basket is removed from the bottom oftheski crepe paper. The fading and deterioration of crepe paper
pole and two rubber bands, or "0" rings, are placed on the is far faster than that of plastic and allows you to quickly
shaft you not only have a dependable walking stick but you differentiate old markers from fresh ones.
will have acquired an almost magical "tracking stick." A last item of equipment is a flashlight. This will not
Every tracker should carry some type of measuring be needed in the Phase I exercises but could be quite neces-
device. Some trackers attach a length of metal measuring tape sary if you are putting yourself through Phase II and Phase Ill
to their tracking stick, but most simply carry a small metal training in heavily forested areas. Light is vital to vision.
Vision is vital to tracking. The tops of tall trees in heavily cult but not impossible. You should be so guided in your
timbered areas do not allow much direct sunlight to reach selection of a training site.
the forest floor. In this dim light the use of a flashlight In the beginning exercise a set of tracks are laid out
greatly aids tracking. across a field and the student tracker, or trackers, attempt to
It should be mentioned that headlamps are of no value . follow them to their conclusion. A practice area should be
in tracking. To be effective your light should be held very selected that is flat, has a minimum of vegetation, and is
low to the ground; therefore, it must be hand controlled. quite firm. It should however, have a fine layer of sand or
dust.
Selecting a Site School playgrounds, little league parks, and construc-
The first thing you must do in l~rning to track or in tion sites are good places to start looking for such a practice
setting up a training exercise for a group or would-be trackers,
site.
is to select a suitable training ground. )
One of the early mistakes that wq,/made in the develop- Managing the Group, Spacing
ment of our step-by-step teaching/echnique was to select If it is your intention to conduct this training for a
terrain that was mildly challenging to our own abilities. We large group of people you should select an area that allows
believed, incorrectly, that this would be the most exciting each tracking team to move their tracks in the same direction
and interesting terrain for' novices. What we did not realize with about a twelve to fifteen foot spacing between each team.
was the great gap between what was obvious to a skilled All the exercises in this book can be laid out and
tracker and what was obvious to rank beginners. practiced by a single person working alone. However, th.e
The problem is exactly like the one you face in trying addition of a partner helps, and a team of three people IS
to teach an adult to read. You know that they are mentally ideal. Many times over the past several years we have at-
mature and cannot be stimulated by kindergarten books tempted to train huge groups with too few field instructors.
which have three word sentences like: "See John run"; "See This has forced us to form tracking teams with far more than
Jane run". So the mistake we made in the beginning was to three members. It can be done but the quality of the learning
try to start beginners in sixth grade readers. The result was experience diminishes greatly with each additional person be-
that we overwhelmed them. It was a slow trial and error yond the optimum of three. Therefore, if you wish to train
process, but eventually we learned to teach to the level of thirty people, you should divide them into ten three-man
capabi Iity of our students. , teams which will require a training site at least 120 feet wide
In the last ten years we have put on tracking seminars in order to maintain the minimum safe spacing between
in very diverse locations throughout the United States and
groups.
have, therefore, been forced to quickly select an appropriate If you are training a large group you should put a
training site from widely differing types of terrain. single person in charge of laying out all the sets of tracks. He
Since our beginning exercises emphasize the importance ' should lay out the practice tracks to be followed by groups
of seeing each track in sequence we have come to be guided
13 57 and9whilewearingonepairofshoeswithdistinctively
in our selection of a site by the thought that it must be diffi- ,' ' '
marked soles, then change to another pair of shoes contammg
..
numbered groups to be working tracks atangles that do not
00 , , , , , , , , , ..)\ . . . . . . .' _, . . '

0 ............................. ~
directly approach the sun. _/
i Direction of the Tracks

In the beginning problem, tracks should always be
)(<:_ go ,.,,' ,',','.,.' .:-.- ..-. '' ','_.._.. }~ worked towards the position of the sun (even on overcast
days) and with the sun at as low an angle as possible so that
the slight indentations of the track will cast shadows. In
other words, your tracking problems should be held in early
Q0 , , , , , , , ..... , , , , , , , morning or late afternoon. At these times the sun is as close
0 ...... ' .. .. ... ... .. .. ... ............. "' to the horizon as possible and affords the most favorable
sun angle for viewing tracks.
~~~---------------.
0-- STUDENT TRACKER X-- FIELD INSTRUCTOR SUN AT HIGH ANGLE
CAUSES VERY SUGHT
Above drawing illustrates layout of field exercise showing three sets of parallel SHADOWS TO APPEAR
tracks with a twelve foot separation between sets. Student trackers are formed
into three 3-man teams each consisting of a point man with tw~flankers. A single
field instructor supervises the progress of the three tracking teams.
uniquely different markings to lay out the tracks for groups

2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. The reason for differently marked soles is
precautionary. It is very difficult for the track-layer to main-
tain the minimum spacing between sets of tracks until he has
laid out these problems a number of times. He is very apt to SUN AT LOW ANGLE
CASTS LONG SHADOWS
waver in such a manner that two different trails almost con-
verge. If the trails should join and the tracks are identical, the
students will be unable to successfully complete the exercise.
If it is your intention to have fifteen feet of spacing be-
tween your teams, your track layer must put a thirty foot
spacing between the first set he lays down (number 1) and
the second set (number 3). He must, therefore, be very care-
ful to select a point, across the field near the finish line, that The single most important thing to learn about tracking
is as close as possible to being thirty feet from the finish at the outset is to utilize the sun. Try to always position your-
point of his previous set of tracks. A common error is to have self so that the track for which you are looking will appear
good spacing at the starting points but spacing that is too directly between you and the sun. Caution and common
wide at the finish line. This results in sets of tracks that are sense must be employed, of course. You certainly cannot get
not parallel but flare outward so as to cause the higher atop a trail or you will obliterate it with your own tracks.
To learn the value of sun angle you should run your

own experiment. Put down a track in the dust, then walk
a complete circle around it, observing it from about five to
eight feet away. The difference in your ability to see the
track with the sun at your back as opposed to having the
track directly between you and the sun is dramatic.
Also, run the same experiment within two hours of
dawn, at mid-day, and again within two hours of sunset. \
The way the track disappears with the sun at its height
and reappears in the evening will teach you a lesson about
low sun angle that is far more graphic than I could accom-
plish with words.
Laying Out the Tracks

The track-layer begins laying out the first" practice
exercise by marking a straight line in the dirt across his path
as a starting point. Just forward of the line he should make a
circle in the dirt about eighteen (18) inches in diameter. He
should scuff the area within the circle until it is loose enough properly identify the track. Slight, subtle differences between
to leave a distinct impression of his track, then placing his very similar tracks have meant the difference between success
right foot within the circle (this being his first step) he walks and failure on a number of searches, as well as many law en-
normally in a straight line for about fifty (50) or seventy-five forcement cases with which I have been involved over the years.
(75) yards (one hundred would be better, but it is usually The track of your quarry must be examined carefully
difficult to find a field that long). At the end of his walk and often. Subtle cuts or marki,ngs may not appear in one
he should mark his finish line then circle away from the track but may be discernible in another, therefore, identi-
tracks and staying at least thirty feet from, and parallel to, fying the track must be a continuous information gathering
his original route, return to the starting area. If the process.
training is for a large group he must return by a route that Study the encircled track carefully. You should
gives wide berth to ALL the practice sets of tracks. measure its length from the rear of the heel to the tip of
the toe. Always when measuring tracks, be careful not to
Identifying the Track let your hands or the measuring tape touch the ground,
Once the tracks are laid out the training is ready to thus making more sign. Avoid adding any more confusing
begin and each three-man tracking team should take a posi- marks to those already on the ground.
tion at the start of a set of tracks. Once at the starting point If there is a heel, measure its width and length.
as much time as necessary should be taken to study and Measure the sole at its widest point. Note whether the toe is
very pointed, moderately pointed, rounded, or blunt. Note away, by radio, in descriptive terms that leave them with the
any stitching or nail holes. Note any pattern or design. , me mental picture you possess cannot be overemphasized.
Take a piece of paper and draw a picture of the track I feel that track description is of such importance that
. . ' devote an entire chapter of this book to its coverage.
putting 1n all marks and designs. If there are lines or bars
across the track, separately record their exact number A sound general rule is to use descriptive camp risons
coarseness, and approximate spacing. If you are working with' everyone can relate to, such as: "a dime sized circle"
a partner or as part of a tracking team, practice communi- ad of a "circle that is about 11/16 inches in di meter"
cating the track description by stationing the other person, "bars about the thickness of a wooden match stick" 1
in-
or persons, far enough away from the track so that they of "bars approximately 1/8 inch wide."
cannot see it and have them draw the track from your The value of proper identification can sometimes be
verbal instructions. of paramount importance:
One of my most challenging tracking experi-
ences began to unfold on the night of July 3rd, 1962,
when a small Mexican national entered the United
States surreptitiously near Tijuana, Mexico, and started
a walk which he hoped would bring him to Los
Angeles. We cut his track at dawn the following morn-
ing and started following it. With a team of trackers
always on his trail and other officers cutting for sign
ahead, we had, by late afternoon, taken the trail over
35 circuitous miles to the intersection of Main and
Second Street in El Cajon. At this point our quarry
turned west on Main Street and began walking directly
through the center of the city which, at that time,
had a population of nearly 40,000 people. However,
the markings on the bottom of his shoes were so
unique that we were able to find and identify his
track in the few dirt areas available. We continued
Tracker making a drawing of footprint. following him directly through the busiest part of
Footprints are the best clues you can hope to find the city for nearly two miles to its western edge,
while searching for a lost person. They are the only certain southwest towards the freeway, then back north
evidence that a person is going to leave behind. They point on the railroad tracks where, at nearly nine o'clock
the novice in a direction where the victim was once headed in the evening we caught up with him and made the
and they lead an expert tracker directly to him. Being able' arrest.
to describe these clues to another search team, ten miles
Awareness Training 33
Importance of Step Interval
Once you have found every idiosyncrasy of the right of the tracking stick has probably been the greates~ factor in
shoe of your practice tracks, looking particularly for the helping non-trackers become acutely .track conscious v~ry
things that make it unique, like cuts or worn spots, you quickly and is therefore one of the b1ggest rea~ons our In-
should look forward about eighteen (18) inches and to your . ctional system has enjoyed such outstand1ng success.
left about eight (8) inches for the back edge of the heel of
the next track. In very hard ground, the curved back edge of Utilization of the Tracking Stick
a heel is the mark you are most apt to see. Once the toe of . The correct manner of establishing the marks on yo r
one track is established in relation to the heel of the succeed- stick is to start at a point where your subject was walking n r-
ing track you will have the information needed to determine mally and the heel and toe marks of both shoe~ can be se~n;\
your subject's "step interval". You start by placing the point of your st1ck even w1th
The step interval, or the distance between tracks, is 'the heel of the forward track, then moving your rubber band
the information needed to transform your walking stick . marker so that it is directly above the tip of t.he toe of th.e
into a handy-dandy track finder. rear footprint. This gives you the correct step Interval and IS
When I was first learning to track, the mgre experi- . the piece of information of most importance to you. .
enced tracker who was giving me tips, advised me to regulate Once this forward rubber band marker (toe marker) IS
my stride so as to match., the stride of the person I was fol- , In place you alter the angle of the stick so that it is dir.ectly
lowing. I was to do this by placing the tip of my right toe at over the center of the rear footprint. Placing your established
the rear of my quarry's right heel and step forward adjusting 'toe-marker directly over the tip of the toe, you move your
my stride so that the tip of my left toe came to rest at the rear rubber band marker (heel marker) until it is directly over
heel of my quarry's left heel. In theory, I should always find the rear edge of the heel of your subject's footprint.
the track I sought just ahead of my foreward foot. You now have the length of your subject's foot shown
I tried this system diligently but found many faults on the stick (between the heel-marker and the toe-marke~),
with it. It was too easy to mis-step and obliterate the trail; the length of his stride (between the heel-marker and. the t1p
I was too likely to blunder past a sudden turn, etc. of the stick), and the vital information: the step Interval
Through experimentation I began marking the dis- (from toe-marker to tip of stick). .
tances between my quarry's tracks (the step interval) on a With this information on your stick you are now able,
walking stick and holding it near the ground so that its tip upon finding the slightest trace of a footprint, to establish
would pinpoint the location of the next track. the approximate location of the tip of the toe of the found
It worked well for me, so I continued to use it, but I track and by pivoting your stick at this point (the toe-marker
did not realize what a really effective tool it was until I be- point) and swinging it in an arc, pinpoint the area w~ere .th.e
gan encouraging students to use it during the evolution of succeeding track should appear. In swinging your st1ck,. 1t IS
our step-by-step learning technique and our two-day track- best to start with a small arc that initially allows the tip of
ing indoctrination course. the stick to travel no more than ten inches. If careful exam-
, ination of this area reveals nothing, the length of the sweep
I have gradually come to realize that the utilization
can gradually be increased.
f-ORWARD MARKER SET AT TOE

REAR MARKER SET AT
'by-step training will recognize it.
TO ':>HOW DISTANCI:.
HEEL ADDS LENGTH J"""')
BETWEEN TRACKS
OF FOOT TO , J A fact well worth mentioning at this time is that entire
OIJ 6~~T~~~ TION "
footprints only appear when the ground is very soft. A com-
7-~/0[ I~
plete, easily identifiable footprint only shows in dust and
so easy to track through that your grandmother could
MARKER o it. Expert trackers seldom see footprints but do their
king by following partial tracks, flat spots, scuffs, and
vegetation. These slight indicators are what the tracker
Is "sign"
PIVOTING STICK AT POINT OF TOE MARKER A
SMALL ARC WHICH PINPOINTS SUBTLE E_VIDENCE ~~ONWE:,X~TT~~~i SWUNG IN A
It is impossible to say how far a tracker might have to
low sign before he finds a full footprint that reveals the
ings that positively identify his victim, but when these
~
II tracks are found, they should be uniquely marked. Most
-
... ..... us at El Cajon draw a circle around the track. Some
Mountain Rescue Association teams prefer to encircle it with
rocks or trail tape. As long as you make it obvious, we cannot
quibble with it, just mark it well.
It should be mentioned at this point that a person's
stride will vary, occasionally as much as six inches, even when
th_ey are walking on level ground. Therefore, in marking your
stick you try to establish your quarry's average step interval.
Mark your stick accordingly and do not change it.
Marking Tracks
To properly utilize the tracking stick it is important to
always know whether you are looking for a right track or a
left one. If you have just found a right track and forget what
yo~ are l~oking for, you may swing your stick to the right
agam causmg you to be at least sixteen (16} inches off course.
For that reason, we advocate making a curved mark behind
the heel of each track to make its whereabouts obvious and
by putting a tail outside of the arc you can indicate wh~ther
it is a Ieft or right track.
This has become the standard way of marking tracks Illustration shows tracks marked to indicate left or right prints. Tracks are circled
and all search personnel who have been exposed to our step- when they reveal enough identifying marks to constitute a "positive make".
