Tracking List FAQ v.10 =================== Table of Contents: I. Purpose II. Introduction a. How can I get the FAQ? III. General Topics: a. What is this list for? b. *** How do I Subscribe/Unsubscribe? *** c. How do I post to this maillist? d. Netiquette. e. How can I get old issues? IV. Tracking: a.How do I track? b.How do I know what I am tracking? c.Where can I meet others that track? V. Survival: a.What are the essentials? b.What do I need to know how to do in a survival situation? c.Where else can I get info? VI. Spiritual: a.What is Tom's prophecy and when is it supposed to happen? b.What is the Sacred Silence? VII. Tom Brown: a.Who is Tom Brown? b.Where is Tom's school? VIII.Other Sources of Info a.Web Sites b.Primitive Skills Maillist IX. To Do a.List of questions I. Purpose ==================== The purpose of this document is to attempt to address many of the questions that a new user to this maillist might have. II. Introduction ==================== This is a FAQ (Frequestly Asked Question) file for the Tracker mail list. I am always looking for suggestions on how I can improve this. If you have any write to: mailto:trackers-owner@mailinglists.org a. How do I get the FAQ? The FAQ will soon be located on http://www.ecl.wustl.edu/~andrew/Trackers/ when I have the specific file name I will list it here. The FAQ will also be posted irregularly on the maillist, especially when a flurry of questions that are answered in the FAQ are covered. Eventually I hope to automate the posting to monthly. III. General ==================== a. What is this list for? The list is for the discussion of Tracking, Survival, and Awareness. Many of the individuals from the list are students of Tom Brown, and most of the answers will revolve around what is taught at his school. <See Tom Brown:> b. *** How do I subscribe/unsubscribe? *** Subscription/unsubscription/info requests should always be sent to the -request address of a mailing list. As in: To: trackers-request@mailinglists.org Subject: subscribe To unsubscribe from a mailing list, simply send a message with: To: trackers-request@mailinglists.org Subject: unsubscribe If you want more info (old messages or digest format), or are having problems write: To: trackers-request@mailinglists.org Subject: help There is also a digest version of this list that sends out the messages in groups. To use this service the address is trackers-d-request@mailinglists.org. Everything else is the same. NOTE: When you unsubscribe, be sure to send the unsubscribe message to the correct address. e.g. If you are recieveing the digest send your unsubscribe message to 'trackers-d-request' c. What is a digest? The digest version sends out the messages in 40K chuncks. This means rather than getting 40 e-mails a day in your mailbox, you might only get 2. The only disadvantage to this is that it may take most of a day to build a digest, so if there is a discussion going on you may get in on it a bit later. d. How do I post to the mail list? Just mail the message that you want to have go to the list by typing: To: trackers@mailinglists.org e. Netiquette. Avoid personal attacks. We are all trying to learn, and attacking an individual does not promote learning. Avoid off-topic discussion. This mail list is devoted to a practical discussion of Tracking, Survival, Nature Awareness, and Spirituality. Avoid quoting unneeded text from previous messages. If you want to bring something up from a prevoius please be selective and avoid quoting the entire thing. Consider the entire list. Some topics might be better addressed to individuals rather than posted to the entire maillist. Use proper case. It is much easier to read if the text is in 'normal' case. It is also MUCH easier to communicate with capitals as emphasis RATHER THAN SHOUTING WITH CAPITALS ALL THE TIME. f. How do I get old issues? The first way I would try, especially or older issues is: http://www.koransky.com/Trackers/Digests/ They go back to the beginning of the mail list, are organized by year, and are usually a year behind. Fm:Andrew Koransky (1/22/03) [SMTP:andrew@koransky.com] IV. Tracking ==================== a. How do I track? The two biggest keys are dirt time and where the sun is. Keep the track between you and the sun. Practice first by looking at tracks that are very easy to distinguish and look for distinguishing marks, and look for what is similar ( e.g. compare with another track made by you with a different shoe). Gradually practice tracking on harder and harder surfaces so that you have less and less detail to go off of. b. How do I know what I am tracking? Generally you want to follow the tracks until you find a track that is extremely clear. Then you either want to photograph it, or possiblly plaster cast the print. This can then be compared against any number of book sources on tracks, such as Peterson's Guide to Animal Tracks. c. Where can I meet other people interested in tracking? Just write to the lsit and see what responses you get :). You can also try http://www.ecl.wustl.edu/~andrew/Trackers/TrackerClubs.html V. Survival ==================== a. What are the essentials? The single most important item is your mental state. No matter what you have or what you know if you over-extend yourself, do something stupid, or give up, then you will not succeed. Many people who have gotten caught unprepared in the wilderness have survived incredible