Tracking at the Oregon Sand Dunes

Water is a Tracker’s Best Friend

I pulled my nose a bit closer to the bone dry, deeply fissured clay and squinted slightly in an attempt to get a better look at the tracks that lay before me as the sun reflected off the clay into my eyes. Jonah Evans, a veteran wildlife tracker and biologist with the Texas Parks and […]

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Patrick in the wild

Tracking Wolves, Finding Myself

I began my journey with Wilderness Awareness School (WAS) by boarding a plane, alone for the first time, to track wolves in the Idaho backcountry. I was a freshman with a fascination for wolves and that first true wilderness experience was transformational. I went from liking nature to considering nature to be an essential part […]

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Rabbit Tracks and Sign

It was mid-January in Western Washington, and the snow was coming down hard on my yurt seven miles up the mountain from town. The power was out, the roads were treacherous, and no end was in sight. It might have been my imagination, but I swore I heard all the wildlife trackers in the area […]

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Indicator Species

What is this telling me? As a tracker, this is one of the most powerful questions I can ask to go deeper into the story of a track or outwards into the bigger picture of how an animal fits into its ecosystem. For example, running across a set of 3.5″x3.5″ wolf tracks in Idaho in […]

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mountain lion

Mountain Lion Tracks

The morning was gray, and the group was full of tension and excitement. It was day one of the CyberTracker Track & Sign Evaluation with Mark Elbroch, one of the first in North America. So, perhaps it’s not surprising that I was a little on edge. At the three forks of the Snoqualmie River in […]

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Mountain Caribou Initiative Team

Nature Connection as a Gateway for Change

In 2005, I came to The Immersion at Wilderness Awareness School to find an empowered connection to the living world. Over a decade later, I am fortunate to work here helping people as they find that for themselves. It was here that I deepened my love for this part of the world, and made connections […]

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Coyote Tracks and Sign

The two animals trotted south in the wet sand along the ocean’s edge about 60 feet up from the beach. They passed over the spot where a bald eagle had landed, by the carcass of a seal, across a stream that flowed out of the woods and down the beach and into the ocean. They […]

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Coyote tracks in sand

Following Coyotes

If I am in a wandering mood, I often head up the old road, into the valley above my Sit Spot. It has just enough human traffic in the summer to keep the mud puddles in good shape. In the winter it is used by snowmobiles. It’s about 3/4 of a mile of great four-season […]

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blacktail deer buck

Black-tailed Deer Tracks and Sign

It was an early September morning in Western Washington, and I was slowly migrating from animal tracks and sign dreamland to reality. I had slept in the pasture next to my house, taking advantage of the last warm nights before the rain and cold set in. Hearing a rustle to my right, I opened my […]

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Bobcat Track and Sign

“Got the trail?” I called. “Yup!” another voice rang out, clear in the white stillness of a snowy forest above a stream ravine. It was a chilly Friday morning at Wilderness Awareness School’s high school program, Community School. Four of us—two instructors and two young women—had fallen into a rhythm as we followed the deteriorating […]

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Wilderness Awareness School