Advanced Tracker Classes

In the middle of May, Paul and I carried on making our way across the US. We stopped by to introduce Paul to my brother Tim and my sister-in-law Deana. Paul and Deana had a false start, but are now the best of buddies. Deana is one of the friendliest people I know. I am grateful to my brother for bringing her into the family.

While we were there we helped my nephew Craig move into his own new apartment. It was a sweet space, I hope it brings him many good feelings of home. We also were taken on a tour by my younger nephew, Nicolas, of the caves where he gives guided tours. The caves are an amazing formation. Paul and I fantasize about finding one we could live in during summer months.

We finally made it to New Jersey in early June. That first week there, both Paul and I volunteered for the Standard class. Like the first time of volunteering for that class, it was a pleasure to be part of the behing-the-scenes support crew.

Our next classes were the advanced standard class and the advanced tracking/awareness class.

Advanced Standard

In advanced standard, we learned to purify clay from a dig, how to make pots and bowls, and how to use and open fire kiln. We also learned how to make grass mats for both comfort and insulation. We made our own debris huts and turned in our “tent and sleeping bag”. We made baskets out of willow and green briar, tried our hand at flint knapping and learned various different kinds of bows and traps for hunting.

It was great to learn all these skills. Some of them were hard to participate in due to the level of modernization and commercialization of the approach to teaching it. In making a bow, for example, they used a ban saw and a steel plainer. Stalking wolf never used these tools. In fact, Stalking wolf taught that any skill that resulted in a tool made using modern technology was a dead tool. That is, the tool had no spirit and would therefore not enable the person using it to connect with the earth, plants or animals.

Advanced tracking and awareness

During the next class we learned different approaches to tracking. I heard some new concepts but felt the class was far too large in order for me to actually learn them.

What I really enjoyed about the advanced tracking/awareness class was the awareness games we played each night.

One night I was amongst the half of students who were sitting around looking into the fire. The other half of the class was in camo attempting to sneak up on us. We were allowed to call out a sneak attach if it was happening within 180% behind us. At first this seemed impossible. How was I supposed to hear someone over my fellow classmates chatting, or the snap and crackle of the fire. Then I notice a dull point of pain in my back. “what was that?” I wondered. “Could that be the energy of a sneaker?” “If so, how am I supposed to know where they are exactly?” As I asked myself that question, I visual map appeared in my mind of the territory behind me. My pant line was the garden bed about 150 feet behind me. Trees, the knapping pit, the tracking box, all lined themselves out on my back in this virtual map.

I raised my hand to call out the location of a sneaker. I instructed the volunteer behind me to stand at the far right edge of the tracking box, take two large steps forward and one large step to his left, reach out his arms and turn 180%. As he followed my instructions, he called out “busted”. I was amazed to say the least!!! Another dull pain showed up on my back. I raised my hand and gave precise instructions. “Busted” once again. I did this two more times. It was the most amazing experience causing me to expand my understanding our my own sensory system.

Living what we learned

After that class, there were three weeks before our Scout class would start. Paul and I spread the word that we would be spending that time living in the woods practicing the skills we had just learned and preparing ourselves to get the most out of Scout class. Folks that were interested could come and talk with us about coming along. Three guys expressed a keen interest. After the second day, one of the guys decided it was not for him. I took him about to a main road and he hitched to his next destination.

The four of us scouted for the perfect location. After two days of scouting, we found it. It was a small mesa that ran parallel above a river. There were all sorts of hut material with all the hard woods around. We were protect from the direct sun and rain by a tall canopy of mature oaks, walnuts, maple, locus, northern white pine and many others. The understory was formed by mountain laurel and huckleberry. Another small mesa further up the hill was full of ripe huckleberries. We feasted on them daily.

The Bear

We were visited three times by a bear that was also keen on the huckleberries. The first time we were gathered around our friction started camp fire when I heard a whistling sound I had not heard before. I look up from my clay pot making to find the source but didn’t see it. I went back to making my food cheese container. I heard the sound again. This time, as I looked up and around, I saw a large black bear up in the mesa above us. It was moving along quite slow, in a parallel direction to us, looking our way the entire time. Both the bear and us were sizing each other up, feeling into weather we could be neighbors for the next couple of weeks. We all decided on the affirmative as the bear made two more appearances.

One of the times I encountered the bear, I was collecting huckleberries by myself. I heard the bear pad up on the other side of some bushes. He was evidently not aware of my presence, or perhaps Ok with it. I felt a bet threatened with the proximity. I leaned over and grabbed a large branch that had small branching bits coming off of it. I stood the branch up right and thumped it on the ground while grunting. The sound of the bear snuffling amongst the berries stopped and I could sense her lifting her head to look around. There was no sound for a few seconds. I thumped the branch on the ground again. I heard the bear turn and slowly lumber up over the hill in the other direction. What a relief.