conditions, mostly on will power and stubborness. Other individual, who were extremely experienced and prepared have died from avoidable situations (Avalanches, bad water, exposure). b. What do I need to know how to do in a survival situation? Shelter, Water, Fire, Food. In that order. One way to remember this is the rule of 3's. 3 minutes w/o air -- pass out 3 hour without shelter -- exposure 3 days without water -- dehydration 3 weeks without food -- starvation These are 'general' rules many people can exceed these limits, but they illustrate the priorities and considerations on should have in a survival situation. VI. Spiritual ==================== a. What is Tom's prophecy? I would recommend that you read some of Tom's books, however, the long and short of it is that in the near future the skies will turn red. Approximately one year after this civilization will begin to collapse. Many people will die and man will be forced to return to nature. There was recently quite a bit of discussion on the list about the timeline of this, and the latest word is that this situation is 20+ years out. b. What is the Sacred Silence? This is the term Tom uses to describe meditation. The mental state is similar to meditation, but you should be able to function while in this state. E.g. Walk, Stalk, etc. Typical mediation is a completely passive activity. The way I learned this most directly by practicing meditation for sometime until I was very comfortable with the process, and knew how things looked, felt, smelled, and, most importantly, the differences in me when I was in a deep meditative state. From there I would work to maintain that state while doing simple activities like moving an arm or walking slowly. For the long answer look into Tom's Awakening Spirits book. VII. Tom Brown ==================== a. Who is Tom Brown? Tom is the head instructor of a Wilderness School he founded. He teaches a wide variety of clsses ranging through surival, philosophy/spituality, tracking, and awareness. He was taught his skills by an Apache elder, 'Stalking Wolf'. Tom learned from him from age 7 to 18 (and some after that) and then went through a period of wandering himself to hone his skills. b. Is it true that Tom ...? has trained SEALs? Yes. He worked in the eighties with SEAL Team 6 (SEa Air Land SEAL Naval Counter Terrorism Unit). That stopped for a period after the Gulf War. I don't know if he currently trains them. b. How do I reach his school? TOM BROWN, Jr's Tracking, Nature, and Wilderness Survival School PO Box 173 Asbury, NJ 08802 (908)479-4681 Fax: (908)479-6867 mailto:TrackerInc@aol.com VIII. Other Sources of Info ======================= a. Web Site: http://www.ecl.wustl.edu/~andrew/Trackers/ Long list of other links http://members.aol.com/trackerinc/index.html - OFFICIAL Tracker Home page http://www.worldmind.com/Wild/Survival/survival.html http://bcadventure.com/adventure/wilderness/survival/basic.htm http://ishmael.nmh.northfield.ma.us/~god/wildframes.html http://satcom.whit.org/davidw/surlink.html - site list - some para-military http://www.csee.usf.edu/~gulledge/tracker.html - Unofficial Tracker HomePage b. Other Maillists Primitive Skills Mail list: Instructions are on this page: http://pages.infinit.net/afb/priskar1.htm You should read the guidelines before subscribing. Be prepared for an average of 38 messages per day, 7 days a week from the trackers and primitive lists combined. Real easy to get behind on your reading. Fm: Mike Andreasen (6/19/97) mikea@maf.mobile.al.us IX.To Do: ================== Questions: How do I identify <a plant>? How do I build a shelter? How do I find water? How do I make fire? Need to add much more of basics. Well one method is the hand drill... Bow Drill Hints by Bo Gulledge <gulledge@grad.csee.usf.edu>: Awhile back there was a discussion about putting a notch in the top of the hand drill and draping a string over it with a thumb loop at each end. You do the normal spinning with the hands, but the string looped over the top keeps your hands at the same spot on the spindle and allows you to still get good downward pressure. I use this technique when my hand drill set is less than optimal. The added aid of the string gives me just enough help, usually, to get a coal. It is an excellent technique to prepare for learning the hand drill. It gives you confidence that you can get a coal by spinning with your hands. Once you get consistent with this, take away the string and you should be able to get a real hand drill going with no trouble. BTW, My hand drills are typically pencil sized in diameter, and about 2+ feet long. Here is a tip for success: spin to fill up the notch with dust. Take a break and rest. Now all you need to do is ignite the dust by dedicating yourself to spin as fast as you can for about 15 to 20 seconds. A word of warning to first timers, as soon as you stop spinning, remove the spindle and start waving your hand back and forth over the coal in the notch while you catch your breath. I have seen the tiniest, wispiest coals survive and grow, as long as you start fanning them immediately. Be patient, keep fanning, stop for a second and check for wisps of smoke. If your still see smoke after fanning those, first few seconds after removing the spindle, you have a coal and you just need to keep feeding it with air. Once I catch my breath, I prefer to start blowing a long gentle stream of air on the coal. If