Realize that the footprints and sign which you are patience to look for the subtle tracks. These people are
following will not be the only ones in the area. People, who always looking ahead for an obvious track and keep trying
have attended our two-day indoctrination course at El Cajon, to creep ahead for a better vantage point.
or have heard my lectures at Search and Rescue Seminars
'
.
should remember my emphasizing the point that the prob-
lem in finding a lost person is never the absense of sign, but
the maddening excess of it.
Many times in searching for lost persons, or in tracking ~.
~~.-=
aliens and smugglers who have entered the United States
illegally, the best of us have had another trail blend into the .
one we are following, then branch off. We may follow the ~~ ~6
wrong one for several hundred yards before we get a positive ... ' .....
identification and discover it's the wrong track.
We must then go back to our last "certain" track (the
.
one we circled) and start again, being careful not ~o take the ..
wrong fork a second time. This is the reason we mark the
positive tracks well and the reason we work better in teams
of three.
Illustration shows starting position for members of the three man tracking team
and indicates their areas of viewing responsibility.
The Three Man Tracking Team
When three of us are following a set of tracks and a The first responsibility of the flankers is to watch to
conflicting trail joins the one we are following, we split and 'the side for another incoming trail and to be sure the trail the
follow each. Whichever one of us discovers that he is on the group is following does not make a sudden turn. Their
correct trail advises the others to abandon their trail and re- secondary responsibility is to assist the point man in finding
group on the correct one. This is apt to be done many times the next track. It is wise to rotate the flankers up to the
on a trail, particularly if it is in an area which has had a great point position. Working the point position is very fatiguing,
deal of foot traffic. so to keep the team fresh, each person should take his turn.
In our basic tracking classes we like to group three The major things accomplished by the three man
people on a single set of tracks. The designated leader of the tracking team for beginners is that it builds confidence, and
group works as "point man", a position that puts him slightly lessens the chance of error. What three men agree upon is
forward of his two "flankers". It is his responsibility to fol- more apt to be correct than what one man decides by
low the set of tracks and maintain order by seeing to it that himself.
neither flanker gets ahead of him and thereby in a position to Tracking is done most efficiently as a team effort and
obliterate the tracks. He must be particularly watchful for we try to develop the appreciation of this fact in our training
the "cheaters" in every beginning group who do not have the exercises.
Awareness Training 39
flat spots, small rocks pushed into the dirt, and small rocks
uprooted from their natural beds and scuffed forward in the
direction your subject went.
Of these clues the most important are flat spots. Only
hooves and something man-made will leave flat spots. Small
animals will scuff and move pebbles, but if there is a flat area
as big as a nickel it has to have been made by a hooved ani-
mal or a man.
If the ground is so hard that you are not sure whether
the flat spot was caused by a man or a hooved animal, test
the ground to see whether your own weight will flatten it in a
similar way. If not, then the flat spot had to have been made
by something that exerts a lot more weight per square inch of
foot area, hence a hooved animal.
Get your nose to the ground and look for anything!!!!!
Do not, under any circumstances skip a track! Just be-
cause you can see a big obvious track a little bit ahead, do
Instructor indicating with pointer the correct pivot point (toe-marker point) of
point man's tracking stick. Tracks proceeding to left and all trackers properly not jump up to it! My half-blind, idiot Aunt Clementine can
positioned so that tracks ore directly between themselves and the sun. follow big obvious tracks. She has never learned a thing from
them and neither will you.
What to Look For
The extremely difficult tracks, the subtle ones, the
You have now been told how to lay out the beginning
ones you have to hunt for half an hour are the only ones that
problem, how to identify your victim's track, and how to uti-
teach you anything. When you are forced to dig for the ~ost
lize the tracking stick to find the approximate location of the
minute hint of a track you are on your way to becom1ng a
next track. You have been told why you must mark the
tracker.
tracks either left or right and why you must remember which
When we say step-by-step, that is exactly what we
track you are looking for. You have also been told why you
mean. Find every track, not 106 out of 107. There is no
should undertake this exercise as part of a three man tracking
team. premium on speed in learning to trac~. The important thing
is the self-discipline of making yourself stick with it to find
You have been told very little about precisely what to
the tough ones.
look for. This, of course, varies greatly, depending on terrain.
Keep in mind what it is that you are trying to accom-
In the beginning problem, you are supposed to be working on
plish. You are not trying to find a lost child in the wilderness.
flat ground which is free of vegetation. Therefore, you should
You are trying to learn how to track so that you may have
look for the curved rear edge of the heel, the curved point of
the skill to find that child at some time in the future. It
the toe made evident by the propelling push of the walker,
would be foolish to insist on finding every track in an actual
4
Utilizing Sun Angle
Phase I Exercises, Continued
Students searching for extremely subtle tracks.

search when there are obvious ones a few feet ahead. It is just In the preceding chapter you were presented with the
as stupid and foolish in the learning situation to follow only most basic tracking exercise. It was designed to: (1) Teach
what you have always been able to follow and to skip over you to carefully identify the track to be followed. (2) Utilize
the magnificent lessons that will teach you what you need to the tracking stick in order to find the most obscure tracks.
know. (3) Mark tracks so that you remember whether you are look-
Realize, that in order for a person to become a skilled ing for a right or left track. (4) Learn the effectiveness and
tracker, superior eyesight, though helpful, is not an absolute confidence building value of the three-man tracking team.
necessity. As in looking at material written in a foreign (5) Develop the good habit of looking for every track.
language, the trick is not in "seeing" it, but in interpreting (6) Break the bad habit of looking only for obvious tracks.
what you see. A great deal of sign is seen by the rank be- (7) Learn some of the things that constitute foot-clues (sign).
ginner and disregarded as insignificant because he has not If you followed instructions and practiced the be-
learned to glean its meaning. ginning exercise diligently you probably amazed yourself at
You should now lay this book aside and read no fur- the amount of sign you were able to see. Probably you had
ther until you have gone into the field and practiced this be- no idea how much visible evidence you have been ignoring
ginning problem at least three times for a duration of from
two to four hours on each occasion. 41
/
42 Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How Utilizing Sun Angle 43
and stumbling over (and obliterating) for all these years and
my strong underfyi ng crusade is to cause every person who
if you learn only this and proceed no further towards your
enters a search area to become acutely clue conscious so that
goal of becoming a tracker I will feel satisfied that my effort
they will not do more harm than good.
has been worthwhile.
Every person who enters a search area is a potential
The next three exercises are designed to: (1) Reinforce
clue destroyer and as such is a potential killer.
and refine what you learned in the first exercise. (2) Develop As a tracker, I know from much experience how often
good habits through repetition. (3) Teach you to utilize the a good tracker can solve the mystery if he is not preceded
correct sun angle. into an area by a group of well meaning clue destroyers.
Exercises 1 through 4 present the students with a solid Since track consciousness is clue consciousness, since
foundation for learning to become a tracker and constitutes tracks are the only clues that you can be certain a lost per-
Phase I of your training. These exercises present the basics son will leave behind, and since they will be by far the most
and have come to be known as our step-by-step teaching numerous of the clues left behind, it is arrogant of a person
method. Since there were so many people involved in police to believe he is a competent searcher if he has made no effort
work and search efforts who needed to be introduced to to acquire some skiff at finding tracks.
these basics, we have focused all of our energies ..over the The exercise~ outlined in this and the preceding chap-
years on teaching only to. this level of beginning student. ter are designed to quickly teach you how to see and inter-
The result has been that we have whetted a lot of appetites pret sign. However, we have discovered that it goes beyond
and made farge numbers of students track aware but have not that and creates in you an awareness that carries over into
provided them with the guidelines to proceed to the limit many other things. It actually greatly increases a person's
of their capabilities. The Phase II and Phase Ill sections powers of observation and if there was no other reason than
devised for this book should adequately fill the needs of this one, I feel it is sufficient justification for a person, in-
these serious tracking students. volved in search and rescue work or law enforcement, to in-
This Phase I training in track awareness, the step-by-step vest the time and energy necessary to learn something of the
method, is something I have been involved in developing and age old art of following sign.
teaching for about ten years. This standard two-day course
consists largely of salty stories, lies, tales of derring-do, a Definitions and Terminology
slide show, and two half-day field exercises. In addition to There are several definitions that should be learned in
this I have written several articles on tracking, the section on ' order to follow a tracker as he fondly discusses his art. A
tracking for a manual on law enforcement, and the course on number of terms that we are going to be using in this book
tracking that is to be included in the curriculum at our new sound similar but actually describe operations that are
U.S. Border Patrol Academy. Throughout all of this I extol uniquely different.
the virtues of our step-by-step technique of teaching tracking. First you should realize that "signcutting" and
My purported purpose for all of this is supposedly to turn "tracking" are distinctly different operations which depend
out legions of skilled trackers and surely, to some degree, this on the finding of "sign". "Jump-tracking" is neither sign-
will be accomplished. However, this is not my real purpose; cutting nor tracking but is a novice's inept attempt at both;
Clues
Clue Destroyer
and "step-by-step tracking" is more than anything else, a very visible tracks as you do in jump-tracking. The principal
teaching technique. difference between the two being that the process of sign-
Exploring a dictionary will do very little to help you cutting should NEVER be done by walking the same direc-
understand what "sign" means to a tracker. You will find tion that your subject would be walking. Signcutting is done
some descriptive words such as "mark", "trace", and by walking a path that would intersect the path of your sub-
"vestige", which do apply, but what a tracker means is: ject at approximately right angles. It is done in an area where
"sign is any evidence of change from the natural state that is there is little chance that the tracks of the "cutter" could be
inflicted on an area by a person's passage." confused with those of the subject, and it is done by picking
A careful scrutiny of the dictionary will gain you terrain where sign should be easily seen.
nothing in your search for the word "signcutting". It is a 1 have several dear friends in search and rescue work
pure word in that it has meaning only to practitioners of the who, though they are not trackers, have gone to great leng~hs
tracker's art. It simply means: "looking for sign in order to to popularize tracking as a rescue tool. They felt uneasy w1th
establish a starting point from which to begin tracking." the word "tracking", so by fussing with it a little they came up
Tracking means: "following someone, or something, with the more descriptive term "man-tracking". It made me
by stringing together a continuous chain of thetr sign." feel a little uncomfortable because it is not a term a tracker
"Step-by-step tracking" is 'a disciplined teaching technique would use, but I let it slide. Then as more amateurs were
wherein the tracker sees each step in sequence and proceeds attracted to the learning of the art I began to hear terms like
no further than the last visible track. It is a standard that an "signs of man", "signs of track", or simply "signs".
expert will strive for at all times, but in actual tracking opera- None of these are genuine terms. They are not the
tions is not always possible to attain. In an actual tracking words or phrases that a real tracker would utter. I have had
situation an expert tracker tries to find some visible clue at the privilege of tracking and talking tracking with grizzled
each point where his quarry might have stepped. However, mountain men from the High Sierras to the Great Smokies
under arduous circumstances, even the best tracker must ac- and have been pleasantly surprised to find we speak the same
cept small gaps in his continuous chain of evidence. The key language. Tracking is an eons-old art and entitled to the
phrase is "small gaps". dignity of its own terminology. What I do is "tracking"
"Jump-tracking" means: "finding a big obvious foot- and I do it by following "sign". In this book I intend to
print, then proceeding along the indicated route of travel make every effort to avoid the vulgarizing of tracking's
until another obvious track is found." The distance between colorful and traditional terminology.
these tracks is often extreme, fifty feet is common, several
hundred yards is not uncommon. A great deal of guess-work Phase I Exercises with Changing Sun Angle
is involved, a large portion of luck is needed, and practically In all Phase I exercises you should lay out your
no skill is required since the tracks found are of the obvious practice set of tracks in a straight line on level ground. This
type that almost anyone is capable of seeing. allows the walker to move at a steady, even gait that pro-
In signcutting you are not trying to follow tracks as duces a relatively constant stride. Knowing the walker's
you do in tracking, but you are trying to find just one or two stride and the distance between his tracks allows you to mark
a stick with these distances. When this stick is held near the Exercise Slope Vegetation Time of DayDirection of Tracks
ground and properly utilized it will usually pinpoint the lo-
cation of the next track. 2. Flat None Early morn- 45 degrees to 90
The site of Phase I exercises should be chosen so as to ing or late degrees away from
be largely free of vegetation, heavy rock outcropping, and afternoon sun
miscellaneous ground cover; the purpose being to eliminate
as much of nature's camouflage as possible. The subtle evi- 3. Flat None Early morn- 90 degrees to 135
dence that a human foot leaves on the surface of the ground ing or late degrees away from
is hard enough for the beginning tracker to find without the afternoon sun
additional distractions of ground cover.
The tracks in the first exercise were aimed directly 4. Flat None Early morn- 135 degrees to 180
towards the position of the sun because tracks are most ing or late degrees away from
easily seen when they appear directly between the viewer and afternoon sun
the light source.
Lastly, the initial exercise was to be run very_early in In the preceding chapter you were encouraged to work
the morning or very late in the afternoon so that the sun on Exercise 1 at least three times before going further. You
would be at a low angle. That was because light which ap- should now do Exercise 2 three times before moving to Exer-
proaches the ground at a low angle causes an accentuation of cise 3 and continue that pattern until each exercise has been
shadows that makes all indentations in the ground easier done three times. In doing these exercises you should in-
to see. crease the angle slightly each time, in other words Exercise
If you worked at the beginning exercise on at least 2a at an angle near 45 degrees, Exercise 2b at an angle near
three occasions and devoted as much as two to four hours to 60 degrees, and Exercise 2c at an angle that approaches
each outing, you should have established some good habits, 90 degrees. . ..
sharpened your eye, and become comfortable with the track- 1n this group of exercises you will learn to pos1t1on
ing stick. You should now be ready to deal with the problem yourself so that the track you are seeking will appear be-
of changing sun angle. Exercises 2 through 4 alter nothing tween you and the light source. This is extremely important
except the direction of the practice tracks in relation to the in tracking. On hard surfaces correct sun angle often makes
sun. Before going further the complete Phase I exercises the difference between seeing a track or not seeing it. It does
should be listed; they are: not matter if the sun is obscured by fog or dense clouds, the
track will always be easier to see when it is directly between
Exercise Slope Vegetation Time of DayDirection of Tracks you and the true position of the sun.
You will learn to use caution in these exercises. It is
1. Flat None Early morn- Directly towards obvious that you cannot position yourself wherever you wis.h
ing or late sun or you will end up atop the tracks and obliterate them. It IS
afternoon possible, however, to stand to the side of the tracks and look
Utilizing Sun Angle 57
T RACKS
TO RIGHT
OF TRACKER
.... , A .'ir!: ,.: ~
,<#
,, \
\ :. .,.,
:J):~::--_-_:: : _.,:~.
I
, .., . _ .. - - ..
I
' :'"::: ':
TRACKS MOVING
I \ , "' DIRECTLY AWAY
I '-., ../../ I FROM SUN
1
~------------------L- -'~suN'~/--'y-------------------~
I _.... -....,!
I /1 \"-., '
TRACKER , I, TRACKER POSITIONED
LOOKING BACK ,. I
OVER LEFT SHOULDER
,._~
.
,.
t'. ',
. ' .
