Tracking is not simply for hunters and trappers, but for anyone with a serious interest in the outdoors. Tracking skills are useful for finding your way through deep woods in the early morning mist in order to capture that perfect nature or outdoors photograph. Additionally, tracking skills are used for searching the wilderness for signs of endangered species in order to learn how to help preserve their numbers. The learning of these tracking skills does not just involve studying facts and procedures, but it should involve developing ourselves, training our outward senses and cultivating a philosophy about nature and the wilderness into which we will be venturing.
HUNTER-GATHERERS
Man's tracking skills date far back in our history, at least to our hunter-gatherer stage of development. Hunter-gatherer cultures throughout history have been characterized by high levels of awareness and uncanny abilities of perception and adaptability. Honing these skills allowed them to interpret the subtlest of clues left by the animals that they fed on, even in some of the most hostile and unforgiving regions of the globe. It meant that even with all the inherent threats in nature, they could carve out a subsistence.
HONING SENSES
The development and honing of all five of your senses can seem to lead to the development of a sixth sense, the general awareness of the presence of life all around you. Learning the art tracking animals, reading movement in the soil are only parts of the whole philosophy of tracking. Tracking philosophy also includes meditation techniques for quieting the hectic mind so as to flow in tune with the rhythm of nature.
THE WILDERNESS MIND
One common idea among many expert trackers is a philosophy they call the Wilderness Mind. Wilderness Mind refers to the ancient way of living in harmony with the Earth, of Man being part of Nature, of being one with our environment. Tracking philosophy is therefore an approach to life that sees humans as being one with the Earth, rather than separate, apart from, or better than the Earth.
According to wilderness expert Tom Brown Jr., it does not matter whether one lives in the country or the city or whether they work outdoors or in a factory or hospital, its one's mentality that defines one as having a "Wilderness Mind". Such a mindset helps us to be unconstrained by our immediate surroundings and be constantly aware of the breadth and beauty of nature.
It is also this Wilderness Mind that can help us to become a much more 'green' society as we decide to develop technology and manufacturing with the idea that mankind is only a part of the complete landscape of the earth and we must act accordingly.
REFERENCES:
The Quest by Tom Brown Tom Brown's Field Guide: Nature Observation & Tracking, Tom Brown, Jr. with Brandt Morgan http://www.wildwoodsurvival.com/wildernessmind/abb01 .html (Wilderness Mind by Allan "Bow" Beauchamp) http://www.pastskills.com/ http://www.windwalker.ca/awareness/