Human Tracking Lesson

I attended another Joel Hardin Professional Tracking Services class this weekend where I received my first certification that allows me to now be called out on law enforcement and SAR tracking operations.  After a gruelling 2.5hr oral examination before the board of directors that is.....

But the class was beneficial in other ways than getting certified.  First off, seeing Joel in action is pretty amazing no matter how much you see it (and I havent seen it all that much quite frankly...only being in this game for 1.5yrs so far...).  But it really is amazing how Joel can categorize sign and understand different variables that allow him to piece the puzzle together.  One important lesson he taught me this weekend I will share below.

Aging is a term often used among trackers, whether it be animal tracking or human tracking.  Aging is one of the most important pieces of evidence a tracker has at his disposal.  It allows you to understand when the sign was made and what has happened since it was made.  Being able to properly date sign is critical in a law enforcement or SAR incident, because if you are chasing a track that was made six months ago but your subject went missing 2 days ago, it doesnt do you much good! 

Herein lies the rub.  Because as important as aging is, it isnt always the easiest thing to pick up on.  By running experiments on different vegetation - ie, cut a blade of grass and watch its healing process over a few days to see how long it takes colors to change, chlorophyl to dry up, etc., you can get a good appreciation for how to age.  But Joel's lesson to me this weekend was a big step above that.

Our sign was made on a dirt road that was pretty fine grits of dirt and sand.  It then meandered across grass and into the woods.  There was tons of other sign in the area that was not our subject, so proper aging was critical to stay on the right path.  The footfall was pretty distinct on the road.  In fact, we could even read the "ISTANT" on the sole of the shoe from the words "OIL RESISTANT."  Joel showed us that on the imprint of the lugs, you can take a FINE weed and poke the lug. 

If it breaks off in a clump, like cookie dough, then it was made when moisture was in the air, which allowed the granules to clump together like cement. 

If it breaks falls apart completely like powder, it was made when there wasnt much moisture in the air, and there hasnt been any since it was made.

If it breaks off but the inner parts of the lug imprint are powdery, it was made when there was no moisure in the air, but since the time it was made, moisture has been in the air.  This was the case with our track.  What that told us was that our track was made between the hours of 12PM and 4PM the previous day.  We knew that because the morning dew didnt dry until 12PM.  Then we had 4 hours of very dry air before the humidity rose and the evening dew was cast on the natural state starting around 4PM.

Another interesting fact is that with a small magnifying glass, you can actually take a cross sample of the lug imprint (keep in mind we are only talking about a clump of dirt that is 1/4 of an inch big)...every dew cycle will leave a paper-thin sheet of crystalized residue on the track.  If you look through the magnifying glass, you can see the number of days old a track is by the layers of glossy sheen!!!

It was truly amazing and a very useful weekend.  Tracking is a truly wonderful skill to have and it is a very satisfying activity.  It is not voodoo.  It is not limited to a few sage people with the skill.  Everyone has the ability to see sign and track.  But as Joel will tell you, "What isnt looked for isnt found."  I encourage everyone to take a look at tracking as a great first-responder activity if you want to help out your local SAR and law enforcement teams.  More info on Joel's program can be found at:

http://www.jhardin-inc.com/web/

Importance of Understanding Weather

The past week we have seen a number of searches across the country for missing people who got caught in weather.  As fall approaches, it is a good time to review weather patterns and things to look for, as well as ways to stay out of trouble.  Over the years I have developed a rule: whatever the weather calls for, always have rain gear (even with 0% chance of rain) and always have enough to stay warm 15 degrees below the weather report and cool 15 degrees above.  Mainly because weather reports are almost always wrong…not because weathermen suck (although it is the one job in America you can be wrong at EVERY day and not get fired), but because, frankly, weather is constantly changing and can always sneak up on you. 

Also, I recommend for those spending a lot of time outdoors a good watch that has an altimeter and barometer on it.  Some watches like the Suunto Core have a “Storm Alarm” that goes off if the baro pressure changes too much over a short timeframe.  This is very helpful, though not always right.  Just remember if using these watches that they are calculated by pressure-based altitude.  So if your altitude is wrong, as it often will be, your baro will be wrong too.  Just make sure when starting your activity to match the alto on your watch to the alto on your topo map, and you should be good to go.