't ' "
ON RIGHT SIDE OF
T RACKS IN ORDER TO
LOOK TOWARDS SUN
..: ---::-:<: . . ''): ~(;
~
]_,_-.~.-...~RACKS
>j
MOV ING
; Dl RECTL Y AWAY
,- FROM SUN
, \
,
,.,
\ ' ... ...
...
across them towards the sun. If you are attempting to follow
tracks that run 180 degrees away from the sun (as will be the
case in Exercise 4c) you should stand to the side of the trail
and look back over your shoulder. This closely approaches
the desired angle for efficient viewing.
Exercise Variation
In the foregoing exercises (2 through 4) you will be
doing nine field exercises for from two to four hours each.
If the training site you have selected is too easy you will
find yourself being bored by the lack of challenge. Do not
use this as an excuse for skipping parts of the training. Repe-
tition is absolutely necessary for developing good habits.
Try some of the following tricks to bring the difficulty of
the problems up to a challenging level.
1. Have the track-layer wear a flat-soled shoe that
is devoid of distinctive marks. This robs you of
Tracker following tracks with head turned to best viewing angle.
the lines and geometrical shapes that catch
the eye. Too many times? If it had only happened once that
2. Have a light person such as an eighty pound would be too many times.
child lay the tracks. The reduction in weight re- We are all human beings and we make mistakes, but if
duces the damage inflicted on the ground. people should die as a result of our mistakes, we have some
3. Have the person laying the tracks wear a very responsibility to our fellow man to put forth the effort
soft shoe such as a moccasin. Sign is caused by needed to prevent those mistakes from being repeated.
a soft surface being marked as a result of collid-
ing with a harder surface. Usually the weight of
an adult's body propelling the hard surface of
a shoe into the ground produces an adequate
amount of sign. However, if the shoe is very soft
it will do some of the yielding, thereby reducing
the amount of visible damage inflicted on the
ground.
Motivation
You will notice that this book has so far been surpris-
ingly devoid of brilliant inside tips that will turn you into an
instant expert. It contains not a single "smart pill" that will
allow you to acquire the knowledge without doing the work.
As mentioned before, it takes a solid groundwork of funda-
mentals and plenty of practice to be an accomplished tracker.
Let's hope you are still motivated to give it a try. But
if it sounds like a lot of hard work, and you rationalize your
laziness by telling yourself that you never wanted to be a
tracker anyway, let me leave you with this one thought.
We need you in search and rescue work, but if you are
going to come into a search area with your big feet and
your big vehicle tires, destroying all those clues we
trackers need to save a life, I would prefer that you stay the
hell away! Too many times we have followed a set of tracks
up onto a dirt road only to see them disappear under a ton of
wide-tired jeep tracks, and too many times we have followed
a set of tracks down into a drainage to find it go under the
tracks of a swath of line searchers.
5
Sign
What to Look For
When a rank beginner hears someone mention tracking,

he immediately envisions a person following footprints. It
should be obvious by now that if there were complete,
visible footprints in evidence, tracking would be no problem
at all. To become a tracker you must learn to follow sign.
As mentioned before, sign can be defined as any evi-
dence of change from the natural state that is inflicted on an
area by a person's passage. This evidence can be lumped into
two broad categories, Conclusive Evidence and Substantiating
Evidence.
Conclusive Evidence is a bit of sign which, standing by
itself, with nothing else to support it, can conclusively be said
to have been caused by a human being.
Substantiating Evidence is a disturbance which could
55
I 56 Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How Sign 57
easily be caused by something other than a human being and

must be found in combination with several bits of such evi-
dence before it can reasonably be determined to have been
caused by man.
Since the particular things that constitute sign vary
greatly in different types of terrain and since the specifics of
what you look for in a Mexican desert are of little value to a
student in the Rocky Mountains, I have felt the need, for
several years, of finding a way of generalizing about sign. For
about three years now I have been trying to analyze what my
mind and eye are searching for when looking for sign. After
much inward scuffling, I have come to realize, that regardless
of terrain, there are four basic things that catch my eye.
These characteristics of sign are:
1. Flattening - A leveling of rocks, twlgs, leaves,
or dirt caused by the flat sole of
a shoe pressing the ground un- Flattening
der a person's weight.
2. Regularity - An effect caused by straight
lines, circles, or other geometri-
cal shapes being pressed into
the ground leaving marks that
are not normally found in
nature.
3. Color Change- A difference in color or texture
from the area that surrounds it.
4. Disturbance - Evidence of recent change or
rearrangement.
Let us now look at some examples of sign, and place
them in their proper category.
CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE
Flat Spots (Flattening)
Of all the faint disturbances that may be visible on
hard ground, nothing says "man" more positively Regularity
58 Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How Sign 59
than flat spots. Animals, birds, reptiles, insects, and wind

blown objects are continuously making a profusion of marks
on the ground that add confusion to the task of the tracker,
but only man made objects (shoes, tires, rifle butts, etc.)
and hooved animals can make flat spots.
When a flat spot no larger than a nickel is seen on the
ground it may not be immediately discernible whether it was
caused by a hoof or a shoe, but a simple testing of the ground
with your own foot will give you the answer.
All hooved animals exert considerably more weight per
square inch of foot surface than does man. Therefore, by
placing your own foot near the flat spot in a normal walking
motion (do not stand on one foot and stamp or twist the
testing foot) you will reveal whether you leave a similar
mark. If the ground is so hard that you left nothing as
flattened as the flat spot you found, then it may be presumed
Color Change
to have been caused by something other than the person you
are seeking.
Buried Pebbles and Small Sticks (Flattening)

When pebbles or small sticks are pushed below their
natural bed it generally means something very hard, such as
shoes or hooves have stepped on them. Since animal paws are
usually softer than the surface of the ground, they will do the
' "giving" when contact is made with pebbles or small sticks.
If the ground is soft enough to allow paws to impress
these hard objects into the ground, it will be soft enough to
reveal the whole outline of a shoe or hoof. Again, check to
see how much of your own track is revealed.
Rear Curve of Heel (Regularity)

The rear curve of a heel is probably the piece of con-
clusive evidence that occurs most commonly. In many
instances, it will be the only bit of distinctively human evi-
dence a foot will leave on hard ground. This is because in
.
Flattened area with buried pebbles Curved line drawn in dirt outlines barely discernible rear curve of heel. Above the
left side of the heel is a flattened area containing an impressed pebble.
normal walking, on level ground, the entire weight of the
body is transferred forward with each step and focused, at as noticeable as the two preceding items of sign and it seems
initial impact with the ground, on the small rear edge of the to take several hundred hours of tracking experience before
heel. the eye becomes trained to spot it readily.
If an indentation is going to be inflicted on the ground It is one of those obvious clues which non-trackers,
at all, it is most apt to occur by this striking force. The and beginning trackers see clearly, but lacking experience, fail
uniformly curved indentation that results from this impact to interpret correctly and thus disregard as being unimportant.
is very noticeable to a person with very little tracking ex-
perience. By the time a person has about 40 hours of track- Bent Grass (Flattening, Color Change)
ing behind him he will be spotting this indicator very quickly. Human beings and hooved animals push grass down-
ward in a similar manner, but there are several ways of telling
Tip of Toe, Toe Digs (Regularity) the difference.
The weight of the body being shifted forward coupled Since a man's foot is longer than that of a hooved ani-
with the "pushing-off" action of the propelling foot causes mal, the length of the pushed-down area will be longer. The
a digging action that leaves a distinctively uniform inden- width of the pushed-down area will be widest for cattle
tation in the ground. and horses, somewhat less for man, and narrowest for deer,
The only problem with the "toe dig" is that it is not sheep, goats, etc. The most telling clue, however, is that the
Toe dig in lower right of photo, heel impression upper left.
sharp frontal edge of hooves tend to crimp the grass towards

the middle of the pushed-down area while the smooth sole
of a man's foot will not.
Bruised Stems and Stalks (Color, Flattening)

Stems and stalks of green vegetation which have been
stepped on or kicked may return to their upright position in
less than 24 hours, but the bruises inflicted may be visible,
upon close examination, for several days. Often these bruises
will be slightly flattened, telling you positively that the bruise
was caused by man. Small animals seldom bruise vegetation
at all but certainly cannot flatten it. Hooves which strike
with enough force to bruise will nearly always cut.
Picking Up Mud (Color Change, Regularity)

"Picking up mud" is a tracking term that does not
mean the walker periodically scoops up a handful of mud to
amuse himself. Mud tracking is too simple to dwell on, ex-

cept in those cases where the walker is picking up mud on his
shoes. In this case we are presented with a fairly difficult
problem. What happens is that the walker enters an area
where the soil has a gummy, clayl ike consistancy that sticks
to the shoe. At the outset the walker will try to stamp it off
or periodically clean it off, but he soon realizes the futility
I
of this endeavor due to the fact that new mud starts ad-
hearing to his shoe immediately. The walker soon resigns
himself to this nuisance and continues walking until he has
a large pillow of mud attached to each foot.
These blobs do not resemble footprints but they do
leave their marks at regular stride distances and in a normal
left-right walking sequence. The marks that are left on the
ground alternate between tiny patches of surface .dirt that
...m
have been removed (picking up mud) to chunks of mud that
.....Ill"'
have fallen off once the weight has increased beyond the
0\l'\
mud's adhesive power to hold it to the shoe. On these drop- ...,
pings you will often find the flat and uniform characteristics 0<"\ ::s
.8
of the wearer's shoe. l'il
z "'
...,0
=
H
C/)
0N
Shine {Color Change, Flattening) "z
Shine is the most subtle bit of conclusive evidence, ~
H
6
> 0 rt
and unlike any other type of sign except grass trails, is far N
easier to see at some distance than up close. In dirt, shine is

caused by the almost imperceptible flattening of dirt par-
ticles by the foot which creates a reflective surface that is
only visible with an oblique light angle. The angle at which t:::
the light hits the tracks and is reflected into your eye is all :l
.g .,"
important. That is why six or seven subtle footprints may be
lll..C:
.........
seen at a distance of thirty feet while you are unable to see ..... :OiiiJ
- 5:::: r-1
COr-1 co
them immediately in front of you, or beyond that point o .. ...,
+><>Ill
where the sun angle reveals them. Only by approaching these o o
... 0
1\1 IS
tracks will the succeeding ones be revealed. The same phe-
nomenon occurs with less obvious grass trails and with trails
across dead dry grass. Looking closely at the ground immedi-

ately in front of you does not produce the necessary light
angle so you may have to look ahead (in the direction of th e
sun) for distances as much as several hundred feet .
In actual situations I have stood on hillsides and seen
\
grass trails through a meadow a half mile away which were
revealed by such a subtle change of color that they were
absolutely impossible to discern when viewed at a distance
of less than one hundred (1 00} feet.
As a general rul e the most difficult trackin g you wil l
ever encounter will be on flat ground and this is the area that
affords you the greatest opportunity to look ahead at great
distances for that precise sun angle that will reveal "shine".
Under these circumstances you need to be very cogni-
zant of the fact that the surest way to see sign is not alway s
when it's one foot from your nose . When tracking. gets very
difficult it is very wise to look at great distances. Sometimes
Transfer of mud onto paved road.
you will be shocked to see how obvious the trail is when
viewed from the correct angle . only be visible on an extremely fresh trail. I have never en-
countered a situation where water transfer remained visible
Transfer (Color Change) for as much as a day.
When a person walks from one type of terrain t o
another there will often occur a few steps when material Animal Droppings, Human Feces
from one area is transferred to the other. When a person has I suspect that all those reading this book have checked
been walking through mud and then enters either a grassy , enough times in their lives to see if the toilet was flushing
rock covered, or paved area he will usually clean the mud off properly to be quite familiar with the sizes, shapes, and
his feet immediately thus giving you at least a few steps to colors of human feces. Sizes and shapes of human feces do
indicate the direction he has chosen to travel. not vary greatly and can be easily differentiated from animal
Similarly, if a person has been walking on a dusty droppings of the same approximate shapes by the fact that
trail he will transfer a few dusty prints onto a flat paved there is no hair in them. It may be necessary to probe the
area. Rarely will such transfer be visible on the uneven feces with a stick in order to make this determination, but I
surface of rocks and even if it does it would have to occur in strongly recommend that you lay aside any squeamishness
an area so dusty that tracking would be very easy and you you may have and never pass up the opportunity to probe
would have little need to be so carefully scrutinizing rocks. this bit of sign. A great deal of information can be gathered
Water also can be transferred to rocks or soil but will regarding the diet of the defecator. Very black feces can
I
mean a high degree of iron in the diet and as the color ranges I prefer to determine the age of feces by relying pri-
to m~re yellow the more likely the person is to be slightly marily on the presence of flies and secondarily on the thick-
a~em1~. Roughage items in the diet tend to pass through the ness of the crust.
d1gest1ve system relatively unchanged allowing for things like Feces that are four hours old or less may have four or
the pul~y part of oranges to be easily recognized. five flies attracted to it. From this point in time up t 24
P1mento and red chili peppers are a very common hours it will likely only have one or two flies. Beyond 4
part of the .Mexican ~iet and are capable of passing through hours it will probably not have any. So 1n order to estima e
the body Without los1ng their brilliant red color. Many times how old it is, beyond 24 hours, requires that you probe i
over t~e years I have, while in the border area, probed human with a stick to determine its softness (moistness) and the
droppmgs of questionable origin and discovered these tell- thickness of its crust.
tale ~ig~s of a Mexican diet, thus causing me to follow the I suppose before leaving the subject of human elim-
culpnt 1n order to question him concerning his right to be ination, it should be mentioned that the color of urine also
in the United States. reveals a great deal about the physical condition of the
All e.xcrement, both animal and human, is warm and person urinating. The darker yellow the urine becomes, the
s?f: whe~ It leaves the body and if stepped on by- even the , higher the probability is that the fluid level in the person's
t1n1~st a~1mals while in this soft state will squash and flatten. body is diminished and that he is experiencing a degree of
As 1t d:1es out and hardens greater weight is required to hypohydration. This difference in color is only really very
squash 1t. For this reason it is very unwise to draw con- noticeable when tracking a person through snow, but is very
clusions from the fact that rabbit feces, deer feces, or other valuable nonetheless. As your quarry's urine becomes
types of animal excrement have been flattened unless we more orange the less time you have to find him in a healthy
have additional sign to go with it. state.
