The Twelve Gifts of Tracking

Porcupine Mandibles

 The rolling hills and drumlins of the Bruce Trail inspired this seasonal story of the day:

On the 6^th Day of December, my tracking friends shared with me…

Twelve apples cached by squirrels (munched on by rodents, rabbit, deer and grouse)

Eleven animal trails (some serious) made by deer, rabbit, porcupine and raccoons.

Ten deer beds, scrapes and antler rubs.

Nine piles of deer, coyote, raccoon, porcupine and squirrel scat.

Red Squirrel Cache

Eight animal homes lived in by fox, groundhog, red squirrel, porcupine and sparrows.

Seven raven calls above a coyote’s resting place by the creek.

Six pine grosbeaks.

Five mandibles (from porcupine, coyote and meadow vole)

Four gulleys (landforms* and one named Sue)

Three rodent-chewed deer bones

Two grouse exploding into flight (and two ginger chocolate squares)

…and a porcupine in a hemlock tree.

*a water-worn ravine

By Tamara Anderson - 2nd year Tracking Apprentice

How Do You Like Them Apples?

 Approaching our meeting location for the day, the veil of fog I had been driving in for an hour seemed to be lifting with the rising sun that had began peaking through the clouds, just up over the treeline in the horizon. I was taken by the beauty of the first rays of light hitting the frosty landscape of rolling hills and tree lines. The fine layer of ice that had developed overnight, covering the autumn vegetation, was reflecting the rays of the rising sun in a way that makes you really feel grateful to be alive. Everything on the landscape was glistening sunlight.

Deer Track in debris

We met up on the side of the dirt road and promptly decided we should tuck into the other side of the Cedars to escape the chill of the wind. This brought a first lesson in starting to think more like an animal, seeking natural forms of cover to conserve energy and help provide cover. The winds were strong and blowing from the North-West so we made a plan to head over to the eastern edge of the cliffs and along southward so our scent would be blowing away from our target destination as we approached.

We were focusing on trailing today so we needed to be especially quiet. We agreed to travel in scout formation, travelling as quietly as possible and communicating with hand signals.

As we began, the morning frost was just starting to thaw, making the deer trails stand out with an amazing clarity. The leaf litter was moist, helping to soften the sound of our footsteps, and the winds blowing the melting ice of the trees provided gusts of dripping sounds that help muffle our noise. Alexis got us started on the first trail, pointing out various tracks, lays, scrapings, browse and fresh scat. We switched leads, and I began following whatever trails seemed to stand out most to me. I felt in a different mode following a trail silently and focused. At some point I heard the snap of a branch to the East of me, and I remembered that I was in a group. Two small deer scampered out in front of me and took off ahead as Tamara, the eastern wing, emerged from the ridge just behind them.

We circled up to share and make a plan of action. We continued to follow the trails southward to the edge of the habitat and we began feeling like the deer were Eastward. We switched leads again and headed East and within minutes, I knew something was up as the lead froze and slowly lowered. Miriam had spotted a group of 5-6 deer heading South-East. We waited before following the trails along silently for some time, until we came to a sunny spot just along the ridge that a few deer trails passed near and we thought, “this would be a sweet spot to bed down and soak up the warmth of the sun, if we were deer.” Naturally, we decided to break there.

Porcupine Den Site

After sitting in the sun for a while, I realized the leaves were no longer damp, the frost had melted and the sun had begun to dry out the leaf litter of the forest floor. It would be a lot harder to travel as quietly now. Alexis reminded us to try to think like a deer. How we walk is important. When deer break a branch as they are walking, they freeze and check their surroundings before they take another step. Although we couldn't be completely silent, we could change the rhythm of our footsteps to be more like the deer, careful, with intermittent pauses.

Porcupine scat and quill

Following the trails, we found an old porcupine den, piles of fresh raccoon scat, signs from various woodpeckers, flying squirrel scat, and half-eaten apples stashed up in tree limbs. As we worked our way to the apple trees, we saw various animals had been feeding on the huge abundance of fruit. We compared measurements of the incisor marks on some apples, discussed what was possibly eating them and debated what was likely the creature(s) that had left the marks on the specimens in our hands.

Red Squirrel incisor marks

As the day came to an end, we headed back North, slowly, along the Western edge of the field as the sun was beginning to make it's was to the other horizon. Once again, I am filled with gratitude and appreciation for the natural world, and the abundance of gifts, lessons and experiences Nature has to offer.

