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Wolf Journey Part Two – Trail of the Tracker |
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Please return to the following links within the Part One Introduction for:
Forward & Dedications.
Approaches you can take to use this book series, including time commitments.
Setting Goals - preparing your field journal or blog page and work station.
Part Two Introduction & Contents:
Resources Necessary for Success.
Your First Journal Entry.
Go to Chapter 5 - Humans and the Hidden Wilderness.
Go to Chapter 6 - Shape Shifting.
Go to Chapter 7 - Mammal Mysteries.
Go to Chapter 8 - Bird Vocalizations.
If you watch trackers, they seem to focus so strongly on sometimes obvious, sometimes invisible prints on the ground. Like magic, they follow an animal or a human until, just before the trail ends, they pause and tell you with startling accuracy how the imminent encounter will unfold.
How can Tom Brown, Jr. subdue escaped criminals that no one else can find? How can Bill Gates create a computer software that everyone in the world with money will buy? How could Franklin D. Roosevelt get elected to four terms as president despite the absence of world peace and prosperity?
Such people are examples of the best "trackers" in their fields. These are the people who always know how a situation will turn out, and they position themselves in the best location for the outcome. From the outside, it looks like they are behaving like everyone else, yet they do have hidden skills – the skills of a tracker.
The best trackers are constantly aware of the entirety of a situation. They use "wide-angle" vision (as you learned in chapter three) in order to concentrate on what is around them as well as directly in front of them. Our society of computers and books trains us to focus narrowly, but great trackers flourish due to their expanded awareness.
Trackers also learn nearly everything about their subject through its prints. A subject's history, size, strength, habits, state of mind and intention are all written in its tracks. Tom Brown, Jr. identifies thousands of pressure points in prints, each point describing separate characteristics of an animal or human.
Good trackers also recognize patterns in every situation, and they come to anticipate that animals, and even humans, will behave in the same way over and over. Bill Gates certainly knows the key to the way people behave as consumers, and he rides the patterns of corporate business higher and higher.
You may be one of these special people who can see the entirety of a situation and know its outcome. It is true that some people have a natural aptitude for seeing situations as a great tracker sees them, but the field exercises in this book can train anyone to develop these important skills.
Perhaps you are working through the field exercises in this book for fun, but for those of you who want to become excellent trackers, it will be your frequency, intensity, and consistency of practice which will help you see what others cannot. I look forward to witnessing your progress.
Happy Trails! - Chrism
If you are creating a nice, old-fashioned field journal, these are the study materials you'll need:
•8.5 x 11 white paper to fill your journal. Try a perforated, spiral notebook with unlined paper.
•Three-ring binder to hold your completed journal entries and sketches.
•Three-hole puncher for adding pages to the binder, and re-enforcement tabs for pages that rip.
•Pen, pencil, colored pencils and a pencil sharpener.
•Ruler, preferably clear, for measuring tracks and drawing lines.
Necessary Resources for completion of Wolf Journey Part Two - Trail of the Tracker:
You will likely need many of the resources included in the Wolf Journey Handbook for Students & Teachers including the following contents:
• Chapter 30: Glossary of Terms.
• Chapter 31: Outings Checklists.
• Chapter 32: Understanding Taxonomy.
• Remaining chapters to be uploaded asap.
For inspiration starting this part of the book series, I would suggest Tracker by Joel Hardin with Matt Condon from jhardin-inc.com. Check Tom Elpel's web site first, www.hollowtop.com, for currently recommended books, such as:
Chapter 5: (in order of relevance)
Tom Brown's Field Guide to the Forgotten Wilderness (Berkley)
The Science and Art of Tracking by Tom Brown, Jr.
Tracking: A Blueprint for Learning How (Pathways) by Jack Kearney
Readers Digest Guide to North American Wildlife is a good reference at all times, and helpful to begin classifying animals and plants taxometrically.
Observing Insect Lives in Stokes Nature Guides
Amphibians of Oregon, Washington and British Colunbia by Corkran & Thoms (Lone Pine)
Chapter 6: (in order of relevance)
Tracking and the Art of Seeing by Paul Rezendes
Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking (Berkely) for learning
(Peterson's) Mammals by Olaous J. Murie (Houghtin Mifflin)
Skeletons by Eyewitness Books, and look for other feather/hair reference guides.
Chapter 7: (in order of relevance)
Mammal Tracks & Sign (Stackpole) by Mark Elbroch
A Field Guide to Tracking in North America by James Halfpenny
Tracking: Mastering The Basics (Halfpenny) video found through hollowtop.com
Mammals of the Pacific Northwest by Chris Maser
Chapter 8: (in order of relevance)
(Golden Guide) Birds of North America – A Guide To Field Identification is the best for the money, but most field guides to birds of your area are fine to start with.
Bird Tracks & Sign (Stackpole) by Mark Elbroch with Eleanor Marks.
Advanced Bird Language cassette by Jon Young, wildernessawareness.org/tapeindex.html can give you the best perspective on bird vocalizations.
(Peterson's Eastern or Western) Birding by Ear, Walton , Lawson (Houghton Mifflin) cassettes.
Any one of these taxometrically listed bird vocalization CDs: Stokes, Audoban, Petersons. Excellent quick way to find bird sounds.
The absolute best field guide plants you can find, such as:
Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast (Lone Pine) is the best book out west.
Plants of the British Columbia Interior (Lone Pine) is also great for central WA & OR.