The age of human feces can be determined with about
as much accuracy as can vegetation due to the fact that Discardables
bacteria begins attacking it the minute it is exposed to the In the preceding chapter I touched briefly on the
air and flies are attracted to it shortly thereafter. As 1 fact that discarded material does not occur frequently
pointed out before, the color of feces is determined by diet enough that time should be spent in teaching people to \
but the difference in color between the darkened exterior look for it. However, this does not mean it should be ignored.
crust and the interior of the feces is determined by heat and It is just that looking for the types of sign I have outlined in
by bacteria action. this chapter will hone your powers of observation. much more
. Interpreting this difference in color can be very tricky sharply and allow you to spot these discarded items more
Since we are greatly influenced by sharp contrast. Human feces quickly.
re:ulting from a high iron intake diet will be very black and As tracking is an information gathering process, so is
w1ll not contrast much in color from the exterior crust even interrogation, and in order to know what types of discarded
after several days, while the interior of more yellow feces will material might have belonged to the person you are looking
contrast sharply with its crust after only a few hours. for you should, when possible, delay starting your search
until you have had time to talk to the lost person's family other form of substantiating evidence.
or companions concerning what the lost person might have
been carrying. Dislodged Pebbles and Rocks (Disturbance)
As thorough an inventory as possible should be made Pebbles have beds just as do twigs, but moving them
as to the type and color of clothing, type of food, brand of from their beds requires more pressure than it does for twigs.
cigarettes, etc. Determine if the subject chewed gum, ate The direction twigs and pebbles have been moved indicates
sunflower seeds, compulsively chewed on a toothpick, or had the direction of travel of the walker. Therefore, if several
any other personal habits that might provide you with a small pebbles in an area as large as a silver dollar have all
piece of litter that might be distinctively theirs. been moved the same direction, it was likely done by a
One very important search I was on several years ago human foot. However, if several pebbles have all been moved
pivoted on the fact, which we had uncovered during pre- the same direction in an area as small as a twenty-five cent
liminary interrogation, that the young man we sought was piece, you would need some additional corroborating evi-
carrying dark blue, twelve gauge shotgun shells. We followed dence, such as a dislodged twig within six to eight inches of
his tracks into a canyon containing nothing but huge rock the pebbles, and along the same line of travel, before you
boulders and were able to maintain the continuity of his would dare assume that it was done by something other than
trail by occasionally finding a few of these spent casings. an animal.
SUBSTANTIATING EVIDENCE
While an item of Conclusive Evidence can sometimes
be found by an absolute non-tracker, and a great deal of it
is found by beginning trackers, both of these groups are near-
ly completely oblivious to the abundance of Substantiating
Evidence that almost leaps to the attention of an expert.
Bits of substantiating evidence are inconclusive when
standing alone. However, by plotting their occurrence in
relation to other bits of such evidence you can many times \
string together a continuity of sign that becomes conclusive.
Dislodged Twigs (Disturbance)

When twigs, bits of straw or small sticks have lain
on the ground for any length of time, their outline becomes
imprinted in the dirt. When something moves these twigs
the outline or "bed" remains. Since the normal movement
Dislodged pebble supported by flattened areas above and to the right. Combi-
of very small animals can also dislodge these twigs, they are
nation of the two constitutes conclusive evidence.
only indicative of human traffic when combined with some
Sign 73
Rocks up to the size of baseballs are similarly kicked
the size and weight of an animal at least as large as a man, so
from their beds leaving sockets that are quite prominent.
it is a better indicator than is a broken twig. If close scrutiny
However when not accompanied by other corroborating evi-
of the ground in the area below a broken branch does notre-
dence it 'only tells us it was done by a force equal to mans.
'
veal a hoof print, then a strong case is made for the break to
have been caused by a man.
Fallen Petals and Leaves (Disturbance)
Broken twigs on the other hand tell you only that
Fresh, pliable petals and leaves usually have to be
some unknown thing brushed against the bush unless they are
knocked loose in order to become separated from the plant
coupled with some other type of substantiating evidence.
on which they grew. Their appearance on the ground strongly
If the twigs are broken quite high above the ground,
suggests damage done by a large animal or man. In this same
in other words, higher than you would reasonably expect
category are tiny pieces of limbs which have fallen to the
for them to have been broken by a large canine, then they
grou.nd and which still have live, healthy greenery still visible
must have been broken by a tall animal. So again, checking
on them.
the ground below such breaks for the presence of hoof marks
will give you a very strong indication whether the break was
Breaks in Fallen Branches and Twigs (Disturbance)
caused by a human being.
Branches or twigs lying flush upon the gro-und will
likely only be broken by shoes or hooves. Hooves tend to
Leafy Surface Plants (Color Change, Disturbance)
split and splinter. These are very strong clues as to what
In practically all geographical areas there appear broad
caused the break, but in themselves are not quite conclusive
leafed plants that grow very close to the ground. In scrutiniz-
enough to be listed under Conclusive Evidence, and so are
ing an area where these occur you should look for one of
relegated to the category of Substantiating Evidence.
the leaves on.the plant, or possibly only the tip of a leaf, to
be flopped over to reveal its underside. The more unnatural
Breaks in Branches and Twigs Above Ground (Disturbance)
the position of the leaf the shorter the period of time has
In the preceding paragraph we described breaks in
been since it was disturbed. The angle at which the leaf is
branches and twigs (tiny branches) that had been already
canted indicates the amount of time that has passed since the
broken from the trees and bushes upon which they had
leaf was moved from its normal position. In other words, the
grown and were lying upon the ground. In this paragraph
entire underside of the leaf does not have to be visible for
we are interested in the break that occurs above the ground
it to be valid sign. If the leaves normally grow parallel to the
when something brushes against branches and twigs with
ground, or with their tips slightly drooping, then a leaf whose
sufficient force to break them, but still leave them attached.
tip is only elevated as much as 45 degrees should arouse your
The word "branch" is used in this instance to indicate a
suspicions that it was moved by a force the plant does not
limb that is at least a quarter of an inch in diameter at the
normally encounter. Its slightly elevated angle will tell you
point of the break, while a twig will refer to all sizes of
that a period of time has passed since this happened and that
limbs smaller than that.
the leaf has almost returned to its normal position.
The force required to break a branch normally requires
These broad leafed plants, when stepped on, often
show faint evidence of bruising, not so much from the sur- releases them causing a shuffling and catching effect that
face of the shoe, but far more commonly from the tiny does not allow them to return to their normal position. Thus
rocks and sand that are pressed into their underside. These they will remain bent out of position until they are shuffled
sharply pointed pebbles puncture the leaf, showing a dark the other direction or until the wind shakes them loose.
green wound when it is fresh, that turns to black as the The sturdiness of the limbs involved and their height above
perimeter of the wound dies, and eventually leaves a withered the ground gives you a clue to the strength and size of the
scar that is grey or light brown in color. When these leaves are creature that pushed itself along that particular path.
viewed from the standing position only a speckled appear-
ance is noticed. Usually the leaf will have to be examined Scuffed Lichen (Color Change, Disturbance)
closely and often turned over in order to inspect its under- Finding sign on solid rock is not always impossible.
side. If the trail indicates that the person you are following walked
onto a large rock simply proceed in the indicated direction
Interlaced Vegetation (Disturbance) and carefully inspect any growths of lichen that appear in
Many types of living things from small bushes to tall your path. Do not be overly optimistic; lichen, like moss and
trees grow so close together that their limbs intrud~ into the pine needles is often cushiony, and by yielding, avoids having
same space to touch or ov~rlap. When something large moves its surface broken'. When stepped on, however, it is sand-
between them it pushes these limbs out of the way, then wiched between two very hard surfaces and in those places
where its cushion is not thick it can easily be torn by the
scuffing action of the shoe.
Dew Trails (Color Change)

When a tracker talks about a "dew trail" he is actually
discussing an "absence-of-dew trail". In the jargon of tracking
there are a number of such strange descriptive words and
absolute misnomers; I will point out several others in the
succeeding chapters.
Dew trails are sometimes noticed on short grassy
lawns or across golf courses. They are darkened areas that
reveal the outline of every step of the person who walked
there. They are discernible because all the surrounding grass
is heavily beaded with sparkling droplets of water while the
stepped on area appears darker because of the absence of
dew. While in short grass, dew trails are too obvious to even
discuss in a chapter dealing with subtle sign, it should be
Interlaced vegetation. pointed out that in tall weeds, wild oats, fields of wheat
or barley, or areas with lush vegetation they are not nearly so few hours before sunlight will cause this moisture to vanish as
obvious to an untrained eye, but are extremely helpful to magically as it appeared.
the tracker, nonetheless.
CONTINUITY
Continuity is of great importance in the evaluation of
Substantiating Evidence. An indicator which, by itself, would
prove nothing becomes almost certainly your quarry's track
when it is sandwiched between two other bits of sign and is
approximately a step interval from each. Utilization of your
tracking stick as described in Chapter 3 will be invaluable to
you as will your dedication to the principal of trying to find
every track as we advocate in the step-by-step learning
technique.
ALARM, OR MOVEMENT OF AN AREA'S INHABIT ANTS

One last area: of visible sign which should at least be
touched upon before terminating the chapter relates to
curious behavior on the part of animals and birds that inhabit
the area. Admittedly, in most instances, sudden movement or
curious behavior is caused by the presence of a predator
Dew trail.
rather than by the presence of man. However, occasionally
Dew, of course, is formed when moist air is cooled by this behavior might be caused by man's presence so we must
direct contact with cold objects in an open area and it occurs train ourselves to notice it and be curious about it.
best on nights that are still and clear. This condensation re- Such evidence as the sudden flight of a flock of birds,
mains on the objects on which it is formed until it is knocked
\
the onset of squawking by geese or ducks, the sudden chat-
off or until the heat of the day evaporates it. This is a very tering of small animals, the abrupt silence of songbirds, the
good reason for starting your search for sign at the earliest agitated fleeing of half-wild cattle or horses, the threatening
light of day. In dense forests which have spongy moss floors swoops of hawks, or the ominous circling of crows and
or cushions or pine needles the only truly continuous trail buzzards constitutes the type of sign to which the expert
you may find may be the ferns, leaves, and branches that tracker is constantly attuned.
have been brushed against causing them to lose their dew.
All large animals will of course leave similar trails but you CONFIDENCE
will be given a long continuous pathway which will surely at People who are unsure of their abilities in whatever
some time interval reveal whether it was caused by man or pursuit, seldom succeed, and while bravura is particularly
animal. Be sure and start early though, you will only have a inexcusable when lives are at stake, the honest, sincere
confidence that comes from understanding what you are

doing and having many times solved the knotty problem with
which you must come to grips is absolutely necessary if you
are to calmly, coolly, and methodically solve a difficult
6
problem under extreme stress.
By going one step at a time you can know positively
that you are still on your victim's trail. If you skip tracks you
cannot be sure that subtle sign such as a broken twig was not
caused by an animal, so doubts arise and your confidence in
the trail you are following tapers off dramatically. You will
most assuredly start disregarding good sign and eventually
become hopelessly confused and distraught and will give up
Slope and Ground
and quit.
Innumerable times I have seen learners give up and
Cover
Phase II Exercises
admit defeat when they were still right on their quarry's
trail, but they had skipped so many tracks (jump:tracking}
that they didn't KNOW it.,
In the preceding field exercises you have worked on

flat ground which was free of camouflaging ground cover. It
would seem logical that if we were going to increase the diffi-
culty of the problems gradually we might now alter one of
these conditions, but certainly not both. What appears to be
logical is not always so and this is one of those times.
We are going to alter both these conditions because
that is the easiest approach to the problem.
If you have worked diligently at the preceding prob-
lems you should certainly know by now "how to look" for
sign by utilizing the light source. You also should have
learned a great deal about "what to look for". Specifically
that means the curved rear edge of a heel, the straight front
edge of a heel, the curved outer edge of a sole, the "dig"
79
I Slope And Ground Cover 87
of a toe, the different color of a scuff, flat spots, pebbles Downhill Tracking
impressed in the dirt, pebbles dislodged from their beds, Tracks can either go downhill, uphill, or side-hill (stay-
etc. Generally speaking though, what you have learned to ing at the same elevation while walking on sloping ground}.
look for is any disturbance from the natural state. Of these three situations, tracks are easiest to follow when
they go downhill. In each of these three instances, the steeper
the slope, the more sign the walker will leave.
In walking downhill people shorten their stride in
order to keep the body upright without putting great strain
on the legs. A downhill walker also transfers his weight to his
heels in order to brake his descent. This, of course, causes a
great deal of damage to the ground leaving much obvious sign.
If the person doing the downhill walking is wearing a
shoe with a heel, rather than a flat soled shoe, the front edge
of that heel will dig into the ground leaving a mark that is
quite obvious and positively belongs to a human being.
The fact that people shorten their strides greatly in
both uphill and downhill walking means that there will be
many more foot placements on the ground, which, depending
on the angle of the slope, could mean nearly twice as much
visible sign.
When vegetation is added to the exercise, tracking
Downhill tracking in area with varied ground cover. becomes easier as the vegetation becomes more dense. Thick,
As we move our tracking problems into areas that high vegetation will leave a very obvious trail even on flat
have vegetation, the specific things you have learned to look ground but when coupled with a steep downhill slope pre-
for will be very scarce. However, if you have conscientiously sents you with one of the easiest types of tracking
put in the hours of practice prescribed you will have de- problems.
veloped the habit of generally lboking for: We still must be concerned with marking tracks either
1. Flattening left or right, but as we move our tracking problems away
2. Regularity from bare dirt areas it will now become necessary to mark
3. Color Change the tracks with trail tape.
4. Disturbance In these Phase II exercises you should alter first the
A whole new "vocabulary" of sign must now be angle of slope and then the density of the vegetation in
learned as you move to an area that is covered by vegetation, order to increase the difficulty of the problem. The down-
and the element that will save you from floundering is the fact hill portion of Phase II training consists of the following
that the problem will be laid out on a hillside. nine exercises:
82 Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How Slope And Ground Cover 83
Downhill Time
Exercise Slope Vegetation of Day Direction Difficulty
1. Steep Heavy Early Towards Most

or Sun Easy
Late
2. Moder- Heavy Early Towards Very
ate or Sun Easy
Late
3. Slight . Heavy Early Towards Easy
or Sun
Late
4. Steep Average Early Towards Easy
or Sun
Late
5. Moder- Average Early Towards Some-
ate or Sun what
Late Easy
6. Slight Average Early Towards Slightly
or Sun Difficult
Late
7. Steep Sparse Early Towards Slightly
or Sun Difficult
Late
8. Moder- Sparse Early Towards More
ate or Sun Difficult
Late
9. Slight Sparse Early Towards Most
or Sun Difficult
Late
Each of these exercises should cover a distance of sev-

eral hundred yards. You should take your time and attempt
Tracker viewing obvious grass trail on slight downhill slope. Notice how lighter to find every step. If you finish in less than an hour and you
color of tracks contrasts with darker undisturbed area.
have found every step, the problem was too easy for you. For
an exercise to tax you and teach you, it should take about
Slope And Ground Cover 85
three hours. Alter conditions as necessary so as to present Sidehi/1 Time

yourself with a problem that takes you about three hours to Exercise Slope Vegetation of Day Direction Difficulty
solve.
