I'm definitely not a master tracker.

On my walk yesterday I had the humbling experience of being reminded that I know almost nothing of the art of tracking. I took a walk in the area I last posted about, which was almost two weeks ago. Immediately when I got there I was noticing some footprints—and after short study I realized that some were mine and some were from other people.

The strange thing was that my foot prints, which were just over a week and a half old, looked much fresher than I would have thought they were. If I hadn't known the tracks and when they were made I would have guessed they were only a few days old. I thought about it and realized we'd only gotten rain once, maybe twice since I made them. They'd just held up very well.

One of my prints from my previous visit.

A similar track from someone else.

I'm very often barefoot, but that day I decided to wear the new shoe-boots (they're something in between) I'd gotten that week because I was still trying to break them in. They have a rather aggressive sole, and especially on the heel the lugs are deep. All of these must be factors in the tracks holding up so long.

In different areas different prints showed more or less aging, but overall I am still surprised that they remained clear so long after making them.

I found two or three other sets of human foot prints, one that I confused with my own at first. I had the vague impression that this man was following my prints, but realistically I think that's unlikely; far more likely is that he was just tromping down the same two-track I was. But with that in mind I got to thinking about being barefoot yesterday: Looking back where I had walked it was far less apparent that someone had walked there, and if someone did, for whatever reason, want to follow my trail, they'd have a much harder time. There isn't an aggressive, deep-lugged sole on the bottom of my bare foot, and unlike most people I'm light on my feet—I don't land heavily on my heels and don't usually dig in with my toes. Even though the human footprint is an easy one for our minds to pick out, it doesn't show up the same way as a shoe'd print does.

Anyway....

I just got to wandering after that realization. Didn't see or find much. Heard a few ground-level animals but didn't see them. The wind was not on my side; it was blowing at my back most of the time I was out, and the birds were detecting me well before I got to them. Weaved in and out of tangled areas along a deer trail until I had gotten somewhat lost.

I got myself into an area of thick aspen growth and filled with dogwoods and prickly ashes. Right after I saw this little chickadee I decided to turn around before I tore my legs and feet up. It's amazing to me sometimes how these little birds can throw their voices; sometimes they're hundreds of feet away and sometimes they're five, but their voice keeps a pretty similar volume. If I hadn't spotted this one I probably would have guessed that its sounds came from at least a little ways off.

On the way back home when I was on one of the gravel roads out of there I heard a lot of movement to my right suddenly. I stopped and realized I had scared up a group of large birds. It took me a second to realize what they were, but I'm pretty sure they were turkey vultures. They weren't very keen on me getting any good pictures of them, but I snapped a few. I was just surprised to see so many of them—there had to have been a half dozen or more (likely more). They just soared around for a while. Cool to see.