Several of our members recently had an opportunity to attend a tracking course hosted in the neighbouring Comox Valley. While the weather wasn’t always cooperative, it was an excellent opportunity to train in some valuable skills.
During the course, our members practiced advanced tracking techniques which are used to follow a subject’s path much more quickly than simply going step-by-step along their trail. Multiple teams of trained trackers can employ a technique called “Sign Cutting” to move along the trail much more quickly. While one team follows the subject, the second team walk further ahead, perpendicular to the direction the person was travelling. With a little luck and no small amount of skill, that team will find a place where they intersect the subject’s trail, allowing the first team to leapfrog ahead.