Rare Sighting

Hey! I see you! This little guy was a special treat, as we've only just started to see him/her on our land near Duvall, Washington.
One of our adult program instuctors noticed this Short-tailed weasel (Mustela erminea) during a class. The hole that it's popping out of is about the size of a quarter. It's at the base of as stump just a few feet from the woodshed outside Malalo, the rustic 8-sided structure where we hold many of our ceremonial events at Wilderness Awareness School. I signed up at the last minute for a 2 day wilderness first aid and CPR class...my certifications had expired, and now that I'm beginning to lead some small groups on my own, I figured I should take care of that...and I like to be up at the land. I took my camera along hoping to see this guy (or gal). And see it I did...getting photos was much harder. They move really fast!

The Short-tailed weasel is a tiny member of the mustelid family, and is a vicious little killer! The instructor saw it take a vole into the burrow, and then return several times with infant voles. For an animal about 8 inches long, that's some feat! I like cute little furry critters with teeth.

An Unexpected Tracking Danger

On Saturday I decided to take advantage of the dry and somewhat sunny afternoon to wonder down by Coe Clemmons Creek, which runs through Taylor Park. It's a small park that runs east to west between my neighborhood and the post office in downtown Duvall. The creek meanders along the bottom of the steep-sided gully that separates the playground from the houses that back up to the creek on the south. From the head of the park where the creek passes under 3rd Ave to highway 203 at the far western edge it's about 6 city blocks in distance and about half a city block wide. The playground and picnic area only take up about 2 city blocks, and the upper block and the lower 3 blocks are just wild. A local school group did do some cleanup and trail work along the creek a couple of years ago, and I often see teens and sometimes families walking along the creek. There are also deer trails in several areas along the street - they seem to take the steepest routes. I've been seeing a big doe with what I believe to be her 2 year old daughter and her 2 yearlings, one of which is starting to sprout some buttons on his head. The youngsters both have some interesting "cowlicks" on their sides, so it's pretty easy to recognize them. They have been a block away from my apartment, and I've seen them in various places along my walk to and from work. I've seen tracks along the street on days that I missed the deer. I started to wonder if they spent time in the lower section of the park...I hadn't really ever taken the path that goes down the hillside past the parking lot. On Saturday, I decided to take a look. I found lots of deer tracks! The path switchbacks along, and the deer have made shortcuts from the upper path to the second and third paths. If I'd had plaster in my pocket I'd have made some casts of the clear tracks I found. It was really nice to just wonder along, not taking measurements, and not having a camera along to take photos. I was just tracking for fun...and almost got wiped out in the process. Now, I'm 52 years old...I've let my hair go grey, and I've put on a few more pounds than I'd like to admit to recently. But I do walk a mile and a half to work and back most days, and I often pack groceries up the hill in my backpack rather than get the car out of the garage. But I'm no athlete...never have been, don't want to be. So, imagine me in mid path, bent over admiring a nice deer track in a muddy spot...it's deep and the cleaves are spread and the dew claws are there...and I'm thinking that the animal must have come off the hillside pretty fast. And I hear a funny noise - one that makes me think I should pay attention. So I look up and see a kid on a bike, pedaling as fast as he can, and headed right at me...he looks as scared as I feel! I want you to know that I lept - yes, lept - off the trail and avoided a collision by inches...I felt the air on my arm as he sped past. I saw admiration on his face as he went by. Now, I'll confess that it was not a graceful gazelle-like leap, but I'd have bet (and the kid would have, too) that I was not capable of any sort of leap. I guess it's just another survival skill I've learned at Wilderness Awareness School. That, and my weekly visit to my chiropractor saved me from an ugly tracking accident.

Funny Story...

