Thread: Tracking illegals

Most of you have heard about the BP tracking people down but I'm sure few of you have ever done such a thing. Most folks think tracking is just following footprints in the sand but there's a lot more to it than that.
Often times these foot prints go over some hard rocks or ground leaving little or nothing to see. So how do the trackers find them and know which way they went? Tracking takes years to learn and it's not something that can be taught in a classroom, you need to go out and do it!
Trackers learn to look for the little things, this maybe a small rock or twig pressed into the ground, a small area that is flatened, sometimes small brush is pushed over and leaves it's impression in the ground but no human track. A mark here and a mark there is what they will see and when you see nothing you go by where you can go by checking for sign along the trail.
Illegals use tricks like brushing out their tracks with some brush and tieing old pieces of blankets on their shoes to make tracking them harder,and in todays world they also use battery operated leaf blowers the guides carry one to blow out their track as they cross a dirt road.
Tracking is a skill that still goes beyond all the high tech stuff out there and the BP still use it.
I said tracking is a skill but it's just as much an art and if your someone who likes to look at nature you just might enjoy learning it.

Thanks for the info MD.
Tracking is a kind of science for who knows how long and it involves more than most of us can possibly imagine.