Ok, here are some pointers:

Identifying Hazardous Weather

–        Check the forecast before you leave

–        VHF radio

–        Observation

–        Mobile phones

Air Masses and Pressure

–        Air moves from High to Low pressure areas causing wind

–        As winds converge near a Low, it is forced to rise, causing cooling & precipitation

–        As winds diverge near a High, it is forced to sink, causing warming & fair weather

Air Masses and Fronts

–        Warm Fronts

•          Gentle slope causing gradual rising, cloudiness, and precipitation along front

•          Generally move northward

–        Cold Fronts

•          Steep slope causing narrow band of showers along or just ahead of front

•          Generally move West to East

Cirrus Clouds

–        High-level (20,000’ +)

–        Generally fair weather

–        Lots of these in the sky may indicate the weather will change in the next 24 hours.

Nimbus Clouds

–        Mid-level (7,000’ – 15,000’)

–        Steady precipitation

Stratus Clouds

–        Low-level (0’ – 10,000’)

–        Generally grey and dull weather

Cumulous Clouds

–        Mid to high-level (7,000’ – 60,000’+)

–        Generally fair weather

–        If taller than wide, risk of thunderstorm development

Carving Feathersticks - an Undervalued Source of Tinder

With fall upon us, the weather will get progressively wetter, which can mean some real frustration in firelighting.  Sure you can pack some extra fuel to douse on the wood to get it going, or pack man-made tinder materials...but that's no fun. 

This time of year, the featherstick really comes into its own as a terrific source of tinder.  The problem lies in the fact that feathersticks are not easy to do correctly.  In fact, after MUCH practice, I still get routinely frustrated in carving FS.  It is an excellent example of how to truly master a skill in the outdoors, you have to spend a lot of time and energy observing what materials, tricks and form is required to be successful.  With FS, that means paying attention to both the type of wood used and correctly using the grain of the wood to your advantage.

The link below offers one of the best descriptions of FS that I have found...I highly recommend it.  But a few other tips that I suggest are:

• Find dead standing timber that is about as thick as your arm - the wood can be sopping wet on the outside so long as it is not punky and totally rotten.  the beauty of FS is that you will make dry tinder when none is to be found...the middle of logs will almost always be dry enough to use to get even a spark to take flame
• Cut the timber into about 6 inch knot free cylinders
• baton the 6 inch chunks down into small kindling sticks with your knife
• take 4 or 5 of these kindling sticks and use them to make your feathers.  use the rest to add once the FS have caught flame
• always make more FS than you think are necessary.  This is crucial.  no matter how many times i try to take shortcuts here, i always end up frustrated with NO FIRE! Just take the time to do it right the first time
• If you cannot make a good FS, dont worry, you can still make this work.  Simply lay your hat or bandana down on the ground and carve "shavings" into the hat...for people who dont yet have the control to leave the feathers attached to the stick, shavings will work just fine when bundled together in a bird's nest.  However, if you are only using a ferro rod to get the fire going, it will be much more difficult with shavings than with a true FS...
• Regarding sparks - if you are using this technique, then you probably have mastered fire making pretty well.  But remember that in cold, wet and windy weather when you dont have great tinder like birch bark, sparks can be tricky.  What i do is carve the FS for the tinder and set up my fire as I would normally.  Then i carve a separate FS with VERY fine feathers that will be used to turn the sparks into a flame...but I do this off to the side of the fire so that I dont mess up the organized nest of tinder.  If it is really windy out this is VERY hard to do correctly...for times where you have a bad wind...bring a lighter! :)

For more info, take a look at this blog post and take good notes - he does a great job!!  Look at some of the FS he makes!!!! CRAZY!!

http://bensbackwoods.blogspot.com/2009/01/carving-classic-feather-stick-by-jim.html

back from a week in vegas

was in Vegas for a week for work...and maybe a little play...

anyway, have been quiet lately as I haven't had time to report on much and it is too hot to do much outside anyway!  But willl have something big to report on soon.  In the meantime, my condolenses to the spouses and families as well as the team-members of the brave Navy SEALs and support crew that died this weekend in Afghanistan.  You will be sorely missed.  Having a father who was in the Teams means I tend to be very sensitive about such things...always sad to lose a Frogman, but it is sheer DISASTER to lose approx 1/5 of our most elite counter-terror force.  God bless you and your sacrifice to keep us safe.  HOOYA.