I decided that I wanted to use part of my tax refund to join the International Society of Professional Trackers. They have a cool newsletter, and published my domestic dog tracking project in the fall of 2009. I've continued to do reading about dog feet, and have decided that I'm on to something. Seemed like a good idea to make connections with other trackers and keep up with the news about tracking...
Within 24 hours of filling out the on-line registration and paying the fee, I was invited to become the moderator of the Wilderness Awareness School group on the ISPT website. I agreed. And then wondered what I'd gotten myself into. I'm the bookkeeper for crying out loud. Who's gonna listen to what I have to say about tracking?
I've been the moderator for another 24 hours, and already I've increased our group membership from 4 to 5 (well, 6 counting me) and I've had nice conversations with Del Morris, the executive director of the ISPT. He promises to teach me what I need to know about handling the group. Kim Cabrera, the nice lady who helped me publish my dog tracking story has already said some nice things about my three legged dog track photo, and James Lowery, has communicated with me through the group. He's author of the book, "The Tracker's Field Guide". I brought it with me from Missouri when I came to study at WAS, so it was exciting to have him contact me through the group!
If you are a tracker who is not yet a member of the ISPT, you should take a look at the web site at www.ispt.org. You can join the WAS group once you are a member. I'd like to see all my tracker friends there.
And I thought I was only joining to read the newsletter!

Umbrellas and Mad Dogs

In my last post, I wrote about survival skills and how the things I've learned at Wilderness Awareness School kept me out of trouble with zombies and other people. Last week I had the opportunity to see how they work in with animals.
Twice while walking home from work in the dark-it's 5:21 as I write this, and has been dark out for about an hour, I was charged by an angry dog. Different dogs in different neighborhoods...I was just walking down the street...well, up the street is more correct, as I live uphill and about a mile and a half from the office. Minding my own business. Not thinking about danger. Did I mention that it was dark? Since I've been here, I've grown accustomed to walking about without a flashlight. I carry one that I use when I cross streets, or when there's traffic in the spots where there's no sidewalk. But I don't use it just to walk home. I'm not afraid of the dark anymore.
So, last Wednesday evening I was headed home, nearing the top of the hill when I heard the sound of toenails on pavement. Moving fast. In my direction. Yikes! Without even making the decision, I held my umbrella out in front of me, not as a weapon, but as a barrier. I only got a glimpse of the dog - knee high, white face and legs, dark body, and really, really big teeth...the dog was absolutely silent and going for my ankle. Bumping into the umbrella caused it to back up, then it feinted towards my ankle again. Turning, using the umbrella to fend it off, I yelled at it to go away - using my deep voice, not my girly one. Someone whistled, and the dog broke off and ran off. It happened in about 6 seconds. I didn't have to hit the dog, and avoided getting bitten. Two days later, something really similar happed with a large black lab sort near the park...I think I startled it. It came bouncing toward me all stiff-legged and woofing, but didn't get anywhere near as close to biting me as the first dog did. The umbrella seemed to be enough to discourage it from getting close enought to bite. This dog never got close enough to feel truly dangerous.
The interesting thing was my reaction - or lack of one - to both events...Startled, yes. Afraid, not so much. Survival skills, it seems have value in way more ways than I expected. Lessons learned...

• Pay attention to your surroundings
• Notice unusual sounds (toenails on pavement, for instance)
• Trust your instincts
• Carry an umbrella