Always asking questions

Written By:  Lianna Vargas - 2nd Year Wildlife Tracking Apprentice

Jedi Tracker Training and Luke Sandwalker

Sunday November 1^st, 2015

As the tracking apprentices learned about pressure releases this past weekend, we could almost hear the wise words of Yoda saying, “Patience you must have my young padawans”.  After constructing a 10 foot long by 5 foot wide tracking box on Saturday, we were ready to embark on using the giant sandbox to look at tracks.  Alexis shared his passion and knowledge of pressure releases eloquently and enthusiastically.  We also had “The Science and Art of Tracking” by Tom Brown Jr. in hand.  We learned how turns, changes in direction and sudden stops cause pressure against the wall of a track.  The pressure is released as cliffs, ridges, peaks, caves, plates, fissures and explosions in the substrate.  The second pressure release study looked at what happens to the substrate as a result of a change in forward motion.  The apprentices walked, ran, and jigged across the tracking box to get a better understanding of how speed influences the appearance of a track.  We created waves, disks, dishes and explode-offs in the sand.  We were helped out by both a cat and a dog, who were somewhat obliging in letting us analyze their tracks in the tracking box.  Alexis shared a quote by Stalking Wolf on page 34 of The Science and Art of Tracking, “We first must learn the simple language of the tracks, which teaches us to hear the voice of the animal, and soon, through the voice of the animal, we begin to hear the voice of the Earth.” The day also included a little sand castle construction and much merriment.

Written by Tamara Anderson - 2nd Year Earth Tracks Tracking Apprentice

A Boyne River Valley Scat Rap

Sunday September 13, 2015
Written by Tamara Anderson

(With help from the Scat Rap, by A. Bennett, M. Keebler, R. Pemble, D. Elliott, and B. Jonas)

It starts with an “s” and it ends with a “t”. It comes out of you and it comes out of me. I know what you’re thinking, don’t call it that. Let’s be scientific and call it scat.

The tracking group met at an old dam and Grist Mill known as Ponton Mills in the Boyne river valley. We set a course northward to a big hill where a fisher’s tracks had been found the previous winter.  Ten degree weather and a forecast of rain added a chill to the morning.  Autumn had arrived in south-western Ontario.

Pausing to observe cedar roots wrapped around limestone, and crayfish under rocks, we clambered along the shore of the Boyne River.  The fragrant smell of mint filled our nostrils and we brushed by groves of horsetails. Old beaver chews and deer trails caught our attention. 

Left by the dozen in piles on the ground; Lots of little pellets are what you’ve found. They look like little chocolates so it is clear. This is the scat of a white tailed deer.

A deer popped up from her day bed while we admired fawn pellets.  She bounded across the river to our East.  We continued up the hill, discovering deer bones and following the course of a spring to its source.  Refreshing, cold water flowed out from the hillside. 

Animal-made switchback trails helped us climb up the steep valley slope.  At the top, there was a scat underneath a Black Cherry tree.    

Up on the hill, under a Black Cherry; Scat full of apple and purple berries. Late last night he was out with the moon; foraging in the forest, it was Mr. Raccoon.

The spruce plantation at the top of the hill revealed porcupine chews and more deer bones.  A logging trail led us to a rolling topography of maple trees.  A wood thrush sat on the forest floor watching us.  Alexis found an interesting limestone rock that had been hollowed out.  Had it been hollowed out by water or maybe by a human?

Tracks showed where a raccoon and a coyote had explored a muddy flat near the edge of the forest.  The forest opened into a clearing.  Deer beds were scattered around the open field.  Lianna found deer hair in one of the beds.  We hiked up to a lookout.  Northern Flickers had probed for ants on the steep hill.  We found an opened apple covered in ants in the middle of the trail.  Iwonder if the flicker placed the apple to attract a buffet of ants?

The hilltop overlooked the Boyne Valley.  Sharp-shinned hawks, Turkey Vultures, a Swan, Blue Jays and Northern Flickers performed aerial feats as we discussed the landscape, noting colourful pockets of different tree species.  On the way back to the car, we encountered a muskrat making trails in the marsh and dinner out of cattails.  

In closing,
Down the trail something’s lying on the ground; Nature’s Tootsie Roll all long and brown. Don’t wrinkle your nose, don’t lose your lunch. Break it apart, you might learn a bunch:)

Written by Tamara Anderson - 2nd Year Earth Tracks Tracking Apprentice

Tracking in Algonquin - Part 2

First thing in the morning, we recapped on the harvest of yesterday's exploration, reviewing on a map where we had come across some of our favourite discoveries.