12. Slight Heavy Early Towards Easy
Sidehill Tracking or Sun
If you will think about it, you will realize that anytime Late
you have ever walked on a sidehill you unconsciously have 13. Steep Average Early Towards Easy
dug the uphill side of your foot into the dirt so as to create or Sun
a tiny terrace that would provide you with solid footing. Late
The steeper the hillside, the more you have had to 14. Moder- Average Early Towards Some-
dig in your foot to maintain balance and the more damage ate or Sun what
~ou ~ave inflicted. A trail left by someone walking on a Late Difficult
s1deh111 leaves far more sign than will be left on flat ground 15. Slight Average Early Towards Difficult
but less than a person walking downhill. The specific things or Sun
you should look for in sidehill tracking through vegetation Late
are the flattening of those little terraces and the different 16. Steep Sparse Early Towards Easy
color of downed vegetation. or Sun
As in the first nine exercises (Downhill Tracking) of Late
these Phase II exercises, I change the problem by first altering 17. Moder- Sparse Early Towards Some-
the slope and then altering the density of the vegetation. ate or Sun what
Late Difficult
~owever, you should notice that this does not necessarily
18. Slight Sparse Early Towards Difficult
mcrease the difficulty of the exercise. The second nine
exercises (Sidehill Tracking) of Phase II are: or Sun
Late
Sidehi/1 Time
Exercise Slope Vegetation of Day Uphill Tracking
Direction Difficulty
When walking uphill, a person shifts his weight to the
10. Steep Heavy Early Towards Most ball of the foot. If the incline is very steep only about half
or Sun Easy of his foot touches the ground. Since, under these circum-
Late stances, the heel will almost never touch the ground it can
11. Moder- Heavy Early Towards Very cause difficulties in differentiating human sign from animal
ate or Sun Easy sign. The more sandy and loose the soil on the bank, the
Late greater the difficulty in distinguishing it as human sign. If
you are fortunate enough to have firm ground, that telltale
flattening that you have learned to look for will save you.
There will be plenty of disturbances in uphill walking

due to the number of foot placements already referred to,
and because of the unavoidable sliding that takes place even
when wearing Vibram soled shoes or other shoes which have
a high degree of traction. However, the thing that makes
uphill tracking difficult is the lack of conclusiveness of the
sign. There is much disturbance but very little of the regulari-
ty and flattening that positively identifies it as being human
sign. Adding to the problem is the irregularity of the step
interval and the fact the trail will waver considerably as the
hill climber picks his easiest route of ascent.
As in the other Phase II exercises, these dealing with
uphill walking begin by altering the angle of the slope and
proceed to altering the density of the vegetation. This does
not necessarily mean that the higher numbered exercises are
the most difficult:
Uphill Time ....
Vegetation of Day Direction Difficulty Uphill walking. Notice slide area created by walker's previous step.
Exercise Slope
19. Steep Heavy Early Towards Some- Uphill Time

or Sun what Exercise Slope Vegetation of Day Direction Difficulty
Late Difficult
20. Moder- Heavy Early Towards Some- 24. Slight Average Early Towards Some-
ate or Sun what or Sun what
Late Easy Late Easy
21. Slight Heavy Early Towards Easy 25 . Steep Sparse Early Towards Easy
or Sun or Sun
Late Late
22. Steep Average Early Towards Some- 26. Moder- Sparse Early Towards Some-
or Sun what ate or Sun what
Late Easy Late Easy
27. Slight Sparse Early Towards Some-
23. Moder- Average Early Towards Some-
or Sun what
ate or Sun what
Late Difficult
Late Easy
dandelion (and other vegetation around it) would tend to

hide this ground damage. Therefore, in this instance you
would be better off if the vegetation was sparse.
The damage suffered by the dandelion as a resu.lt
of being stepped on by a downhill walker is. s~vere. It will
take quite some time to stand back up . In th1s l~sta.nc~ the
more vegetation you have lying down the ea~1er 1t. IS to
follow the trail. Therefore, dense vegetation IS desirable.
UPRI GHT DANDELIO N
DAND ELION STE PPED ON BY

UPHILL WALKE R
SLI GHTLY BENT
Continuing upward. Notice the inconclusiveness of the dented area where the left
foot had been.
Degrees of Difficulty of Phase II Exercise

If you have been paying attention to the degree of DANDELION STE PPED ON BY
DOWNHILL WALKER
difficulty of Phase II problems 1 through 27 you are now SEVERELY BENT
probably completely confused. In order to alleviate some of

your confusion let us discuss what would happen to a single
dandelion growing on a hillside when it is stepped on. Dande-
lions (and most vegetation) grow straight up. If a dandelion
is growing on a 45 degree slope and is flattened by an uphill Briefly, that is why the altering of each condition will
walker it is only pushed 45 degrees from the perpendicular. alter the degree of difficulty sometimes making the problem
If it is flattened by a downhill walker it is pushed 135 degrees easier and sometimes making it more difficult.
from the perpendicular. A sidehill walker would push it 90
degrees from the perpendicular. Color Change .
The injury inflicted on the dandelion by the uphill When a person is walking on sloping ground he Will
walker is very slight and it will quickly recover. If there occasionally slip and slide. Usually these slides, scuffs and
was much damage to the ground the rapid recovery of the practically all other disturbances in dirt catch your eye ~e
cause they are a different color from the rest a: the terral~.
This difference in color is tremendously Important 1n
Closeup shows tracker discovering that top stem has been pressed into bottom
Tracker closely examining vegetation stem with such force that bottom stem was dented.
tracking but difficult to discuss because it is almost impos- you should scrutinize closely any greenery that is near other
sible to generalize about it. I believe that slides and scuffs on hard surfaces Iike rocks and sticks.
a steep bank are usually darker than the surrounding dirt, but Greenery that is pressed against ground having a sandy
I have found some occasions when they were lighter. surface will have grains of sand imbedded in its underside.
The moisture content of the ground affects the color The injury will be visible from above in the form of small
of a disturbed area. Usually an undisturbed surface is dryer dark bruises which give the greenery a speckled appearance.
and lighter in color than is the soil upturned from beneath A close inspection (by turning the vegetation over to view its
the surface, but the make-up of the soil involved is crucially underside) will often reveal some grains of sand still im-
important, and I suspect my generality could be contradicted bedded in the leaf.
by people living in an area where surface soil is darker than
the soil just below.
Despite my limitations in being able to tell you much
about it, the slight change in color is a very big factor in
causing you to notice a track in the dirt, and you should
think in terms of looking for these slight changes in hue.
A change in color is probably the most important
factor when you are trying to track through green vegetation .
Generally the track will appear lighter in color in short grass
and darker in color (due to shadows) in thick, taller grass.
Also, I believe I can safely say that the underside on
green leaves and blades of grass are lighter in color than their
upward sides.
When plants grow naturally they do not turn their
undersides upwards towards the sunlight. Therefore, when
something lighter in color than the surrounding area catches
your eye, and close inspection reveals it to be the underside
of a leaf or blade of grass, it is pretty safe to assume that the
vegetation has been moved by a force more powerful than it
usually encounters in its natural environment. Of course, a fresh, pliable, unwithered piece of green-
ery that is no longer attached to the plant is a very su.sp.icious
Injuries to Vegetation bit of sign and should be closely inspected to see 1f 1t wa.s
Bruising of vegetation is another important clue to separated from its stalk by the sharp teeth of some small ani-
look for. Greenery that is crushed between two hard sur- mal. If not, then it was probably knocked off by a rather
faces will have a darkened, and possibly bleeding, wound. large animal. This certainly makes it possible that it was
Since the shoe of the walker will provide one hard surface, caused by man.
Feeling for Sign

Areas with lush vegetation occur in parts of the coun-
try that have quite a bit of rainfall. This dampness can assist
tracking as well as hamper it. Lush vegetation returns to its
normal position with the passage of time and can thereby
erase a trail. However, the indentation of the walker's heel
remains impressed in the moist soil beneath the vegetation
for a much longer period of time. If only one footprint can
be found to give a good tracker a starting point, he can ex-
plore the ground with his fingertips and follow the trail by
feeling these heel indentations. The utilization of the track-
ing stick greatly speeds this type of tracking operation.
I have found this feeling technique very useful on
damp, leaf covered forest floors. While taking part in a train-
ing exercise in Great Smoky Mountain National Park,-an area
whose vegetation and wildlife were unfamiliar to me, I often
resorted to the feeling technique to assure myself that what I
was seeing was indeed the heel indentation of the person
being followed.
Choosing Your Task

You have now been presented with 27 exercises deal -
ing with sloping ground and vegetation . They do not have to
be done in numerical order, you may do them in any order
you wish. All that is required is that you do them all before
progressing to Phase Ill exercises .
Tracking is great fun. I believe you will find that
learning to track is great fun, and being able to select the
problem that most appeals to you should add to the
enjoyment.
Uphill tracking in lush forest ed area.

7
Aging
Phase Ill Exercises
There are many forces that work to restore the land to

its original form once it has been scarred by the movement of
a human being. Knowing what some of these forces are, how
they work, and how fast they work allows us to more ac-
curately determine when the person we are tracking made his
mark on the landscape.
The best way to tell the age of a track is by deter-
mining what it does to live vegetation. Grass, plants, bushes,
and trees are all alive and like all living things, when injured,
immediately start repairing themselves.
We are all very familiar with the healing process in
human beings and can easily tell an old scar from a fresh
bleeding wound. We can tell fairly accurately by the scabbing
process if a cut has occurred within the last two hours, but
97
Author feeling for heel indentations on leafy forest floor.

98 Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How Aging 99
the older the injury the more difficult it is to set time limits Southern California has much dry, brown, dead
on when it might have occurred. We can usually tell if it falls appearing vegetation that when stepped on will remain
within a time frame of more than twelve hours but less than flattened for weeks. People and animals walking across this
three days old, probably more than three days but less than dry grass leave a criss-crossing myriad of paths that seem
two weeks, etc. impossible to differentiate from fresh trails. However, two
~ very similar healing process takes place with live things happen to the older trails that will cause them to have
vegetation and by_ studying the particular vegetation in your a slightly darker color than the fresh trail: First, moisture of
area you can easily learn to tell if an injury has occurred dew and fog at night causes the once flattened stems to ex-
within a fe~ hours, from several hours to within a day, etc. pand to their normal round shape which do not reflect sun-
. . The 1mport_ant thing to remember in deliberately in- light as well as freshly flattened stems; and second, lying flat
JUring vegetation 1n order to study its healing process is to ' for a period of time allows dust to accumulate on the surface
keep the damage inflicted as nearly as possible to that which of the flattened area to a greater degree than is possible on
normal wal_king would cause. In other words, do not grind stems standing upright. Therefore, the cleanness of freshly
your foot Into the vegetation, simply walk over it. Do not flattened stems allows them to reflect sunlight better and
uproot plants with your hand and lay them in the sun as gives them their faintly lighter color.
these will die and certainly wither far faster than pl~nts As the night moisture of dew and fog act to re-inflate
th_at are kicked or squashed by normal walking and which , dry stems it has the same effect on flattened dirt surfaces.
still have all or part of their roots in the ground. These Not only does this slight blanket of moisture restore the
plants are still receiving sustenance from the earth and ground to a uniform color, but it causes a graininess to
should live and return to a healthy state. gradually occur in flattened dirt which eventually erases
Avoid tearing leaves or branches completely loose the telltale sign of man.
from their bush. T~e natural act of walking will likely A tracker must be very attuned to the forces at work in
only te_ar them part1ally loose leaving the greater part of nature, and be very cognizant of the low spots where fog is
them still attached and being nourished. apt to have occurred and the higher spots that it likely did
Leaves which grow close to the ground are particu- not reach.
larly more apt to be bruised than torn loose so care must be So too, he must be aware of the area's inhabitants. If
used to inju~e them exactly as the natur;l walker would. your subject happens to walk a cattle trail at the wrong time
.. In testmg how fast green grass will return to an upright of day (for you, the tracker) the movement of only three
pos1_t1on after being flattened by a human foot, you should head of cattle can completely obliterate his trail in less
real1ze that the taller the grass, the harder it is for it to stand than thirty minutes.
bac_k up. Short grass springs back much more quickly. Also the Smaller game, coyotes and rabbits, can obliterate a
mo1sture of the ground plays an important part. Ground that is trail just as thoroughly, but it will take several hours. Field
wet to the point of being muddy gives the roots of tall plants mice, snakes, birds, and ground crawling insects are abun-
a very poor footing and causes the plants to take longer to dant even in the most forbidding environments and their
return to an upright position. constant movement through an area soon erases all evidence
Aging 707
This alone is the main reason I advocate teaching

people to track in the area where they will be doing their
tracking. Types of vegetation, weather conditions, the type
of creatures inhabiting an area, and their habits are crucially
important to the aging of tracks and it is therefore impossible
for the greatest of trackers to be the unchallenged expert in
every area. I have tracked or taught tracking from the Cas-
cades to the Smoky Mountains, and have searched for lost
persons from the High Sierras to the coasts and deserts of
Baja California. Many times in these unfamiliar areas I have
had to rely on experience and cunning to carry me over a
vast expanse of personal ignorance concerning the aging
factors at work in these strange surroundings.
Very early in our teaching program I began to
realize that we should not be teaching people to track in an
' ..
... area which was strange to them. Therefore, I began to dis-
Footprint beginning to be erased b~ animal tracks."" courage groups from coming to El Cajon in order to learn
of the track of man. our system. Far more people can be reached and far more
Creatures that occur very commonly in all environ- good can be accomplished if you learn tracking and do your
ments are ants. Since ant hills are soft areas that are free of practicing in the area where you are going to be doing your
vegetation they appear to be excellent places to look for search in g.
human footprints and if the person you are following Keeping in mind that the specifics of determining the
stepped on the ant hill very recently , you will be able to see age of tracks in your area must be learned in your area, I
the track. However, ants like the shape of their ant hills or will offer a few generalities that should assist you in your
they would not build them that way. They are also tireless study:
:vorkers who begin immediately to restore their mound to
Its pr~per s~ape. The likelihood of a human track being Determining Age of Broken Vegetation
recognizable 1n an ant hill twenty-four hours after the track A lot of sign noticed by a good tracker is not on the
was made is very unlikely. ground at all but appears from a few inches above the ground
To age tracks effectively, you must know a great deal to the head height of the person being followed. Heavy brush
about the number and type of creatures that inhabit the area is one of the very easiest terrain features for a tracker to
where you do your tracking. Equally important is knowing follow someone through. Small broken branches from still
:"hether they. do their foraging in the early evening, at night, living bushes and trees not only show from which side the
1n early mornmg, or during the day. pressure was applied which caused the break (which indi -
cates direction of travel) but allow the tracker to examine
Fresh break caused by leg being swung over fallen tree.

An obvious set of tracks beside a plain set of tracks. Both sets were made at
exactly the same time. Most novices will generally identify obvious tracks as
being fresh er.
important things to look for is the change of color caused by
the color of the break in order to determine when it oc- the drier surface of the ground having been moved to expose
curred. Breaks of this type get darker with the passage o f a moister, lower surface. High temperatures work very swift-
time. The fresher the break, the lighter it will appear. Th e ly to dry out this under surface and can restore the ground
beauty of brush aging is that if you have doubts, all you to a uniform color in as short a period of time as two or
have to do is break another small branch on the same bush three hours.
and compare the color of the two. As far as vegetation is concerned, heat is generally
This habit of frequently making comparisons is a very beneficial to growing things so it does not alter the
good one for a tracker to develop very early. Expert aging process in green vegetation greatly except in those
trackers are continuously checking the way their own track cases where the bit of greenery has become completely
is scuffing or marking the terrain in order to determine separated from the plant and is in the process of witheri~g.
how much sign their quarry should be leaving. Extreme heat will greatly increase the withering rate, mak1ng
a dislodged leaf which may only have been detached for a
Heat as an Aging Factor few hours look like it has been detached for more than a
Extreme heat increases the rate at which tracks day.
appear to age. For tracks appearing in dirt, one of the most
Effects of Wind all the cards in your favor if you can keep the area free of
Wind certainly erases sign quickly and can make very non-tracking track-makers. All sign, human and animal, will
fresh tracks look quite old in just a few hours. A fact that be washed away by the rain and you have a fresh slate on
beginning trackers often fail to consider is that nature is not which to start. The movement of animals cannot be con-
the only producer of wind. trolled but their sign is very easy to distinguish from man's
Tracks made alongside a busy roadway can seldom sign anyway. What you must strive to do is keep other
remain visible for twenty-four hours due to the many strong people out of the area where you wish to do your tracking.
gusts of wind produced by passing vehicles. A road with
heavy vehicular traffic, such as a freeway, can generate
enough wind so the tracks within twenty or thirty feet of the
roadway can be erased in less than six hours.