Zombie Tracking , part 2 or An Awareness Test

I promised to tell you how I used the awareness and survival skills I learned at Wilderness Awareness School to save my butt when I ran afoul of a Marine at ZomBcon...so here it is. It's really kind of funny, so enjoy.
On Saturday afternoon, after having talked to a large number of zombies about survival skills and other WAS programs, I found myself speaking to a human. He was probably under 20 and was quite excited about what we offer. His friend, a bit older and devastatingly attractive in that clean cut military way was far less interested in looking at our brochures tried to pull him away. I recognized his voice as that of the Marine who had attended the Max Brooks event earlier. I heard the world-weary exasperation of someone who was in on the joke. I guessed he was only there as a favor to his young friend. I guessed he knew about survival skills.
I figured I had one chance to change his impression of our school before he drug his friend away. What I said was, "Let me give you the name of the best survival book I've ever read." The kid pulls out a pen and gets ready to write it down. The Marine's reaction was interesting. His facial expression never changed from one of neutral disinterest. There was just the slightest shift in the way his weight was distributed.
If his friend was like a Golden Retriever puppy jumping up to get my attention, he was like a Pit Bull trying to decide if he was going to bite me or just pee on my leg. The question I felt coming from him was, "OK, granny, what can you tell me about survival skills?" He'd be able to tell me the flaws in any book I mentioned.
I'm pretty good at reading people. If he'd gotten aggressive or mouthy I wouldn't have felt the same instinctive awareness of danger. It occurred to me that dangerous dogs are quiet...the barkers and growlers may bite, but the quiet ones are the ones that will kill you. Instead of being frightened, I found myself giving the kid the name of the book, which is "Deep Survival" by Laurence Gonzales. He didn't expect that. His expression didn't change, but a very subtle shift in his stance told me that he was listening to what I had to say. I followed up with something I read in "Outdoor Life" some years back - the biggest cause of accidental death in the outdoors is fatal overconfidence. Cool...I pulled it off...another subtle shift and I had his attention.
Speaking mostly to the kid, I had a chance to explain that we teach survival skills based on how the indigenous people of this area survived using the plants, trees, birds and animals that live here. The kid is taking notes. I mentioned that I have started to make some tintures and salves from plants that I locate and harvest. This got a smile from the Marine...he thought that was interesting...Did we teach mycology? Darn it...we don't yet. Mushrooms can kill you. He did seem to be impressed that I knew what mycology was. After a few more tidbits about what we do offer, the pair walked away...and they were looking at the classes mentioned on the back of our special ZomBcon postcard.

And that's the story of how I used awareness and survival skills to avoid getting my butt kicked by a very attractive Marine at ZomBcon.

Zombie Tracking, or They Pay Me for This

So Wilderness Awareness School go invited - yes, invited - to have a booth at the first annual ZomBcon event at Seattle Center over Halloween weekend. They asked for a speaker to talk about where Seattle residents would go and how they would get out of the city in the event of the Zombie Apocalypse. They were serious. Did we go? You bet we did. Although October was a crazy month if the bookkeeper's office, I got permission to go work the booth on Friday (the day after our annual audit!) and on Saturday. It was a hoot...and while I had expected the event to be dark and scary, I was happily surprised to find that zombies are a lot like us...well, us from Wilderness Awareness School, anyway.

The top photo shows Lindsay and Shondell in front of our "shelter" and our table displays. Jan (or Yawn, as I like to call him), who was in my WARP class in 06/07, and now works as our web guy, had created a cool zombie-themed postcard with info about our survival skills. That's him on the far right of the center photo (with Shondell looking on) demonstrating how to make a bow-drill fire.

The third photo shows Evan, another of my classmates and his zombie friend checking out our booth. Jan and I hadn't seen him since graduation, and were surprised to bump into him there.

We were supposed to have 20 minutes to talk after Max Brooks (author of the Zombie Survival Guide) and a couple of other guys spoke. We got cut to 2 minutes, but Mike was still so amazing that I had people stopping at the booth to learn more about us!

Next post, I'll tell you how the survival skills I learned at WAS kept me from getting my butt kicked by a marine who stopped by our booth! I hope they let me out of the office more often. It was fun.