We headed out for the day and stopped at a bent and broken chokecherry tree that Alexis pointed out, asking us what we noticed about this tree. We saw all the cherries had been picked off the tree and following some looking around, we noticed bear claw marks on the trunk of the tree, and how the branches had been broken. We had suspected the pits in the bear scat from yesterday, had possibly been cherries, but now we had proof!

The remains of a calf moose

We then headed down to the water and canoed out to a point of interest where half of the group had come across the remains of a moose calf the following evening on our return back to camp. We checked out the site, finding many chewed up bones scattered around the area. The area was filled with tons of wolf activity, mossy ground and the trail of a mourning mother moose. We scouted around and spent most of the day following bear trails, looking, feeling and measuring the tracks we were following.

Wolf Chew

Later we cracked open a bone to investigate what had been going on with the moose calf through assessing it's bone marrow– had it starved to death? had it died of disease? It was a little too late to tell, but the inside of the bone did have a surprise for us!

Maggot feeding on Marrow!

Bear Bite marks

Alexis then had us try an awareness exercise – envisioning the animals through sensory touch of the tracks, which proved a potent experience to many in the group. We shared our experience as we canoed back. Once back at the rendezvous site, we checked out some moose bones the park researchers had gathered, a good opportunity for comparing them with the ones of the calf we had seen earlier. After checking out some signs of porcupines eating plywood and taking a look at some fresh territorial bear markings on a hydro pole, we finished the day with a quiet sit spot out on the land.

Feeling the Tracks

Getting down on a bear trail!

 At the end of the weekend, I was filled with a whole new pile of information to let sink in and a deep sense of amazement and gratitude for the depth and experience of life.

Sunday, August 30, 2015 - Written by:  Lianna Vargas - 2nd year Tracking Apprentice

Medicinal Plants Walk with Laura and Alexis –and a special plant!

 On Sunday July 19th, we left the Rebel Roots Herb Farm land and headed

to the Krug Forest, a beautifully preserved tract of land near
Dornoch, Ontario.
Introducing us to the many medicinal plants we saw today was Alexis
Burnett, head instructor of Earth Tracks and guest instructor, Laura
Gilmour of Wild Muskoka Botanicals.

We stopped along the edge of a wetland and found many plants and
creatures along the way. Blue Flag Iris and Boneset grew near the
marsh along with many Cattails.  As we discussed harvesting the pollen
of the cattails we spotted a frog. This wasn’t just a regular frog but
was two-toned! The frog was half blue and half grey-brown and was
patient with us and let us photograph and look at kin.

We found a rarer Skullcap flower and learned about it’s medicinal
properties and then found both False and True Solomon’s Seal right
next to each other.  We had a thoughtful discussion about these two
plants, including their roots, young shoots and their berries-a
grizzly bear’s favourite fruit.

Another wetland along the trail had bright red Cardinal Flowers, so
tall and stately and the brightest, deep red you have ever seen.  One
of the most beautiful of our local wildflowers, at least according to
this apprentice!  You can also see a picture of White Snakeroot, a
plant that has many healing properties but is also quite toxic.  It
can affect humans who eat the plant, but is also transmitted from the
milk of cows that consume the plant!

After a lunch off-trail, we changed gears.  We did a quiet walk
through the forest in fox walk and owl eyes.  Walking separately but
in a line, we had a neat experience of feeling the forest with our
feet, hearing the sounds, and smelling all the scents on the breeze.
After the walk we each found quiet spot and did a sit spot with a
particular plant. We connected with the plant while at our quiet spot,
with the intention of learning what we can from kin. We each harvested
a few leaves from our plant and put them in a cup with some boiling
water to make a tea.  We spent quiet time with our tea as we drank it,
and then gathered together to share our experience.

Walking back, we caught sight of a baby raccoon in a tree that we had
passed in the morning.  This time, ki was having an afternoon nap and
didn’t even notice us pass underneath kin!

