Tracks

Much of my time in the woods is spent looking at the ground. I’m looking for animal tracks to figure out what the critters are doing. From the first time in the mountains in the spring to the snows of late fall, I examine tracks. A footprint can reveal much information for me. First it shows the size of the animal, where it is heading, and maybe what it is eating. Following a track for a while can tell me where the animal may be bedding or feeding. If it is during the rut it can show me where the girls are hanging out. That is a tremendous help when I’m after a bull elk or an old buck.

When I guided in Alaska, we would check the shorelines and river banks for brown bear tracks. We were always looking for those big prints that we could put our foot in with hip boots on, and the bear print dwarfing ours. One evening I took my hunter to the back of a small bay where a creek entered the lake. I looked down to see a large fresh bear print over fourteen inches long that had sunk into the mud several inches with each step. The hunter and I barely made an imprint with our feet. I knew that bear would go over ten feet. We did not find the old boy that night but a few evenings later another hunter in our camp took a ten and a half foot bear in the same area.

Archery season starts in two weeks so I will be concentrating on elk tracks and large deer tracks. I was out to my hunting area the other afternoon and found some cow elk tracks so I’m hoping next time to find the bigger bull tracks in the same area. Most bulls spend the summer in bachelor groups but when the velvet is rubbed off they go looking for their ladies.

We leave lots of different tracks through our lifetime and people are reading them constantly. Some of our tracks wander all over the place like we are lost in the woods. Sometimes we are lost in life with no purpose; a lack of direction. I find my tracks are most clear when I read the Bible regularly, pray, help someone, and stay in touch with my Band of Brothers. My wife, Ardella has always helped me stay on the right path. I also do better when I can look down and see the prints of someone else walking beside me –Jesus.