Effects of Rain
Rain obliterates tracks in dirt and sand completely
unless it is only a light mist, and even light mists do a great
deal to obscure sign. Light rains also encourage grass and
weeds to stand back up more swiftly, thereby giving you less
time to find grass trails. Dead brown grass which can only
be tracked through because you are able to see a "shine",
or the lighter color caused by light being reflected from its
freshly flattened surfaces, is also taken away from you as a
potential tracking area by the appearance of rain. Flattened
stems are softened and return somewhat to their original
round shape and the washing effect gives all the grass a
uniform color. Ideal tracking conditions occur after rainstorm.
One of the very few types of tracking area not af- Problems With Snow
fected by rain is brush and trees. The broken branches Snow is a weather condition like wind and rain that
remain unchanged and the trail is just as obvious as if no immediately starts obscuring your existing trail. However,
rain had occurred . it provides you with a clean slate that could make, your
If your quarry is still moving during the rain he will tracking problem ridiculously simple.
transfer mud from his shoes to the tops of blades of grass, Snow can be the somewhat damp variety that in the
rocks, and even paved roads or sidewalks. However, if the northern states commonly falls in the spring and fall seasons;
rain is continuing, it will immediately start washing this it can be the dry, powdery variety that is referred to as
mud away. winter snow; or it can be the tiny, ice-ball variety that mid-
If your quarry is moving after a rainstorm you have westerners call sleet. It can occur with high winds or with
Aging 107
very little wind, at times when the temperature stabilizes be-
low 32 degrees Fahrenheit, or at times when the temperature with the right conditions, the indentation will be completely
fluctuates above and below freezing. obscured by new snow while the tiny mounds of dropped
These three factors; type of snow, amount of wind, snow will be built upon, staying visible much beyond the
and fluctuation of temperature, work in various combina- point where the indentations will have disappeared.
tions to make snow tracking range from easy to impossible. The most confusing problems with snow tracking
Given stable, below freezing temperatures and no occur when temperature fluctuations allow thawing and
strong wind, the tracker will prefer to track in damp snow re-freezing to occur. Thawing, of course, greatly distorts
because he will be apt to get a "make" on the tracks, (make the track making it appear very old, or actually making it
is tracking jargon for positive description of the track}. This become unrecognizable as a human track. The problem that
means that he will be more able to follow a particular set of this presents is more severe in signcutting than in tracking.
tracks through a maze of other similar trails with little chance In tracking, the continuity of your trail will carry you
of confusion. through areas where the track has remained shaded and thus
Powdery snow does not compact as well as damp relatively unchanged, then into areas where long exposure
snow, thereby lessening the chances for the shoe's distinctive to direct sunlight will have altered the track greatly. Since
markings to have been preserved. Also, the snow around the this distorted mess occurs exactly where your tracks should
edge of the track falls in almost immediately when it is be appearing (at regular step intervals} a good tracker will
powdery, covering any distinctive markings that might have continue to follow it without experiencing great difficulty.
been visible. A technique that will sometimes allow you to You must also consider that in winter in the United
re-expose a make in powdery snow is to clear away the high States the sun's light approaches earth from low in the
sides of snow surrounding the track with your hands so that southern hemisphere, therefore, tracks on the south slope
it cannot continue falling in, then blow on the track to of a hill will get more direct sunlight than tracks on flat
scatter the loose flakes that are lying on top of the com- ground and considerably more than tracks on the north
pacted surface. slope of even slight rises in elevation. This means that the
When you add high wind and new snow to either a same trail will look older in those areas where it has received
damp snow trail or a powdery snow trail, you are probably the most direct sunlight.
going to have your trails obliterated. However, if you only You can surely understand the problems this creates
add high wind, your damp snow trail will very likely remain in trying to cut sign. The inexperienced tracker will always
while your powdery snow trail vanishes. find "fresh" tracks in shaded areas and always find "old"
The addition of new snow and moderate wind could tracks in sun drenched areas.
result in your primary evidence being filled in, but your Some degree of accurate aging can be done in damp
secondary evidence remaining, thereby still allowing you snow due to the fact that freshly compacted areas will be
something to follow. When a person walks in snow they make snow-white and as they age will become ice-gray. The point
a deep impression but their foot also picks up small blobs of of greatest foot pressure should be finger tested to determine
snow that drop off just forward of the footprint. Sometimes, if it has started to re-freeze. If your finger breaks through this
point easily, you have a fresh track. As the track ages it will
slowly freeze outward from the points of greatest pressure to aging, and weather. If you find you are not ready for this
the points of least pressure turning from white to ice-gray as phase all you have to do is get in more practice on Phase II
it does. problems. If you feel that you are an accomplished tracker
Again, as I have said many times, make a comparison you may pick terrain that is more difficult than what I have
with your own track, or make the comparison with the track outlined below. However, I believe most of you will be
of another person who was in the area at a time known to severely challenged by the four Phase Ill exercises that
you. follow:
Sleet for the most part poses impossible tracking con- 1. Side hilling (keeping the same elevation while
ditions. An exception occurs, however, if we have a thin layer walking on sloping ground) in an area with
of icy sleet covering several inches of softer snow. In this vegetation and ground cover, tracks heading
instance the weight of the walker may occasionally break toward the early morning sun, tracks laid down
through the icy crust leaving you a few intermittent tracks. before sunset the evening before you intend to
This condition forces even good trackers to resort to the follow them (12 to 15 hours previously).
distasteful practice of jump-tracking. 2. Same as above except tracks laid out just after
dawn of the previous day (24 hours earlier).
The intelligent determination of the age of a track is 3. Same as above except tracks laid out 36 to 39
something that will take years to accomplish. You must look hours earlier (before sunset a day and a half
at a trail that is several hours old, then again after a day, before). .
then again after several days. You must do this in all seasons 4. Same as above except tracks laid out 48 hours
and you must do it under all wind and moisture conditions. earlier (just after dawn two days before).
There is no way to shortcut.
Like aging itself, it is just something that is going to You should work on each of these problems at least
take time. three times for a period of about three hours each before
moving on to the next problem. It is highly advantageous to
PHASE Ill: FIELD EXERCISES have at least three different training sites that meet the de-
In all the preceding field exercises you have been sired criteria for this set of problems so that you work
working with tracks that had been made almost immediately "hillside A" the first time you do problem number 1, "hill-
before you went out and attempted to follow them. They side B" the second time you do problem number 1, and
were just about as fresh as possible, only being a few hours "hillside C" the third time you do problem number 1.
old by the time you were finishing the problem. This accomplishes two important purposes; it adds
If you have diligently performed all the previous greater variety to the vegetation and ground cover you must
exercises you should have by now completed about 100 learn to interpret, and it allows an adequate healing time for
hours of tracking. It is questionable if that is enough practice the site to restore itself to its natural condition so as to be
time to prepare the average student tracker properly for the ready for the next exercise.
next phase of training which deals with problems of time,
Three lugged-sole tracks in soft sand. Tracks were made at exactly same time as
T~ree sets of tracks in soft sand. Tracks on left were made Sunday, tracks in flat-sole tracks on opposite page. Sunday track in middle, Monday track on
mtddle on Monday, and tracks at right on Wednesday of the same week,
right, Wednesday track on left.
8
Signcutting
Signcutting is the act of looking for sign in order to

find a starting point to begin tracking. At this point we are
going to assume that you have completed all the practice
exercises and are ready to test your skill by discovering an
existing trail and attempting to follow it.
When to Look
Under ideal circumstances you should begin your
search for sign at sunrise and continue it while the sun is
rising in the first one-third of its daily arc. Under non-
emergency situations you should then suspend your search
for sign during the mid-part of the day and not resume it
again until the sun enters the last one-third of its down-
ward arc prior to sunset.
Neither in law enforcement nor in searching for lost
persons do you have this luxury of time that allows for such
173
774 Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How Signcutting 175
a long respite at mid-day. Therefore, it is only to emphasize
~1 ,,I
the point that mid-day is a terrible time to look for sign that
I facetiously suggest that you not even try. It is just that I
- -:o
(f)
want to strongly discourage anyone from driving a vehicle

,, I,/, ~
/, on a dirt road during this period of the day if there is a possi-
'0'
-
- ......
'
~
bility that the sign of the person you seek might appear
there. Walk the road (keeping to the edge away from the sun
,
(<l(f)
II /'l'' (/)
>-<~
...:ll:i but looking towards the sun) send a single horseman along
t:JS'l the road (keeping to the edge away from the sun but looking
r.Hl
"\I I fil~ towards the sun) or send a single, slow riding motorcyclist
~o:.
<<:<:
(/)~ along the road (keeping to the edge away from the sun but
" ' "'" t3
/ t I''- ~~<.'> looking towards the sun) but strongly avoid sending a four
I .... 5!:::l wheeled vehicle onto that road.
I ~
Vehicle tire tracks are the number two destroyers of
(<l~
sign, ranking very close to the number one destroyer which
....:<:<:>:
(/)QU)
H ><:
# ~~u is the foot traffic of non-trackers. Therefore, the movement
'-\I I / <,_.~ ~
"" of vehicles along dirt roads must be controlled very carefully.
~'0' ....fil
0 .... <.'>
~-:
H.-<~
-::- ,_.:::>H
:::>u&J ~
Wind, weather, and the movement of small creatures all
I I\'' cJ~m 0
l1l destroy sign but not nearly so quickly or so devastatingly as
~H<:<: u
t Gll=lfZ
r.:~~
~
gg
vehicles and people.
As you will be forced to look for sign at mid-day you
'
f'j>~ (/)
will also, at times, be forced to signcut at night. In the Border

\ zS
,,I,/ f;:l(f)
(/)~
Patrol we expend more man hours searching for people at
-'0'
.... - ~8
ti~
night than we do in daylight. I in no way intend to infer
/t\ ~ that we spend more time tracking at night, this is not so.
~~
\ We do the preponderance of our tracking during daylight.
fil~
< ....
However, we probably do a little more signcutting at night
' ,,\, /
-'0'-
(f)j
tl:>::t3
~ .... <.'>
.... 5!:::l
than during the day so we have had to make some adjust-
ments in order to enhance our chances of seeing sign under
;'I'" . . . ._ such poor light conditions .
We have equipped our vehicles with tractor lights
that are hinged to the bumper and can be swiveled down-
ward to within a few inches of the ground in order to cast a
~
~1 s
(/)
light which produces the shadows that reveal slight inden-
tations in the ground. Of course the vehicle headlights must
776 Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How Signcutting 7 77
be turned off when utilizing these signcut lights because

their high angle light eliminates the desired shadows. These
signcutting lights are far better than regular vehicle lights, but
they are not nearly as effective as natural light. Their weak-
ness stems from the fact that you are forced to be behind the
light source instead of looking towards it. However, if they
are used cautiously they can be effective.
Tracker adjusting signcutting lights.

My strong personal preference for night signcutting is
a slow moving motorcycle with low slung lights. You are
closer to the sign, your field of vision is better, and if the sign
is missed by the signcutter the vehicle tires will likely not
obliterate all of the evidence, as is often the case with four
wheel vehicles. If you are cutting for sign on foot you should
use a good wide-beam flashlight held close to the ground
and as far to the side as possible so as to cast a light directly
across your path.
Night signcutting.
7 78 Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How Signcutting 779
Signcutting from a vehicle. Cameraman shooting with sun to his back. With correct sun angle the camera can pick up what the signcutter is seeing.
How to Look
In cutting for sign you should strive to intersect the
path of the person you are seeking at a 90 degree angle so as
not to confuse the trail with your own sign. If you are on
foot it is very prudent to drag your signcutting stick. This
tells all subsequent searchers who see your tracks that you
are a searcher and not the subject being sought.
The most important thing to be said about how to
look for sign should by now have been hammered into you
by the Phase I exercises:
Look for the track to appear directly between you and
the light source. Regardless of which direction you are
going, have your head turned and your eyes positioned
so as to scrutinize the patch of ground that is directly
between you and the sun.
What to Look For

Specifically you look for everything mentioned in Flattening and regularity.
Chapter 5, but generally you look for : companions were with him at this site you should look at
1. Flattening the soles of their shoes in order to know what tracks can
2. Regularity be eliminated. If your search originates at an abandoned
3. Color Change car, carefully inspect the ground beneath all doors.
4. Disturbance
Dirt Roads
Where to Look The best places to look for tracks are the dusty,
First look in those areas where the person being sought dirt roads in the area where the person you are seeking was
spent enough time that he should have left his footprint; last seen. However, do not place great fa.ith in these roads
second, look along a route that the person you are seeking unless you know with some certainty that they have been
might have been induced to walk; and third, look in those free of vehicle traffic since the time your subject would
areas where a track would be very easy to see . have walked there.
The first concern is always to establish which track
among hundreds is the one you should be following. To do Sandy Streambeds
this, interrogate whatever people might be present in order Sandy streambeds are very good places to look for
to determine a location where the subject walked or stood tracks, but you must be cautious of two very common
that might have been off the beaten path . If several of his signcutting errors: The first is expecting the tracks you are
Signcutter cutting dirt road.

looking for to appear as fresh as your own. Realize that soft
sand will not keep a track sharply defined very long. So if
you are looking for the track of a person who might have
been walking in that soft sand two days earlier be very
certain that you know what a two day old track looks like
in soft sand. Gravity does not tolerate sharply defined edges
in soft sand; it works very swiftly to smooth and level. A
track two hours old looks nothing at all like a track eight
hours old. Be sure you know the difference! The second
common error is in failing to realize that sandy stream beds
frequently have patches of a very firm clay-like silt which is
often so hard that it can only be scuffed and will not reveal
a full footprint at all. From several feet away these patches
look like smooth sand. You must walk on them yourself to
check how your own track affects them.
Also, be aware of the fact that a smooth, flat track
will be visible in sand much longer than an uneven, high Freshness of track is evident by sharply defined instep brand (flat area) but sand
has fallen in so fast In lugged sole area that track appears to be old.
Signcutting 125
from the watering hole.
traction track such as a Vibram sole. As was mentioned wind
Another very good reason, I thought to myself, why
and gravity work to level a track, but a smooth, flat t;ack is
people who go into the wilderness should know a great deal
level to begin with, so change occurs very slowly. Vibram
more than they do about tracking. Had our subject been
soles and hiking boots create many high and low spots that
conscious of these animal tracks he probably would have
can show the effects of nature's leveling action very quickly.
followed them to water and been saved.