*As per Robin Wall Kimmerer’s article, the pronouns for animals have
been changed, instead of “he” or “she” I’ve used “ki” and instead of
“him” or “her” I’ve used “kin”.
http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2842875/living_beings_as_our_kith_and_kin_we_need_a_new_pronoun_for_nature.html

Written by:  Alex Thomson - 2nd year Wild Plants Apprentice

Thistles, Bitters and Life's Simple Pleasures

Saturday July 18 2015 - Varney, Ontario

It was a beautiful mid-summer morning in July, and we plant apprentices were getting ready to learn about medicinal plants. Weaving a thread through from last weekend of stewardship though, we started by going out to sit with some of the amazing medicinal plants that we had planted over a month ago. The changes were staggering, as I went to sit by a beautiful milk thistle that grown over four feet since I had last seen it. With white and green spotted leaves that spiralled where attaching to the stem, and a bright purple blossom facing this sky - the milk thistle was a sight to behold. Some others sat with astragalus or hops or calendula, reflecting upon the growth of plants, the bounty of summer, and the beauty of sitting still. After some time, we gathered together to share a few quick reflections before jumping into a session with special guest - Laura Gilmour!

 

Crafting a bitters formula to help with digestion, we discussed all the cultural food practices that would allow for invisible bitters, like eating bitter salad greens or certain pickles to prime our digestive tracts in advance of meals.  True bitters are the best way to "tell digestion to take up the challenge of the food we are about to eat".  There are even sneaky ways to incorporate bitters into meals like having a bitter aperitif to toast with before a holiday meal! 

We followed a rough formula to blend our own special bitters formula

Bitters

- 10% Super bitter (ex. gentian root)

- 30-50% Mild to medium bitters (ex. chamomile)

- 30% Aromatic (ex. cardamom)

- 10% Harmonizer or catalyst (ex. licorice root)

After blending our own unique bitters formula that included some great plant tinctures like angelica, tulsi basil and dandelion root, we were all excited and ready for lunch and a fruit full picnic on the lawn commenced!

After lunch, we split our group of 17 into two rotations of some tasting and making activities. Alexis led us through the process of making a healing oil which was infused with St John's Wort and then a cold and flu tincture made with yarrow, elderflower and peppermint. It's hard to imagine on a hot summer's day that in the deep of winter, you may have a rattling cough that needs that tincture - o the changing seasons!

After looking into St John's Wort more mythical properties - like it can help guard your soul from phantasms! - we made some plant journals on the SJW.

Leaving our semi-finished homework behind, we worked with Laura Gilmour, an amazing community herbalist, naturalist and small business owner of Wild Muskoka Botanicals, to learn about flavours and tastes and how that can tell us about the properties of the herbs. We tasted hot horseradish, and yummy, sweet astragalus and salty nettles. Depending on your body's inclinations and the type of condition you may have, we played around with the types of flavours and remedies that could help. The highlight was definitely nibbling on Schisandra berries - the five-flavoured fruit! So wild to have every flavour in your mouth!

As the more official workshops wound down, we celebrated our medicinal plants weekend by sharing a delicious potluck meal with salads, meats, cheeses and so much more - only to top off the evening with a cocktail party! Although cocktail tinctures really are for fun rather than medicine, everyone definitely felt great!

Written by:  Lee Earl 2nd Year Wild Plants Apprentice

The Wisdom of the Marks

The site of a porcupine, raccoon and flying squirrel holes in this big old Basswood tree

Saturday and Sunday, July 26^th, 2015

Written by Tamara Anderson - 2nd year Tracking Apprentice

In his book Nature Observation and Tracking, Tom Brown Jr. writes; “The earth tries to be flat.” He was referring to how weather and gravity “conspire to erase tracks”.  This past July, the tracking apprentices observed the subtle traces of summer tracks at Allan Park near Durham. We also created tracks and signs at Alexis’ house and watched how they changed over two days.  Lately, I have been tracking the landscape just as much as I have been following the footprints of animals.  Approximately 10,000 years ago, a receding glacier scraped the surface of the land that is now Allan Park and deposited material from the Canadian Shield.  Some of the material was ground into sand, silt and clay. A huge chunk of ice from the glacier dropped onto the landscape and a kettle lake was formed.  Allan Park is part of the Horseshoe Moraine. It includes a trail system that reaches an elevation of 30 metres in some places. 

Fawn Tracks

On Saturday, we wandered the rolling, forested pine, spruce and cedar hills beside the glacier-made trout pond.  The sandy edge of the pond revealed the opened shells of snapping turtle eggs.  This prompted a few questions:  How does temperature affect turtle egg incubation? Do predators leave different signs when they predate turtle nests?  I learned that the “J” shape of the Jack pine cone is a helpful way to remember the cone-makers identity.  Sue asked about whether any local species of rats are native to North America and which snakes have live birth?