Some info on Spiders

So a man in Colorado died from a black widow bite recently....actually, from 19 black widow bites on his foot.  http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-man-dies-after-suffering-19-black-widow-spider-bites-20110721,0,5774918.story Despite the crazy rare novelty of this, I figured it would be good to post up on some dangerous spider info, particularly given the heat wave we are in.

Everyone is scared of spiders...just to different degrees.  I generally am not afraid of them until they are crawling on my face or head after going through a web...even when it is the harmless spined micrathena that is crawling on me (those ugly jewel-backed spiders that litter the eastern woods).  But really, there are only a handfull of spiders that we should be concerned with here in the US.  While there are other spiders that bite if really provoked, their poison isnt dangerous enough to cause panic.  One such common poisonous but not very dangerous spider is the WOLF spider.  These are the guys you see in the woods at night when you shine a light on the ground and see a bunch of little shiny eyes looking back at you.  They stay on the ground, and while some get HUGE and do cause a painful bite, they are not life threatening.  They are actually pretty fun to watch because they are active hunters, unlike most spiders which sit in a web like lazy fat asses waiting for food to come to them.

The ones that should be a cause for alarm are the following:

The infamous Black Widow - identified by its creepy long legs, jet black body and bright red hour glass on the abdomen of females, though the red isnt always there...so look for the rest of the creepiness.

More Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrodectus

The infamous and disgusting Brown Recluse - their bite is painful and the aftermath is disgusting.  Also referred to as the Fiddle Back, they are identified by their fiddle shaped mark on their thorax.  Common on the east coast, not on the west

More Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_recluse_spider

The Hobo Spider (often mistaken for the Brown Recluse), or as it is sometimes called, the Funnel Web Spider.  looks similar but are west coast spiders

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo_spider

The Sac Spider - these are everywhere in the US

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sac_spider

The much maligned Tarantula, which is actually very docile.  the hair on their legs usually cause more problems than their bites

more Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula

Foruntately, these poisonous and dangerous spiders are very reclusive and dont want to be near you any more than you want to be near them...just know where they live and be careful around the house in the attic or basement shifting boxes and things around.  camping, be very careful around logs, particularly damp, rotten logs, and rocks.  I have had 3 serious run-ins with a black widow, one of which resulted in a bite, and 1 serious run in with a brown recluse (which fortunately didnt bite me).  Even if these spiders are on you, dont panic.  I have been able to get both recluse and widow spiders off me while they were crawling up my body sinisterly, without incident...just dont give them a reason to bite in defense.

And ALWAYS check your boots before putting them back on in the woods!!!

Wolf Reintroduction - Step Forward or Disaster in the Making?

This issue came up on another forum.  It fascinates me for a number of reasons, not least of which is that I find wolves to be one of the most amazing creatures in the world.  there is no other animal in North America that embodies the true wilderness spirit better than the wolf.  So, I naturally gratvitate towards the environmentalist view in favor of reintroduction.  This argument was made in the Audubon Society recently:

Wolves eat ungulates like elk and deer, reducing their numbers. The mere existence of wolves in the same ecosystem also creates what biologists call an “ecology of fear,” so ungulates spend less time eating in one place. As a result, trees and shrubs come back and there’s more biodiversity. In Yellowstone, researchers saw that open fields became more vegetated when they reintroduced wolves. Wolves also increase biodiversity by providing food for scavengers and influencing the way that coyotes behave.
The benefits aren’t limited to the environment. “Wolves in Yellowstone National Park increased visitation and ecotourism spending by $35 million in 2005,” Licht and his four co-authors write in the paper. Having the predators in the park could make visitors more appreciative of the wild environs and give them a thrill when they hear a howl or see another wolf sign.

However, like everything the Government does, this program is a total cluster-fuck.  It has enraged land owners and cattle owners, and in typical government fashion, it has been handled in a way so as to create a totally polorizing environment where there is no middle ground.

It is not an issue that will be solved anytime soon, but I just wanted to post up that there are huge benefits and pitfalls to both sides.  And while I hate the Government and its mismanaged intervention in almost every case, I hate people who ride around in helicopters shooting wolves more.............

Been a Bit Busy

Sorry to everyone for the lack of posts...been really busy with the job that gives me money to go camping....will be back at it shortly...in fact, started tossing some ideas around for a new wilderness survival class that I will post up once I have given it more thought.  In the meantime, please enjoy a picture of Erin in the outdoors (at least I think she is outdoors......who can tell anymore with photoshop!)