Animal Trails
Natural "Track Traps"
The.re are practical reasons and probably strong
Other naturally occurring places that are outstanding
psychological pressures that induce people to follow well de-
to check for sign because of the ease with which tracks can
fined game or domestic animal trails. When such trails are
be seen are: mud flats, salt flats, fields of high grass, river
visible, they are obvious pathways, and people have a strong
banks, bushy thickets, and steep embankments.
tendency to use them. Aside from possible psychological
Any steep slope is good because (as was mentioned in
reasons, they are free of heavy brush and are therefore easier
Chapter 6) in order to walk up, down, or across a steeply
to walk. They also will eventually lead to water.
inclined plane a person must plant his foot firmly, some-
I can vividly remember one particular search which
times creating a little terrace but always inflicting extensive
took me into one of Mexico's most dangerous deserts east of
damage to the surface of the ground in order to maintain
the Sierra De Juarez Mountains in rugged Baja California.
his footing.
In following the tracks of the lost person we were seeking
my partner and I climbed out of a deep wash and onto ~
Man-made "Track Traps"
h~gh flat mesa that was a veritable obstacle course of every
Man-made "track traps" can be equally as helpful
kmd of cactus that I could imagine. It would have been a
when looking for sign. In addition to dirt roads, we have
hopeless maze if not for the animal paths that led you
bulldozed firebreaks, plowed fields, cleared construction
through it.
sites, the berms of roadways, and the terrain along fencelines.
After having followed our victim through several
Getting over, under, or through a barbed wire fence
~iles ~f trackless desert we were amazed by the steadily
requires extra foot placements and a degree of pivoting and
mcreas.lng number of animal tracks we were encountering.
scuffing which should leave a noticeable amount of sign.
In a ~1stance of less than a mile it became such a freeway
of ammal tracks that our victim's track was completely
Route lnfluencers
erased and we were forced to assume that he was still on
Fences also come under the category of things that
the trail. We continued following the animal sign to one
will induce a person to walk a certain route. A person lost
of the most unexpected, coolly shaded watering holes
in fog will be particularly thankful for something like a
you would ever hope to find.
fence that will lead him in a straight line.
?ur v~cti.m's tr~ck was not there and when we finally
Pipelines, electric lines, and telephone lines are all
found It aga1n It was 1n such a location as to indicate he had
apt to influence a person's route. since surely they will
probably turned against the animal traffic and walked away
Signcutting 727
out" the probable path of the person being followed. This

simply means that they follow his tracks until they feel they
know what his intended route is going to be and then they
radio this information to the teams that are cutting ahead. If
they feel his intention is to simply walk east they will so
advise; if it appears he is walking a particular canyon, guiding
on a specific landmark, or following a power line, this is the
information that they relay ahead.
With this information the forward teams may proceed
by vehicle directly to points along this probable route, judi-
ciously select terrain that will readily reveal sign, and care-
fully make a cut.
The team making the cut a mile or so ahead may not
even get in position before another team, three miles ahead,
reports finding the tracks.
At this juncture the forward team abandons its vehicle
Signcutter cutting steep embankment.
to become the tracking team while the rear teams leapfrog
lead him to civilization. ahead to make another cut.
. City li?hts, airport beacons, distant water towers, or Once the tracks do not appear where it is felt they
Simply promment mountain peaks offer goals or points of should, the second most likely route is cut, then the third
re~erence . to a lost person and are f requently selected as most likely, and this continues until the absolutely unlikely
guIde pomts. Once it appears evident that the person routes are checked. This usually results in a complete peri-
whose tracks you are following is being influenced by such meter being cut around the steady advance of the tracking
a lan.dmark you can intelligently select a point a numb team.
o: mlleks ahead, where it would be prudent to c'ut sign f~;
h1s trac s.
As the areas of highest probability are eliminated, the
forward cutting teams draw closer back to the tracking team
in ever tightening circles . It is quite common that when the
Cutting Ahead
subject is actually found the forward teams have closed the
!he inten~ion of signcutting is to find a track in order circle so tightly that they are usually on foot and within
to begm a tracking operation . Once the tracking operation is shouting distance of the successful tracking team.
under way the same process is re-employed to speedily ad-
vance the tracks great distances but this time . t k'
. . ' , 1n rae mg
par Iance, ~~IS called "cutting ahead".
Cuttmg ahead begins with the tracking team "lining
9
Track Identification
and Description
The thing that makes the greatest impression on

beginning trackers is the sudden vast number of tracks that
they are able to see when before, they had noticed nothing.
In this same vein, they are soon overwhelmed by the bound-
less variety of markings that appear on the bottoms of shoes.
My own awareness of the magnitude of this problem
dates back to 1967, when, while working with the F.B.I. on
a kidnap-murder case whose victims were Federal law en-
forcement officers, we were supplied with photographs
of heel patterns that appeared only on American-made
shoes. There were over 2,000 photographs dealing with this
single category. When you add sole patterns, tennis shoe
patterns, hiking boot patterns, and foreign-made shoe pat-
terns you have a subject of encyclopedic proportions.
Fortunately it is not at all necessary to be able to
instantly recognize and catalogue a vast number of shoe
729
i
730 Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How Track Identification And Description 137
prints. All a tracker must be able to do is: simple; begin with the general description, and proceed to the
1. Differentiate the track from similar tracks specific details.
2. Remember what it looks like The officers with whom I work, the professionals who
3. Communicate the track description to co-workers handle numerous track descriptions every working day, rarely
Both of these first two requirements can be easily bombard me with extraneous or unnecessary information.
complied with in one operation by studying the track care- Trackers describe tracks that have no separate, elevated
fully, measuring it, and drawing a picture of it. Photography heel as "flats': Tracks that do have a separate or elevated heel are
is excellent and I advocate it, but nothing acquaints you as called "heels': These terms may have to be explained when com-
thoroughly with a track as does painstakingly measuring it municating with a non-tracker, but among trackers they do fine.
and penciling in all of its unique markings. Normally, the first thing one of my fellow officers wi!l
As mentioned in Chapter 3, you should measure the tell me is that they have either a "flat" or a "heel". There IS
overall length of the foot, and the sole at its widest point. no need to amplify on this. Tracks either have a heel or they
If it has a heel, you should measure its length and width, do not, and 1 immediately start getting a general mental
note the number of nail holes, note any stitching, note the picture of what I am to look for. .
number and sizes of lines and markings, and you should re- Since the preponderance of the tracks we are lookmg
cord all of this information on your drawing. for belong to adult males we do not bother to point this out
Lastly you should look for cuts, worn spots, or other each time. It is assumed that it is an adult male unless you
idiosyncracies that make the track unique.
are told otherwise. . .
If you have an instant-print camera available you If it develops that the particular trac~ descnpt1o~
should certainly photograph the print and distribute the being radioed to me is one of those e~cept1o~s when. It
photos to everyone involved in the search, but do not use this belongs to a woman or a child, then th1s fact IS the f1rst
as a substitute for your drawing. one reported to me, and whether it is a heel or flat comes
One photograph will never show all the peculiarities next.
of a single track. Information regarding the track's complete
appearance normally has to be compiled bit by bit as a result
Flats
of seeing many prints and gathering separate information Basically there are three main categories of flats;
from each. For this reason your ultimate drawing will pro- they are: {1) Tennies, (2) Sandals, and (3) Work Boot.s.
vide you with more information than a single photograph. Trackers refer to all manner of flat-soled athletiC
Your photograph is a great way to communicate your shoes as "tennies", meaning "tennis shoes". With ~his one
track description to co-workers. However, so is a photocopy word they tell you that it is a flat; that it falls mto the
of your drawing. If you have these devices available to you, category of athletic shoes; and that it is going_ to have a
by all means use them. However, most of the time you will variety of descriptive markings on its sole. AthletiC shoes are
find yourself being forced to paint a word picture over the designed for high traction which means they must have
radio. raised areas on their soles which will leave noticeable marks
In describing tracks by radio you should keep it on the ground. They are also designed to protect the foot
Track Identification And Description 133
duri~g periods when it is subjected to straining and twisting sandal, which has a tire tread sole, by its single-word Mexican
motions. For this reason it is well contoured to the shape name which is "Huarache".
of the foot and therefore is easily recognized as a tennie The most common flat work boot is sold by Sears, Red
by its shape even after all distinctive markings are worn off. Wing, and a number of other companies. It is recognized by
Sandals on the other hand, are very often smooth. If thick Jines, referred to as "bars", which are interrupted as
they have a sole pattern at all it is most likely to be shallow they cross the shoe. This interruption is either a blank area
and uncomplicated.
or an offset bar. Hence, they are commonly referred to as
. Sandals are seldom narrowest at the instep, as are "broken bars".
~enn1es. They usually maintain the heel width through the A sub-category of flats that is extremely popular at
mstep area then spread at the ball of the foot and sweep this time is the Earth Shoe. These are very distinctively
towards a point in the area of the big toe.
shaped having an appearance much like a blunted sandal, but
. The shape of work boots is typified by heel and are most noticeable because the lines in the heel area are not
mstep areas that are fairly wide in relation to the overall parallel with those in the sole.
length of the track. They generally have a rounded toe.
The sole markings are generally less ornate than tennies and Heels
are coarser in appearance. .
Shoes with heels are usually lumped into only two
In each of these categories of flat-soled shoes there main categories: Street shoes/dress shoes and hiking boots.
are a number of commonly appearing tracks that allow the Street shoes are described first by the markings in the
person describing the track to communicate a great deal with heel unless there is a more prominent recognition point
very few words. "Herringbone tennie" instantly tells you to such as the shape of the heel, the shape of the sole, etc.
l?ok for ~\',at-soled ten.ni~ shoe with fi.ne wavy fines. "Fine A person who is good at describing tracks will tell
lmed tenn1e tells you It IS a flat tenn1s shoe with straight you very quickly about the most noticeable aspect of the
fine lines. '
track. Usually with street shoes, the most noticeable aspects
. Two commonly appearing tennis shoes worn by are the pattern in the heel, the number or spacing of nail
af1ens who attempt to enter the United States in our area holes, or the shape of the leading edge of the heel. However,
fend themselves beautifully to apt description; they are the if the heel is relatively plain, the most unique characteristic
"ball bearing tennie" and the "torch tennie".
of the track might be a sharply pointed toe, stitching around
The "ball bearing tennie" has clusters of small circles the sole, or possibly a hole in the sole.
throughout the track and the "torch tennie" is a Canada A few years ago we experienced one of those rare times
brand which shows a hand holding a torch in the heel area. when shoe designers succeeded in establishing an outlandish
The most commonly appearing sandal is simply called fad fashion in men's footwear. The "mod shoes" were
a "shower shoe". This tells you it is flat, shaped like a sandal, characterized by high heels which had concave leading edges
and may reveal the three circles that anchor the thongs to and toes which were rounded. These still appear and are
the sole of the shoe.
called "mod shoes" or "fruit boots". I suspect that all
My tracking colleagues describe another common future fad extremes in men's footwear will be referred to
Track Identification And Description 735
by one or both of these terms.
The most common hiking boot is the lugged Vibram instep than you do by saying you have "an ellipse".
sol.e. It has been so successful that all types of cheap imi-
tations have sprung up. The common discount house varieties Measurements
are generally described as "waffle stompers" while the more Tracks should be accurately measured and this informa-
ex~.ensi~e imit.ations are referred to by my tracking colleagues tion should be carefully recorded. Geometrical shapes should
as Mex1can v1brams". be counted, as should lines, and the distance separating them
. . In the hiking boot category are two types issued to should be measured. However, this precision is only necessary
m.1l1tary personn~l, the "Vietnam boot" which might other- to keep you from becoming confused when you encounter an
WISe ~~ve fallen 1nto the category described as "Mexican vi- almost identical track.
b rams and the "running W". The only measurement information with which you
. . .The "r~nning W" is comprised of heavy wavy lines and should tie up the air is overall length of the shoe, and if it has
IS d1strnc~ly different from the "herringbone tennie" because a heel, the length and width of the heel. The rest of your
o~ the thickness of the lines and the fact that the track has a measurements should only be transmitted after someone has
ra1sed heel. found a track which they feel matches your initial description.
Remember it is far more communicative to tell a per-
Descriptive Terms son that the track has a circle in the heel "about the size of a
. I~ describing either flats or heels there are unlimited quarter" than to tell them it contains a circle "5/16 inches in
descnpt.lve words and phrases that convey vivid mental pic- diameter".
ture.s. Circle, square, diamond, and football describe the more It is far more useful to tell them that lines are "about
~bv1ous s.hapes while line, bar (thick line), broken bar, wavy the thickness of a match stick" than to tell them you have
lrne, herrrngbone, and running W aptly describe lines. lines "1 /8 inch thick"
For genuine imaginativeness and real word pictures A problem with measurements of which you should be
though, I have to admire terms such as: "screen wire effect" cognizant is the fact that measurements will vary depending
"waffle pattern", "quilted pattern", "boiler plate design"' on the consistency of the soil in the area where the measure-
"b as k e t weave " , "h ee I within a heel", "heavy chevrons" "rope' ments take place. In soft, dry sand you will always get only
sole" ' "h oneycom b" , " diamond with chevrons" "sunburst" ' an approximate measurement because the edges of the track
" sp1'd er we b" , and " snake skin" just to name a few.' ' fall in the instant the foot is removed from the sand. In mud
. The Acme Boot Company puts a brand on the heels of an imperceptible sliding effect can lengthen your measurement
Its bo~ts.that looks like a cigar band would if you unstuck it as much as half an inch.
and .l~1d ~~out flat, hence "cigar band"tells a person who is un- If the soil conditions fall in some of these unreliable
familiar w1th the .track exactly what he should be looking for. categories be sure to communicate what type of soil you took
. T~e m.ost Important advice I can give you is keep your your measurement in when you relay the rest of your track
descrrpt1ons rn terms that everyone can relate to. You reach description.
far more people by saying that you have "a football" in the
736 Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How Track Identification And Description 737
Shoe Sizes carry around a "shoe sizer" which they can flop down beside
All long-time trackers bristle when they hear a track a track in order to see if it is the "size 9" that has been called
described as "a size 9 track" or "about a size 1 0". There is no to them. However, many of us carry small measuring tapes
way in the world to accurately tell the shoe size of a track by and can quickly ascertain if a suspect track has the same
its overall measurement. People who attempt to describe measurements as the one we are seeking.
tracks in this manner probably know what their own shoe
size is and since the track they are describing is the same size, Walking Traits
they are simply trying to impress someone with their saltiness. Before we leave the subject of track identification some
Shoe manufacturers vary widely in sizing shoes. It is an mention should be made of walking traits.
unusual person who owns well fitting shoes made by six The common terms trackers use to describe the way a
different manufacturers and has all of them sized the same. As walker turns his feet are "pigeon toed" for those whose toes
far as overall measurement is concerned, I find a difference of turn inward and "splay footed" for those whose toes point
more than one-half inch between shortest and longest when I outward.
measure six of my own shoes. When one foot consistently takes a shorter stride than
Several years ago I was called upon to help find a men- the other you are probably following someone with a limp.
tally retarded boy who had wandered away from a ranch A dragging mark to the rear of heel placements indi-
where forty mentally retarded boys were living. We discovered cates that the walker is tiring. Complete shuffling of both feet
immediately that the same tennis shoe pattern featuring a indicates a walker who is near exhaustion.
diamond design was everywhere. Box-like foot placements {short strides coupled with a
A quick check with the counselors revealed that tennis wide side-to-side spread) indicates the careful and labored walk
shoes were bought by the gross from a single manufacturer of the elderly.
and issued to the boys as their old ones wore out. It was im- An extended stride indicates trotting or jogging while
mediately apparent that every boy on the ranch had the same an extremely extended stride showing the weight mostly on
track except for differences in size. A check of camp records the balls of the feet indicates a full-speed sprint.
quickly supplied us with our victim's shoe size so we started In addition to looking for these very helpful character-
measuring new shoes in order to translate this shoe size infor- istics you should also be on the lookout for habits or personal
mation into a length that would be meaningful to us. To our preferences such as a tendency to walk to one side of a road;
amazement we discovered more than a quarter of an inch a proclivity to walk around a small bush instead of through
difference in the overall measurement between two shoes of it; an aversion for dense woods; a preference for walking a
the same size which were made by the same manufacturer. drainage instead of a ridgeback; etc. All of these elements are
Therefore, we had no way of differentiating the track of the a vital part of track description. They should be noted and
boy we were seeking from at least a dozen other boys' tracks. communicated.