Watching Tracks Age

On Sunday morning we were enchanted by the purling rattle of a Sandhill crane in a field near Alexis and Bobbi’s place.  Sandhill Cranes beckon my attention in an ancient way. After reading about Sandhill cranes, I discovered that they are the oldest known surviving North American bird species.  That morning, we returned to Allan Park and found a trail on a steep hill that led to different interpretations.  It is amazing how the track of a sliding deer can look similar to the five toes of a barefoot, feral child;)  After following a doe and her fawn’s tracks along a sun-baked, sandy trail, we ventured into a cool, deciduous forest of Hickory, Basswood and Maple.  The tracking apprentices used tracking sticks to track each other in leafy debris.  Luke and Miriam discovered a vole tunnel and burrow network at the forest edge.  We lightheartedly discussed how best to classify this trail.  If vole trails under the snow are called “subnivean” then would this trail under the leaf-litter be called sub-humusean?  We also wondered whether the trail was from a red-backed or a meadow vole.  Do meadow voles occasionally lives in forests?  What is the range of the red-backed vole? Alexis located a flying squirrel latrine in a basswood tree. Flying squirrel scat accumulates in areas where the squirrels nest and cache food. The scat often flows out of tree cavities, low to the ground. 

I will end this post with a continuation of Tom Brown’s tracker wisdom; “There is hardly a square foot of ground that is absolutely flat. Every depression, every bump, every fissure, and every scratch on the landscape was made by something. Whether it was made by a rabbit, mouse, bulldozer, fish, frog, or volcano, it is the tracker’s job to notice and interpret it.” (Tom Brown Jr., Nature Observation and Tracking)

A taste of plant medicine, meetings with trees, and a small surprise

The themes of caretaking and stewardship wove through our June weekend. Our second morning, like our first day, was grounded at Alexis and Bobbi’s place, home of Earth Tracks Outdoor School and Rebel Roots Herb Farm.  

We spent the morning in two groups alternating between two herbal medicine-making activities using common wild plants.  Alexis took a group through the process of harvesting plantain and making an infused oil, to use on its own or as a later base for medicinal salve. Lee and I led a second activity, harvesting some of the abundant wild thyme whose fragrance wafted around our tents, and creating a thyme-infused medicinal apple cider vinegar.  Alex joined in at Alexis’s station to strain off and share the lemon balm cold infusion she had made the previous day: a welcome refresher to the morning’s heat. Each group researched the plants while working with them, using field guides and each other’s knowledge to understand the medicinal properties of the plants we harvested with our hands.  

Our afternoon location was a short drive away: the forested property where Earth Tracks had been based until recently.  The brightness of sun and openness of the agricultural landscape where we had started the weekend was transformed into the coolness and cover of dense trees; the industriousness of the morning’s activities into a grounded and aware exploration of this new place and its energy. 

We began the afternoon identifying trees on the property; but quickly moved into several activities that shifted our awareness to more subtle information around us.  A paired blindfolded “meet a tree” exercise gave each person the opportunity to use their less dominant senses – including intuition – to get to know an individual tree and then find it again with the blindfold removed.  We followed this with a focused sit spot, each of us tuning in to the space around us and asking the questions “what can I do to help?” or “how can I give back to this land?” and listening to the possible answers: moving branches, lifting up weight, pruning.  It was in introduction to listening deeply to the land as an expression of caretaking.

To close the afternoon, we worked on one more caretaking project, a deer trail that the apprenticeship group of three years ago had begun clearing.  Alexis spoke of his connection to the deer on this property, where he had hunted as well as stewarded the land. We moved on to the trail, thinking through the mind of a deer which obstacles would hinder our progress, especially at low energy and hungry times of year.  As we moved branches, our intention was also to create brush piles, as we had the day before, to provide shelter for small mammals and other creatures. 

As I stood on a trail clearing branches onto a pile beside me, I did not expect what happened next.  I lifted a particularly long branch and dropped it to my right with a small crash.  The crash was followed by several more, the rustling of leaves and the crashing of small panicked feet.  I looked up to see a small dappled fawn dashing fleetly away from me, looking for its mother, who would not have been far away.  I was astonished at how well this small creature had been camouflaged two feet beside me, and shaken to have found myself scaring it in this way.  A few people around me working on the same trail gathered together to look at the spot where the fawn had been – a tiny kidney-shaped spot in the earth still warm to the touch.  It was a gift to see this fawn, to know that there were young here needing shelter, and to see that the brush piles we made would be used exactly as we intended.  It was a powerful experience to walk away with while reflecting on caretaking as one of the gifts and responsibilities of humans to the Earth.

Written By: Malgosia Halliop - 2nd year Earth Tracks Wild Plants Apprentice