Entering the Mind of the Tracker

by Song, Tamarack

• ISBN13: 9781591431602
• ISBN10: 1591431603
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-03-24
• Publisher: Bear & Co

Summary

Training methods for tracking and wilderness observation woven into extraordinary real-life stories of intuitive animal-reading skills

• Explains technical tracking methods and observational skills such as shadowing and envisioning through the innermost thoughts of an accomplished native tracker

• Reveals how to track by expanding your awareness and consciousness to become one with the animal you are tracking

• Shares stories of tracking Wolves, Bears, Deer, Cougars, and many other animals

Stepping beyond the shape of a footprint and into the unseen story of the track, veteran wilderness guide Tamarack Song takes you inside the eyes and mind of an intuitive tracker, with intimate stories where Frogs show the way out of the woods, scat reveals life histories, and Bears demonstrate how to find missing people.

Drawing from his years of surviving in the wild, apprenticing to native elders, and living with a family of wolves, Tamarack reveals how to achieve a level of perception like that of aboriginal trackers by becoming one with the animal you are tracking, whether Fox, Deer, Coyote, or Cougar. Sharing his innermost thoughts while following track and sign, the book’s adventures merge technical tracking methods with skills such as shadowing and envisioning, while demonstrating animal-reading skills considered outside the human realm. The author explains how to expand your awareness--to learn from nature by becoming nature--and tap in to the intuitive tracking consciousness each of us has inherited from our Paleolithic ancestors.

Through his stories from the trail, Tamarack shows the art of tracking not simply as a skill for hunters and naturalists but as a metaphor for conscious living. By exploring the intricacies of the natural world, we explore not only our connections to the world around us but also our internal landscapes. We learn to better express ourselves and listen, meet our needs, and help others. Intuitive tracking provides a path to finding ourselves, becoming one with all life, and restoring humanity’s place in the Great Hoop of Life.

Author Biography

Tamarack Song has spent his life studying the world’s aboriginal peoples, apprenticing to Elders, and learning traditional hunter-gatherer survival skills. He has spent years alone in the woods as well as living with a pack of Wolves. In 1987, he founded the Teaching Drum Outdoor School in the wilderness of northern Wisconsin, where he runs the yearlong Wilderness Guide Program.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Bryan Nez, former Shadow Wolf

Introduction: Tracking in the Shadow of Wolf

1 Sweet Fern Rendezvous
The First Lesson: Opening to the Song of the Track

2 Romancing the Frog
The Next Step: Hearing the Rhythms of the Natural World

3 Bear Stump
The Tracker Starts to Read the Stories of the Forest Floor

4 Dogs Will Be Dogs
Learning through Conflict in a Wayward Track across the Snow

5 Stalking Turtle
Now Step Back and See Life and Death in a Track

6 How to Learn Tracking from One of the Greatest Predators 
Apprenticing to the Wolf on the Windowsill

7 A Winter Riddle
Along a Frozen Lake, a Kill Leaves More Questions than Answers

8 Eyes That Shine
The Tracker Can Now Shed Old Skin to See with New Eyes

9 Grandfather Tip-Up
How to See Centuries of Movement in the Stillness of an Old Forest

10 Becoming Wolf
Ready to Learn How One Animal Appears in the Tracks of Another

11 Old Songs Never Die
Teachings from the Ghosts Who Linger in an Old Forest

12 A Sound Lesson in Tracking
How to Let Ears Become Eyes That Can See the Invisible Trail

13 Eagle Spirit and the Tin Can
Preparing to Find the Invisible Trails in Sky and Water

14 Following the Flight Trail
And Now the Test: Reading the Tracks Left by Wings through the Air

15 Human Tracking, Bear Style
Bear, the Master Man-Tracking Teacher, Shows How to Find and Trail People

16 The Messenger
A Frontier Opens: The Tracker Attains Relationship with an Elusive Predator

Acknowledgments

Appendix 1. For Educators, Naturalists, and Tracking Instructors
Appendix 2. Demystifying Canine Track Identification
Appendix 3. Tracking at a Glance A Symbol Reading Primer
Appendix 4. How to Act around Bears
Appendix 5. Safety Tips in Cougar Country

Glossary

Index

About the Author