you see dust flying out of the notch you are blowing too hard, otherwise blow long and steady. I never remove a coal from the notch until I see the red glow of the coal spreading strongly throughout the coal. Again, I find the key to success is to fan the coal immediately upon removal of the spindle. Many times in the past I would remove the spindle and still see smoke but would stare dumbly at it for a second before feeding it with air. I probably lost quite a few potential coals while I was learning because of the time delay. Now that I know better, I give it lots of air first, before I try and decide if I really have a coal or not. The beauty of this string enhancement is that the string does not have to be very strong. Natural materials are quite adequate, even when they are but twine thickness. Plus, the cordage needed is only about 12-14" long. I have a much easier time getting a fire going with this technique during "naked survival". The strength demands for a bow drill string, or less than perfect hand drill materials use to keep me from getting a fire quickly under, "no knife, no cordage" conditions. Now, this technique solves a lot of the problems by eliminating the trouble spots of the other techniques. P.S. It is not as hard or as difficult as you think, for you first timers. Get dust in the notch, catch your breath, then spin as fast as you can for a slow count to 20. I think you will surprise yourself. --------------- Best Regards, Bo Gulledge <gulledge@grad.csee.usf.edu> How do I find food? Why does fire come before food? Fire is so useful in a survival situation that before worrying about food, you should develop a method to build a fire. With fire you can boil water, steralize food, make bows, arrows, cups, keep you warm, etc. Fire can also help a great deal in mental attitude. And if you are trying to get found, eventually, it can be a great signal. What, exactly, is awareness that everyone talks about? Awareness is just what is says, an awareness of everyhting that is going on around you. This ranges from the very physical, of someone whating behind you while you busy doing something, to the social of observing how people operate under certain conditions. It is also a large part of spirituality. The physcial awareness that you develop will also help you to explore spirit/force/non-physical. One aspect of this awareness is the study of concentric rings. Those rings of action/reaction that carry out from a disturbance (someone wlking through the forest making a lot of noise, a car wreck, a traffic light change). Even if you do not directly observe the cause of something, you can determine what the cause was. An example is of a traffic light. You are observing an intersection and suddenly the cars start slowing and stop. Even if you don't look at the light, you can determine, assuming no other extenuating factors, that the light has changed. Awareness is learning how to interprete all available cues to determine what happened to cause all of the available cues. Concentric rings are a concept of following a cause/effect string to its source. From: Kevin Reeve <KSREEVE@ix.netcom.com> The key to hearing and understanding concentric rings lies in the time you must spend up front developing an understanding of the baseline symphony. The baseline symphony is what the environment sounds like at rest, so to speak. In other words, when there is just normal activity going on in the woods, what does that sound like? We determined this by going out into the woods to a sit area and listening every three hours for one hour over teh course of twenty-four hours. Over time, (several days) we develop a pretty good idea of what the forest sounds like at rest at any time of day (it is different at 6am than at 3pm). Once we have stablished the baseline symphony, then we know that any disturbance or variance from the baseline is a concentric ring. Let me give you two examples. Yesterday as I was out hiking. It was normal baseline. Suddenly I heard a huge ring thrown when an owl attacked a crow's nest. There was a shock wave of noise and disturbance that hit me like an ocean wave. Another example is in my home. I can always tell when my kids are up to no good when it gets real quiet. There is a baseline of normal noise, and the quiet is a variance from this baseline. The same thing is also true in any other environment. In organizations, we teach people to establish the baseline symphony. What does it look and sound like when everything is normal? Pay attention to that and you will know when there is a variance. Someone mentioned the example of the big news of a bombing mission while they were in an airport and they could see the ring move through the airport. I had the same experience last month in LAX waiting for a plane to SF. I watched a group gathering around the TV and went over to see a bank robbery and shoot out with the cops live on TV. Then, I broke from my morbid fascination and turned and watched that wave of disturbance wash over the rest of the airport. It was very visible. This is a very inportant scout skill in my humble opinion. It allows you to see so much that others miss. In an organization, it may allow you to see changes in a key market before your competition, or it may help you see a layoff coming in your company and make appropriate changes in career direction. The applications are endless. Hope this helps. Kevin