Unicorn Tracks

Yesterday I got up early enough to go out with the Tracking Club on their monthly adventure. It's a public program at Wilderness Awareness School, in which volunteer station guides get up really early in order to go find interesting animal tracks so that we will have something fun to show to whomever shows up at the office at 9...I missed the September session, and haven't had much opportunity to track anything except the house cats in my neighborhood for way too long. I was ready for a morning of tracking - and a little afraid that I wouldn't recognize a track when I saw one.
We found lots of domestic dog tracks along the river right away, and then black-tailed deer tracks, coyote tracks and interesting bird tracks. The sandbar where we decided to hold the morning's session was covered with beaver tracks, drag marks and chewed sticks. We also found river otter tracks, heron tracks and scat, the parallel tracks of a momma and baby raccoon, an interesting trail of a coyote with several gait changes, and the tracks of a yellowleg, a migratory shore bird that isn't usually present in our area. We thought we had a pretty good assortment of track and sign to talk.
But the best tracks (and story) came from 4-year old Rosemary, who came out with her Mom to learn a bit about tracking. She had mentioned that she like unicorns, which turned out not to be a good thing to tell adults. We kept asking her if the tracks we were looking at could be those of a unicorn. She had to keep explaining to the silly adults that unicorns are not real...a lesson that we kept forgetting.
Rosemary finally got annoyed with us and went to an area where we had not found any tracks of interest. There, she made her own tracks, explaining to me that "No one will know what made these!" She giggled as she created some really unique "tracks", which looked to me like a series of upside down Us with a single small dot in the center which she made with her index finger. Then she circled the line of "tracks" just like we'd circled the tracks we found earlier, and waited until a tracker came close enough to be lured over to discuss her station.
Trackers like to play tracking games, and she led some pretty advanced trackers through her series of tracks, denying that they were unicorn, Pegasus or centaur tracks...Her delight a having fooled them was real and quite adorable. And watching her explain to the adults how she made the tracks while they pretended to be puzzled was fun for me. At 4, she's a better station guide than I am, and my tracker friends are so much more open to the possibilities of what we might find out there than I am.

I probably learned more yesterday about tracking than I have in many hours of intense "study", thanks to a 4 year old and some really cool adults who were willing to be taught by her.

End of School Year Notes

I've been surprisingly emotional as this year comes to a close...I'ts been 3 years since I graduated from the Wilderness Awareness School Residential Program - now known as the Anake Program. Last Friday, we welcomed this group back from their 5 day survival trip, and as always, everyone did survive. Hearing stories about how they did so is inspirational! I know that they will go out into the world with not only the solid naturalist skills that we teach, but also with the uncommon knowledge that they have gone through a rite of passage that most people don't get to experience in our culture.
I believe they will be better, and happier people for having done so...I know what an amazing experience I had, and the many ways that it affected me. I'm still learning how profound an experience it really is to go out into the wilderness with only the clothes on your back - and your classmates - your friends - your clan.

We did well. So have each year's graduates. I'm so happy to be able to remain in this amazing place as a part of this amazing program.

Why I Do What I Do

I've been frustrated by frequent internet outages (upgrade of service, we're told) and have not been able to properly welcome my new great niece, Aubrey Hopper to the world.

She was born early on Feb 2nd and weighed in at 5 pounds, 4 ounces. She's 3 or 4 weeks early, but healthy and at home with her mom and dad in southern Arkansas.

On those days I get frustrated by work and life in general, I remember that what we do here in Western Washington will make a real difference in the lives of kids like Aubrey and her big brother Andrew. What we teach at Wilderness Awareness School will spread across the country and little kids everywhere will benefit.

The second editon of our "Coyote's Guide" just arrived in the office yesterday. It includes a photograph that I took at the end of our Residential Program year (2007)!

Even though I work in the office, I can still have a posititive influence on kids everywhere. It's good to know that my new little great niece will grow up knowing that I helped make a difference.

Just for Fun

I found this cool contest on the Writer's Digest web page, and decided to enter...one of the requirements is that I mention it on my blog and/or on FaceBook, Twitter or other social network sites...so here's the link to the contest page. It's the "Dear Lucky Agent" contest by the Guide to Literary Agents editor's blog.
I've had some luck with writing contests in the past, and you all know I have a story to tell, so this one seems perfect. I have a great title..."Tracking Elephants in Snow-Memoirs of a Bad-Ass Tracker Chick"

If you have a memoir stuck in a drawer, you should enter it - some of my favorite books are memoirs, and it's one of the hardest types of book to find a publisher for.

One of the coolest things I learned at Wilderness Awareness School is the importance of telling our stories...we all have one so if you are inspired, go read the rules and get your entry in before the end of Saturday.