Even if this discrepancy between shoe size and measure- Tracking is a highly visual art. Communication is large-
ment did not exist, I find the use of shoe size to be a poor ly verbal, and when radio communication is involved it is en-
communicator. None of the trackers with whom I associate
tirely verbal. It is in order to drive home that point that 1

chose to have this chapter be the only one in the entire book
that does not contain a single photograph or illustration.
10
Following
a Non-Visible Trail
In search and rescue work far more than in my Border

Patrol experience, I have frequently been called upon to fol-
low non-visible trails.
A non-visible trail is the extension of an actual trail that
has been erased by nature or man.
Many searches occur when children wander away from
campgrounds. Often these are areas which have much con-
fusing foot traffic to begin with. Add to this the tracks of the
immediate family who does some searching before they notify
authorities. Sprinkle in the tracks of the initially contacted
authorities who do preliminary checking before they call for
an all-out search. Douse thoroughly with the tracks of well
meaning, fellow campers who have heard a child is lost, and
finish off with the caravans of searchers' vehicles drawn into
the area to launch the search, and you present the tracker
with a problem of almost insurmountable magnitude.
739
140 Tracking: A Blueprint For Learning How Following A Non- Visible Trail 141
If the tracker can identify which track belongs to the tracker is absolutely certain that no amount of tracking skill
lost person, and if he can find that track beyond the peri- beyond his own would enable someone else to follow th~ ~rail.
meter that has been trampled by non-tracking searchers, he If doubt exists as to any of these three cond1t1ons,
will probably follow that track into an area where it will dis- then cutting-ahead (as outlined in Chapter 8} should be done.
appear under searcher's tracks, vehicle tracks, or animal Following a non-visible trail is done by process of
tracks. Wind or weather may also eliminate the trail or it elimination and logical thinking.
might go onto a paved road, onto solid rock, or onto a grassy (Example-The person we are following started
area that has had time to return to its original appearance. this way but physical evidence of his passage does not
In these instances the tracker is left with the choice of now exist. If he exited to the right he would have had
cutting ahead or following a non-visible trail. to climb that steep bank which would show us much
Following a non-visible trail is advisable when the visible evidence . If he exited to the left he would have
tracker can be sure that the person being followed could not had to push his way through dense brush which would
leave the trail, to either side, without the tracker being able show us many freshly broken branches, hence he is
to see evidence of it. Following the non-visible trail is done still on this trail.}
when, to continue on, would not add confusing sign to the Several years ago in searching for some children who
terrain (across rocks, pavement, etc.) and it is done when the had failed to return from a hike in the area of Palomar
Mountain we followed their tracks through the night and
arrived n~ar dawn at a footpath which descended into the
treacherous Pauma Creek area. The tracks of the lost children
went right onto a dusty path where they were completely
covered by the tracks of six adult searchers who late the
night before had gone to the canyon bottom and returned by
this single trail.
For more than two miles my partner and I followed
this non-visible trail. My partner made sure that the children
had not gone to the left and I made sure they had not gone
to the right. Eventually we reached a point where the
searchers had turned back and where we were immediately
rewarded for our perseverance by the sight of our subjects'
tracks continuing down the drainage. Three hours later we
found them, but the area was so rugged that it was almost
six hours more before we climbed to a point where we could
be met and evacuated.
Two trackers continuing trail on paved road while warily cutting each side for Similar procedures are followed when a person gets
departure point. into an area that must be traversed by stepping from rock to
Tracker following subjects indicated route across solid rock.

Tracker carefully checking cutable area at end of long rock.
rock. If this was the direction the subject was proceeding,

then this is the direction in which he will likely continue.
Follow the easiest, most natural walking route. What is
easiest for you would have been easiest for him . Eventually
you will reach a point where you cannot easily step to the
next boulder but must step on some greenery, some brush,
a log, or the ground itself. Stop and look very carefully where
you intend to place your foot and in all probability you will
find the subtle evidence which indicates that this is exactly
where your quarry placed his foot too.
In doing this kind of tracking the thing you must be
diligent about is constantly checking both sides of the trail
for evidence of a sudden turn. If you have the ideal situation
of a three man tracking team this will provide a full time job
for each of you.
However, if you are working alone you cannot afford
to spend all your time being certain that no sudden turns
were made. The high probability is that the person continued
on his chosen course. People do not make radical changes in
direction without good reason. If you see no reason for a
dramatic change of direction then it is unlikely the person
you are following saw one.
However, keep in mind that conditions which existed
when your quarry was there may have changed by the time
you arrive at that point. A fleeing lawbreaker may have
skirted around some campers or a parked car and when you
arrive these people may have departed.
A lost child may have altered course upon seeing a
snake or a fearsome animal which is nowhere in sight when
you arrive. So don't jump to conclusions about a person's
mental condition just because you cannot explain their
actions.
Try to rely on solid evidence, tracks and sign, but
Tracker fol!oo;ing trail down rocky stream bed while warily checking easy ex't when these are taken from you, stick with the high probabili -
routes to h1s nght, t
ties and common sense.
Following A Non- Visible Trail 14 7
In the area of jumping to conclusions I have had inex-

perienced trackers tell me that the trail they had cut indi-
cated that the person we were seeking was in abject panic.
They supported their contention by pointing out that the
subject was crashing pell-mell through heavy brush when
there were unobstructed routes only a few feet to the side.
Upon examining the breaks in the brush it was evident that
they were probably caused between sunset and dawn. Re-
membering that there had been absolutely no moon during
the night, led to the more accurate conclusion that the
sharpest eyed person in the world could not have seen well
enough to have found his way to those unobstructed paths.
As a general rule, the fact that a person crashes
through brush, bumps into objects, allows their leg to con-
tact a cactus, or trips over an exposed root strongly indi-
cates that they are walking at night rather than that they have
suddenly become addle brained.
A person shows panic or deteriorated mental con-
dition most strongly by abandoning articles necessary for his
survival or comfort. If you find no such articles along a
person's trail you do not need to get alarmed about his
possible mental condition.
NON-VISIBLE SIGN
Things that you hear and things that you smell come
under the category of non-visible sign. We have already men-
tioned a few of the sounds to be conscious of, such as the
barking of dogs or the sudden squawking of birds . You surely
know without being told that there might be much sig-
nificance in the discharge of a firearm or the sound of a
whistle, but the probability is likely quite high that you do
not pay a great deal of attention to unusual smells.
A number of trees give off stronger scents when their
limbs are broken or when their bark is knocked off, and a
Scuffed lichen on solid rock.
great number of plants give off far stronger scents upon being
Photo Credit Page 749
PHOTO CREDITS
trampled than they would under ordinary circumstances.
In order for this information to be useful to you, joe Cordova
Page no. 4
you must develop the habit of being aware of unusually 9 joe O'Dell
Page no.
strong scents in your area and being curious enough to deter- 13 joe O'Dell . . .
Page no.
mine their origin. Photo courtesy of Daily News, lnd1o Cal1forn1a
Page no. 15
Like learning to determine the healing time of vege- 20 Photo courtesy of San Diego Mountain Rescue
Page no.
tation in your area, you must ,injure, examine, and compare Team
in order to acquire the knowledge that will allow you to Page no. 23 joe O'Dell
reach intelligentconclusions concerning the reasons for the Page no. 29 joe O'Dell
sudden manifestation of a strong scent along the trail you Page no. 30 Joe O'Dell
Page no. 38 joe O'Dell
are following.
Page no. 40 Mackintosh Studios
I can remember any number of times when scent has
helped me find aliens who in the course of trying to enter Mackintosh Studios
Page no. 45
the country illegally had walked for several days through the Mackintosh Studios
Page no. 51
mountains east of San Diego, building campfires~as they 57 Top joe O'Dell
Page no.
went. As I followed their tracks towards their final hiding 57 Bottom joe Cordova
Page no.
place, the scent from those campfires was so strong on their Page no. 58 Top Todd Purcell
clothing that I found them easily despite the fact that they 58 Bottom joe O'Dell
Page no.
were extremely well concealed. Indeed, if it were not for Page no. 60 joe O'Dell
the roughness of the terrain, I probably could have walked Page no. 61 Joe O'Dell
the final fifteen or twenty feet blindfolded. Page no. 62 Mackintosh Studios
63 Top joe Cordova
Smells, sounds, feelings, and sights are what life is Page no.
63 Bottom joe Cordova
all about. Learning to track will make you far more aware of Page no.
Page no. 67 Joe Cordova
these things than you have ever been. Do not make the
mistake of restricting this expansion of your awareness only joe Cordova
Page no. 74
to things that you can see. Strive to expand this awareness joe Cordova
Page no. 76
in all of your senses and you will find that learning to track 80 joe O'Dell
Page no.
will have enriched your life. 82 joe O'Dell
Page no.
87 Mackintosh Studios
Page no.
Page no. 90 joe Cordova
Page no. 96 Joe O'Dell
PHOTO CREDITS
Page no . 100 Joe Cordova

Page no. 117 Photo by Joe O'Dell - Mackintosh Studios
Page no . 118 Joe O'Dell
Page no . 122 Joe O'Dell
"SAVE A LIFE, ENCOURAGE A FRIEND
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Mail to:
PATHWAYS PRESS, 525 Jeffree Street, El Cajon, CA 92020
Please send me _ _ copies of "TRACKING: A BLUEPRINT FOR

LEARNING HOW" Single copies $12.95 (Calif. residents please
add .78 sales tax) plus $1.00 mailing costs.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jack Kearney, Supervisory Border Pa,trol Agent (Retired), spent
twenty-one years of his Border Patrol career assigned to the El
Cajon, California duty station. For approximately fifteen of those
years Jack spent his working days walking the mountains and
rugged canyons of Southern California's remote backcountry as
he tracked down the border jumpers who were trying to sneak
into the United States from Mexico. During this time, Jack and
a few of his co-workers earned a reputation for tracking expertise
that became reknowned throughout the Border Patrol. In one
seven year stretch this small band of experts was credited with
finding over sixty lost persons with their tracking skill. During
this stretch, they had no failures on searches that involved small
children. A June, 1974, Sports Illustrated article, that reported on
one of these searches, aptly described Jack and his frequent
tracking companion, Jim Burns, as being, " the two best trackers
in the Border Patrol:'
These successes and the ensuing publicity created tremendous
demand for instruction in tracking techniques arid Jack spent
much of the last ten years of his Border Patrol career developtng
the instructional techniques described in this book as he con-
ducted tracking seminars for law enforcement officers, military
personnel, and search volunteers all over the United States.
Although this book is principally about tracking people, it has
been widely acclaimed by many famous and respected big game
hunters. In one of the glowing reviews the book has received,
former Executive Editor of Guns and Ammo Magazine, Elmer
Keith, declared, " Every hunter should have this book and study
it!'
I\._

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by jack Kearney~

Pathways Press El Cajon

This book is lovingly dedicated to my wife, Avis, without

Fourth Printing, April1986

Copyright 1978 by Pathways Press, 525 }effree Street, E/ Cajon, California

Library of Congress No: 77-184 72

Approximately one million years ago there walked

TRACKING AT THE EL CAJON BORDER PATROL

bilit y is uniquely shaped and situated so as to almost force its

I have been on a number of searches that found non-

pie-shaped wedge that is likely to be no greater than 30 de-

It is very important that you understand the basic pur-

track; however, both are going to require dedication to fun-

Preparation and Equipment ~

numbered groups to be working tracks atangles that do not

00 , , , , , , , , , ..)\ . . . . . . .' _, . . '

i Direction of the Tracks

uniquely different markings to lay out the tracks for groups

To learn the value of sun angle you should run your

Laying Out the Tracks

f-ORWARD MARKER SET AT TOE

Students searching for extremely subtle tracks.

..: ---::-:<: . . ''): ~(;

When a rank beginner hears someone mention tracking,

easily be caused by something other than a human being and

than flat spots. Animals, birds, reptiles, insects, and wind

Buried Pebbles and Small Sticks (Flattening)

Rear Curve of Heel (Regularity)

Toe dig in lower right of photo, heel impression upper left.

sharp frontal edge of hooves tend to crimp the grass towards

Bruised Stems and Stalks (Color, Flattening)

Picking Up Mud (Color Change, Regularity)

amuse himself. Mud tracking is too simple to dwell on, ex-

easier to see at some distance than up close. In dirt, shine is

across dead dry grass. Looking closely at the ground immedi-

Dislodged Twigs (Disturbance)

Dew Trails (Color Change)

ALARM, OR MOVEMENT OF AN AREA'S INHABIT ANTS

confidence that comes from understanding what you are

In the preceding field exercises you have worked on

1. Steep Heavy Early Towards Most

Each of these exercises should cover a distance of sev-

three hours. Alter conditions as necessary so as to present Sidehi/1 Time

There will be plenty of disturbances in uphill walking

19. Steep Heavy Early Towards Some- Uphill Time

dandelion (and other vegetation around it) would tend to

UPRI GHT DANDELIO N

DAND ELION STE PPED ON BY

SLI GHTLY BENT

Degrees of Difficulty of Phase II Exercise

probably completely confused. In order to alleviate some of

Feeling for Sign

Choosing Your Task

Uphill tracking in lush forest ed area.

There are many forces that work to restore the land to

Author feeling for heel indentations on leafy forest floor.

This alone is the main reason I advocate teaching

Fresh break caused by leg being swung over fallen tree.

Signcutting is the act of looking for sign in order to

a long respite at mid-day. Therefore, it is only to emphasize