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Thread: Learning to track back - Got tips?

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    Senior Member Wise Old Owl's Avatar
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    Default Learning to track back - Got tips?

    I have an uncanny ability in the bush to simply walk back to where I started - most of the time.... I can see sometimes on trails how two places can look like the same place... so here goes... I noticed the box of thumbtacks and other "little things" that hunters use to blaze a new bushwhack trail in the woods to eliminate confusion.... but in general most weekend warriors use dayglow tape from branches in the parks .... after the season is over - they leave the stuff up.... Last week I pulled a 30 gallon trash bag out of the park filled with this tape.... Hey that's me cleaning up the woods for the next guy.... I have tracking skills and can follow folks for miles if needed... what are some of the skills you use to bushwack back to the beginning?

    Other than garmins Trackback....

    What would you do?
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    It's still a crutch to a point, but I love using key terrain features and a compass. My tritium batteries last a long time, and they are tough as heck.

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    Senior Member natertot's Avatar
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    I'm using pretty good about figuring where North is and the general direction on where I need to go. The worse off I ever was occured when I ended up two miles down the road from where my car actually was. Usually I'm within an eigth of a mile or so.

    I am trying to get more familiar with the use of compasses and maps. I'd like to get really good at navigating to specific points without getting to far off.

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    Resident Wildman Wildthang's Avatar
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    In anything but dense thickets or jungle, simply looking back where you came form every hundred feet or so helps a lot. Things look different coming back if you dont look back as you go!

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    I use features like clumps of oak trees, real tall or dead pines, small ponds, and openings in the canopy.
    More often you can either listen for traffic on the roads, or boats on the river. I'm in the country, tho, not the "wilderness".

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    Resident Wildman Wildthang's Avatar
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    Always take a heading with your compass before setting out! If you get turned around, you at least know which direction you came from and the general heading!

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    Senior Member Wise Old Owl's Avatar
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    Well I agree with that good so far - but in brush some use a "leave behind" to follow back - some use a thumb tack _ was looking for similar ideas.
    “There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag … We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language … and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”

    Theodore Roosevelt 1907

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    Senior Member BENESSE's Avatar
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    This might be a no brainer, but that's where I tend to excel.
    I try to stay on the trail, no matter what. IF I have to go off, I'll spend 5-10 min. making a significant mark (rocks/branches/unusual structures) so there's no doubt I've been there. Nothing fragile that might be washed out in rain or taken down by wind.

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    Senior Member natertot's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BENESSE View Post
    This might be a no brainer, but that's where I tend to excel.
    I try to stay on the trail, no matter what. IF I have to go off, I'll spend 5-10 min. making a significant mark (rocks/branches/unusual structures) so there's no doubt I've been there. Nothing fragile that might be washed out in rain or taken down by wind.
    Safe, simple and effective. Sounds like a good idea to me!

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    I think if you have a particular point you are trying to repeatedly travel to in the dark (deer stand for example) then the reflective tacks are not a bad idea. Otherwise, I don't see the need to leave anything. It junks up the woods because no one ever takes them down and just a few simple precautions as mentioned above will keep you on the right path. As to traveling in the dark, I try not to do that if I don't have to. That's about the quickest way to get turned around in unfamiliar woods there is.
    Tracks Across the High Plains...Death on the Bombay Line...A Touch of Death and Mayhem...Dead Rock...The Griswald Mine Boys...All On Amazon Books.

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    I also look back often to see what the way back looks like if I'm off trail/creek etc. I also use the surveyors tape if the brush is dense to the point of not being readily recognizable or the waterway has many branches/streams. Of course, I take the tape down as I pass back by. Any time I start to leave an established waymarked trail I take a compass reading and be sure where I am on a map( if there is a map for where I am). I dont see a lot of tape or reflective tack etc where I go but I do see lots of hats, gloves and other articles of clothing hanging in branches or tied around trees when I'm off-trail.
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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    I get a lot of clothes and hats that way......those are trail marks? Oops.
    Tracks Across the High Plains...Death on the Bombay Line...A Touch of Death and Mayhem...Dead Rock...The Griswald Mine Boys...All On Amazon Books.