When you go to the site to check out my entry you do have to look a bit to find the word "comments" in tiny little letters...look below the book covers and just under the "share" button. Click on the word "comments" to see all the entries. No voting required. Wish me luck!

Where Does the Time Go???

I can't believe that it's been so long since I've posted anything here...and why can't I make my letters pretty? Yikes, the time gets away when you're having...fun.

Work is a little crazy just now - getting ready for an audit in December, so lots more paperwork for me! Should go well, but just the word "audit" is scary. And I bet the auditor is worried, too. Wilderness Awareness School is not like her usual gig...We are...unique.

The lovely fall weather continues with lots of rain and enough wind to drop a tree across the road just around the corner from my little apartment. When I came to work this morning the road was clear, but lots of debris still on the road. Missouri trees are quite a lot shorter than Washington trees. I never used to worry about getting hit by a tree except during tornado weather.

If the rain keeps coming in from the coast I don't know if I'll go tracking on Saturday. The sandbar may not be accessible. Of course, post flood tracking is really awesome...not that I'm hoping for floods.

I hit 2 King County Library used book sales a couple of weeks ago, so I have lots of good reading material to keep me company if I can't go tracking. With a cup of hot tea and a purring cat on my lap, it's all good!

Cool Story About WAS on MSNBC!

I got a photo credit on MSNBC!!! There's a cool story written by one of our recent participants in an adult program, and one of my photos was chosen to illustrate it!
Go check it out...the link takes you to the correct story. The photo is of Laura, a fellow staff member here at WAS. She was in my Residential Program class, too.

The story is about a Walkabout - a wander across the landscape finding water, food and shelter where you can. It's quite a bit more strenuous than most of our classes...and there's no cook. It's a fun trip for the type of person who is interested in survival skills.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32089212/

Tiny Little Feet

These are the smallest deer tracks I've ever seen! We were excited to find them on the sandbar at Chinook Bend near Carnation, WA during the tracking evaluation.
This little black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus) fawn must have frolicked all night in the sand...these little tracks were everywhere! Casey, our evaluator, said that it messed up several of his questions for us...and left a few interesting ones for us to figure out.

The Tracking Evaluation

I've just gotten in from an intense 2-day Cybertracker
evaluation, and I'm worn out, dirty, bloody from blackberry brambles and mosquito bites...and really, really happy!

My official score was an 84, high enough to make me a Level 2 Tracker...and better than that, all 8 of us taking this test scored a Level 2 or better! It was really cool to see people I've been in class with all year doing so well...and a mark of the quality of tracking education we got in this year's Tracking Intensive class at Wilderness Awareness School.

I'm headed home for a shower, and some homemade soup followed by a glass of wine to celebrate! It's been such a fun year and I've learned so much about tracking and wildlife, and myself...and after these past two days, I see how much more I have to learn...I love that tracking is a never ending learning experience!

Another Graduation

I'm kind of excited that I'll be graduating from the Tracking Intensive program tomorrow...and sad that the year is over. I'll take the trakcing evaluation next week, but that's a seperate thing.
When I was a kid, graduation meant the end of something...I see this one much like I saw my graduation from the Residential Program in 2007...as the beginning.

I used to think that once I'd set out on a path there was no changing my mind, no second chance, no do overs.

Now I know better.

From this point onward I can call myself a tracker, and know that it's true. When I was a kid, I used to dream about being someone who could follow marks on the ground, read the stories written there by hoofs and paws...Now I can do that - some times anyway. I'll learn more with experience. We always do.

One thing I'd ask, if life is being kind to you right now, is to go to the web site at www.wildernessawareness.org and make a donation to our yearly scholarship fund. We have an opportunity to double your gift up to $20,000.00 and every bit helps.

I would not have had the courage to come here and do this remarkable thing I've done without the help of the scholarship I recieved - it made a world of difference to me...I hope we can offer the same gift to many other students in the next year. I'm giving $25.00. How about you?