Plants of the Rocky Mountains (Lone Pine) also covers a wide region.
(Peterson's) Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and Central North (Houghton Mifflin)
Botany in a Day: Tomas J. Elpel's Herbal Field Guide to Plant Families (HOPS Press)
Books on the hazards in nature are always recommended, such as:
(Peterson’s) Poisonous Plants, both published by Houghton Mifflin, may prove critical, while a field guide to poisonous animals: insects, spiders, snakes, etc. is also required for your safety.
Medicine for the Outdoors by Paul S. Auerbach or another Wilderness First Aid reference book is important to complete Chapter 2, and some good internet research to keep you safe.
To feel successful recording astronomical events on the Journaling Cover Pages found at the start of Chapter One, it may be important to look up information on the internet, especially if you are in a place where it is difficult to see the skies. Also, you may need to educate yourself if you are starting from scratch regarding astronomy by buying/borrowing books like (Peterson’s) Skies and A New Way To See Stars as good examples. However, my favorite resource for this purpose is the Biodynamic Agricultural Calendar Stella Natura published by Kimberton Hills - for celestial events which is available by calling (800) 516-7797.
To feel successful sketching: Drawing from the Book of Nature, Dennis Klocek, Rudolf Steiner College Press
Check out our other recommended resources to help you begin your journey. Also, take a look at the Necessary Resources section at the start of each part of Wolf Journey which are actually also extremely helpful to appeasing curiosity while completing Part One.
Your First Journal Entry for Part Two - Trail of the Tracker:
Once you have created your journal and acquired the your study materials, make enough copies of the Journaling Cover Page for the number of field exercises you plan to complete. Then fill one out and take the Earth Skills Self-Assessment so you can reflect on where you are now, and look back later at how far you've come.
Begin writing your goals. This will be the start of your field journal. Write "GOALS FOR MY TIME AS A TRACKER" plus your name and the date. Then write down the goals you've been thinking about as you've been reading through this introduction. Remember to limit the goals to just a couple or a very few, and keep them succinct. Place the page in your binder when you are done.
To make journal entries in the future, just read the instructions for each field exercise, then return home and fill out a Journaling Cover Page. On a following page, write a summary of your experience while out in the field. If you want to journal extensively about tangential issues, put that type of lengthy entry in your diary. Consider that writing many pages of notes after every field exercise could easily start to overwhelm you, and it may even deter you from completing more field exercises. Keep it as simple, yet as fulfilling, as possible.
Index to Wolf Journey (chapters currently uploaded)
• Introduction to Part One - Skills of the Naturalist
• Chapter 1 - Your Secret Place.
• Chapter 2 - Fears & Hazards.
• Chapter 3 - Sensory Awareness.
• Chapter 4 - Sketching & Journaling.
• Introduction to Part Two - Skills of the Tracker
• Chapter 5 - Humans and the Hidden Wilderness.
• Chapter 6 - Shape Shifting.
• Chapter 7 - Mammal Mysteries.
• Chapter 8 - Bird Vocalizations.
• Introduction to Book 3 - Skills of the Herbalist
• Chapter 9 - Caretaking Nature.
• Wolf Journey Handbook for Students & Teachers.
• Remaining chapters to be uploaded asap.
Wolf Journey is available free online, although donations to the WOLF Foundation - Max Davis Scholarships for earth skills education are requested with the suggested amount of $1.00 per chapter or set of recordings you utilize, with checks payable to the WOLF Foundation, c/o Scott A. Davis, CPA, 103 E Holly #401, Bellingham, WA 98225, or by calling us at 360-799-1997 with your visa or mastercard. An alternative way to contribute is to become a WOLF Booster which gives you the additional benefits of board membership and complimentary access to the Wolf Camp property on Woods Lake. The latter alternative requires completing a property use form. Books and other resources which you will need for successful completion of field exercises throughout Wolf Journey can be purchased through our camp store once it is up and running. In the meantime, we recommend purchasing through Tom & Renee Elpel's wonderful online Granny's Country Store or simply email them at orders@grannysstore.com or call 406-287-3605 to order. We offer this book series as a correspondence course for Wolf Camp alumni and as part of our Summer Camps & School Year Classes and Residential Intensives & Training Camps curricula, but if you would like an instructor to guide you while studying these skills in your own area, we recommend clicking on PrimitiveSkillsLinks.Com to find an earth skills specialist near you who can personally review your field exercises and journaling work. Other schools and outdoor instructors who would like to use this curriculum for their own classes, mentoring, etc, are free to do so. We would appreciate donations, or having your students donate, to the WOLF Foundation as described above. As a supplement to (or instead of) completing the Wolf Journey book series, we also recommend signing up for the Kamana Naturalist Training Program through the Wilderness Awareness School which inspired many of our own field exercises. They can offer academic credit, and they specialize in correspondence mentoring no matter where a student is located.
Employment: We only need instructors with experience running camps and teaching in the field of Earth Skills and Permaculture, including skills of Tracking, Primitive Artisanry, Herbalism, or Wilderness EMT training with real outdoor survival practice. If you would like experience as a teacher and learn skills of the Naturalist, Tracker, Herbalist, Scout, Hunter, Artisan, or Permaculture Pioneer, apply to become an instructor through our Earth Skills Teaching Apprenticeship. We are also seeking an additional permaculturist, herbalist, tracker, artisan, marketor, administrator, and custodian to invest in Wolf Camp during our transition into a workers cooperative. Click here to find out how you can invest as a worker-owner.
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