2022-011 | FINDING "FORRESTER"

OUTDOORS COMMON SENSE TIPS: When you have 50 sets of hiking shoes using the same trail, you need to isolate, at least one print of a certain shoe, so you could have an idea where the owner is going.

I just love this moment. Keeps your mind sharp.

 

First seen in Facebook

November 18, 2018

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GENUINE OUTDOORSMANSHIP IS A collection of skills, crafts and common sense that may bring about a semblance of understanding nature better but it demands more than a thousand days and nights outdoors. A big chunk of that is learning for more knowledge which he or she initiate on their own lonesome self. 

The true gentleman or lady of the outdoors spends most of his/her time alone. He or she prefers no distractions so he/she could focus on all the skills and knowledge that was fed into him/her through the years and apply it where it is most applicable. One of the skills which gave him/her sheer satisfaction is tracking. It is a special skill that cannot be learned overnight or a decade of watching YouTube.

Tracking is neither good nor bad but it is as old as time. Tracking demands space, time and isolation. Tracking is very discriminating. The tracker disregards the rest when he/she finds what he/she is looking for and hugged that trace until the very end. On a well-trodden trail or on a well-paved path it is a nightmare but patience and common sense would win him/her over. 

Tracking both human and wildlife is easiest in the dead of winter or where there is still snow; on muddy places or on moist patches of dirt; on hardened crust of silt above a sandy floor like deserts and dry riverbeds; and on very tight places. Tracking the most deceptive wildlife is easier than trailing a human who thinks. 

One of the best cerebral exercise is to identify a footprint from a set of 25-50 footprints passing on a very well-used trail on a weekend. Isolate this imprint and familiarize the lugs and identify the make. Remember, one single print could have many owners. Measure the length with a stick as well as its width. Notice the depth of the print which would give you an idea as either a male or a female. Then the depth might also tell you of the load the owner carried.

Measure the stride if you can see another same print ahead which could tell you further if the owner is indeed male or female. The length of stride could also tell you more about the height of the owner and the pace he or she exacts. It would not be easy to spot a clean print with so many people using the same trail which could easily contaminate your specimen.  

When you do catch up with the hikers, make a comparison with each individual you see. Use the “theory of deduction” to save time until you believed your “quarry” is found. Looks could be deceiving. Be very sure since that specimen print you zeroed could have many owners. When you found correctly what you have been trailing for so long, relish on your success and reward yourself with an ice-cold bottle of beer!  

Anybody can be an outdoorsman and it is not a big thing but the there is an invisible line that defines a true gentleman or the lady of the outdoors from a somebody. The latter has their own set of culture, dress code and crowd while the former does not care, yet they would know those of his or her kind upon first impression and of those who could never be his/her own. 

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WARRIOR PILGRIMAGE BLOG, personified by this writer, is synonymous with the Outdoors, since Bushcraft and Survival is its niche. Safety and Security are its bedrock when it ventured into organizing outdoor events that involved people as in adventure/pilgrimage guideships and seminars; and explorations and expeditions. 

Through tutorship, experience, folk knowledge and good old common sense, this writer was able to collect useful information which he is currently documenting in a book titled, ETHICAL BUSHCRAFT. He shares some of this information and knowledge in his training sessions; in his social-media account; and in this blog.