I ROCKED!

I just finished up the final weekend of the Tracking Intensive class. Saturday I got to present my dog tracking project to the class.
I spent a lot of time worrying about it. Public speaking has never been my thing. I knew I was on to something, and that my research was valid...and the thought of standing up and telling my classmates and instructors what I'd found was frightening.

One thing I've learned here at Wilderness Awareness School is that people will support you if you ask. My instructor, Dave Moskowitz, reminded me that everyone in the audience would be very interested in the project. I also arranged for a couple of my classmates to tackle me if I bolted for the door!

What really helped was that some of our Elders came in to support me! Many thanks to Pam, Jenn, Walt and his wife Katy, and to Auntie Barbara who all took time on a sunny Washington Saturday to come out and witness my presentation. I had other friends in the room, too. Ellen and Jonathan came - Ellen's dog Taz was in the project, and Jonathan is a tracker and former Rezzie and TI student. Current Rezzie Shondell, who helped with some of the dog tracking was there to support me, too.

I was surprised to find that I enjoyed it! I guess speaking about something you're passionate about is a little different than an assigned topic...I never would have belived that it would be fun.

My Missouri friend Madonna says I have to start owning my power...Yeah, I Rocked!

Off on Another Adventure!

I'll be leaving in about an hour for the Olympic National Park, yet another place I haven't been!
With luck, we will find tracks of the fisher ( Martes pennanti )...a rare animal that looks somewhat like it's kin, the mink and weasel. I'm hoping for clear tracks, and good weather...right now the sun is shining, but we are about 5 hours and a ferry ride away from the campground. I'll report back next week!

More Bighorn Tracks For Your Enjoyment

It's been over 2 weeks and I'm
still absolutely astounded that
we had such good tracking conditions...This pair of tracks left in the mud may have been a ewe and her yearling - or it might have been a front (larger) and rear track. It's kind of far off to the side to be the front and rear of the same animal. We did see 9 Bighorns (Ovis canadensis) cross the valley ahead of our group. And it's an area that the animals use all the time. These tracks were not crossing the valley, but were going down the trail in the direction of the bridge and parking lot...others were going up the valley trail.
Bighorns are diurnal, meaning that they are active in the daytime. They typically sleep in beds on the hillside, and so I doubt that they gather in the valley at night when people are less likely to be found there.
The canyon is a big draw to hikers, fly fishermen, rockhounds, and dog walkers. I'm surprised - and blessed -that we saw the animals and found so many tracks.

Almost Like Cheating

The WAS Tracking Intensive class went to eastern

Washington this past weekend and had such an awsome time. On Saturday we tracked mule deer at Frenchman's Coulee, and then moved on to Bighorn sheep along the Yakima River.

The weather was sketchy, but we went hoping to find tracks...and as we pulled into the parking lot, we were greeted by this little band of 9. There are a couple of young rams with this group of ewes and last year's young.

We watched as they ran down the hillside and across the valley we were going to be hiking into! It seemed almost unfair to watch them and then go find the fresh tracks...almost, but not quite. How many times do you get to trail 5-minute old Bighorn tracks?

My Vision for the Dog Tracking Photos

This was Jackson, my last dog, and his tracks in the snow...It would be better if he was standing and outside, but you can see his body type, and his feet are visible...the track photo is not bad. The pink ruler stands out, and there are both front and back tracks in the picture. Can you tell which is which?

Jackson was a 40 pound mixed breed - my vet though Shar Pei and Jack Russell among other things...Don't ever do that on purpose! He was healthy, except that he was born with a shallow right hip socket, which caused muscle loss and pain in that hip. He limped badly when tired.

I think it will be fun to see how many dog and dog track photos we can collect in one place...we might even learn something. If your dog has any type of foot, leg, hip or shoulder injury or disease, please mention it, as we might see it in the tracks!

To be included in the experiment, send photos as a jpeg attachment in an e-mail to me at possum59@yahoo.com ...

I'll start putting them up as they come in.