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    Senior Member natertot's Avatar
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    And other articles of clothing? Hopeffully hongs aren't being use for trailmarkers! Lord knows we can't have rick following suit!

    Get it? suit? okay, bad joke.

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    I'd call this blazing, not tracking. A neat trick I learned comes out of the jungles. It was related to me that young children are taught to create a trail song as they head out to forage etc. You just make up a song as you head into unfamiliar territory. You recite and add to your whole song till you turn back. By that time you have it memorized, at least committed to short term memory and know your key features to look for & navigate by until you arrive at Initial Point of Departure. (IPD.)

    """ Parked the truck at mossy road curve, hoofed it up bust a gut mtn. Walked on elevation a fur piece went left dropping off fell-over-the-log lead into boggy hollow. At the creek went up stream to the nice swimming hole. Turned right and walkedout the elevation where I seen face-in-the-bark poplar tree.............."
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    Resident Wildman Wildthang's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by natertot View Post
    And other articles of clothing? Hopeffully hongs aren't being use for trailmarkers! Lord knows we can't have rick following suit!

    Get it? suit? okay, bad joke.
    That is a technique used by some animals to navigate, it's called a scent trail

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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    One thing I do at turns and bends is simply take my foot and draw an arrow in the dirt that points the way I came from and the way I'm going. If something happens to me SAR can follow the arrows to me or I can follow them back out if I come back the way I came. Otherwise, the arrows will disappear with rain.
    Tracks Across the High Plains...Death on the Bombay Line...A Touch of Death and Mayhem...Dead Rock...The Griswald Mine Boys...All On Amazon Books.

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    If possible, look at large landmarks before leaving to get a perspective of where you started relative to the landmarks. Doesn't always work but it normally helps.

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    Macro and micro


    I always try to have a macro view of where I am, and what I can use to bound that, (e.g. route something is 2 miles west of my start, the big river is 6 miles East, High Mountain is 10 miles North, etc. That way if I am turned around in a micro sense, I can at least find one of those and "loop" back to my start.


    Micro management is something like this: I followed Little Creek upstream to the third stream inlet, up the hollow to crest, followed the crest to Low gap, etc. Almost always with a topo map. If not, it is hand drawn to rough scale and headings noted. As has been mentioned before, looking back but in a bit more global sense to get headings on key landmarks.

    You need to be able to triangulate for an accuracy check, that pulls macro and micro together.


    I seldom leave the same way I went in. If you keep both of those approaches you can be confident of your spot on the map/ground and either retrace, merge to, or loop your backtrack.
    "They call us civilized because we are easy to sneak up on."- Lone Waite

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    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    Pull out your cell phone/gps device, take a GPS reading and follow the arrows.

    Even us ignorant KY hillbillys have GPS on our Quadrunners and smart phones now!

    All those orange strips, tacks and such are marking hunting stands for when you go in at 3:00am in the dark. All the tress start looking alike at that time of morning and also after dark when leaving the stand. You go in and come out in no-see conditions, so all the "observation" in the world will be useless.

    And yes, they should carry it out after the season is over.
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    One step at a time intothenew's Avatar
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    I beg to differ. I haven't used bright eyes for well over thirty years. They were a crutch that I found I didn't need after a while. If you'll take a mental picture, or even sketch one, of the location of a particular tree, you can find it pre dawn. South into the hollow until the Rhododendron with the Oak leaner, West up the bank 40 yards. It's the trinity tree between the two parallel Oak deadfalls and the only Pine in the hollow. You simply need more of a micro view the closer you get.

    As far as no-see conditions, I don't think I have ever experienced that. Well, maybe with the exception of it being Jose Cuervo induced. At times, I will actually turn of my flashlight to get macro bearings. I have always found something to identify a stand, that's the reason I am there, the sign is good. It is a very intimate approach, but one that can be done. I can be more accurate than a civilian gps most times, that is especially true in deep hollows.
    "They call us civilized because we are easy to sneak up on."- Lone Waite

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