The third visit from the bear was while both Paul and I were picking berries. We heard her picking herself not too far away. We decide to carry on picking just slowing moving in the opposite direction she seemed to be moving. She had been nice enough to put up with our invasion, we wanted to be able to share the space a little better.

Daily living

During that three weeks there was two thunder storms and various rainy periods. Our shelter kept us safe and dry and our fires warmed our spirits. We added more leaf debris from time to time to improve the insulation factor.

We used three fallen logs to outline a living space. We used rocks to make a fire ring and gathered dead wood from the surrounding area daily. We all had bow drill kits to make the fire. Paul used his crafting skills to create a very effective kit, even for wet conditions. He was very reliable at getting a fire started for us. Ori, our friend from Israel and I worked on getting our kits going. By the second week, we were both able to get a fire. It was the first time I had been able to get one after taking my standard class in 2004. It was a very exciting time.

We also practiced honing our senses by walking fallen logs while blind folded, and trying to sense the presence of others while blind folded. We jogged the dirt road that was a couple miles from our camp. There we practiced our skills of disappearing when a car would come by. We didn’t know about “Sink and Fade” yet and got caught a couple of times.

I worked on skills of walking in earth time, shaping and firing clay, and weaving baskets.

Each day was a gift and a blessing to be surrounded by pure and healthy nature. Clearly the woods had been clear-cut at one time, but the trees were at least 80 years old in this section of the woods. The stream was clear and clean with fish and various insect life. We bathed in it, drank from it, stored our food in it and listened to it at night harmonizing with the wind through the trees.

Scout Class

Our final Tracker school class was the Scout class. This is an amazingly challenging and exhilerating class. This class was well designed as an experiential one with much less lecture and a design that lent itself well to having a lot of students. The students created 8 groups of 10. These groups became your scout team. We did everything with our scout team. We ate together, slept together, went on missions together, debriefed missions together, raided other scout camps together etc.

Staffs

One of the quirky and fun parts of the class was these 8′ poles each person had to care and take care of. My pole was probably only 7′ tall since I am shorter. I carried the pole with me when I went to the outhouse, when I went to make my meal, when I went to sleep (which there was not much of over these 6 days). Eventually, I grew rather fond of my staff. When we went out on raids, I used it to guard my body and to keep a good boundary around me. One of the games we played was to be sneaky when someone else was not being aware and take their staff. If someone lost their staff, they had to carry a log. If an entire group lost their staffs, the group had to carry a lodge pole. Paul and one of our fellow scouts, Andrew stayed up all night and raided other camps. The next morning, two scout groups could be seen carrying a lodge pole as they went to get their breakfast.

Group Dynamics

Getting a group of ten virtual strangers to be able to function as a group and maybe even create some synergy is quite the accomplishment. Each person has different experiences of success and perceived failure that they bring to the dynamic. Each one has their own aspirations for an outcome of the experience. In the end, this was an amazing learning opportunity for all of us.

One night, while out on a mission, we were “ambushed” by the “shadow scouts”. About half of our members were frazzled by the experience. One of our members became overwhelmed and stopped performing as a group member. He began making decision as if he were on his own. I was concerned for his safety, as he did not know the area and might not be able to make it back to camp. While most folks became frustrated and intolerant with him, I felt touched by the situation. I asked if he would be willing to be in the scout line behind me and look out for me. This gave him a role and he felt safe and purposeful having such a role. As the next couple of hours went by while making our way back to camp (between 12:00 midnight and 3:00 am) I continued to communicate with him as a group member who I respected and valued. We all made it home safely. During the next few mission, my new friend and I stayed in proximity of each other on the line. After one of the missions, my friend expressed that he felt safe with me because I respected him and took my role on the scout line seriously. This led to some great discussion amongst the group. We were able to talk about the reality of helping each other be safe and what actions helped the team feel safe. This led to a much more effective team.

I had the opportunity to guide my team to safety after a particularly harry mission. We had split the team in to two groups of five and from there into threes and two as we got closer to the target and the need for silence increased. We ended up loosing two of our members due to one of them becoming overly frustrated and breaking off into his own direction, not knowing where he was going (the second member followed so he would not be alone and therefore more vulnerable). In the end we had to call out loud and repeatedly to get our members all back together. Once they were back together, a bickering about what had happened ensued. We were not yet in a safe zone. I spoke loud and clear and stated “We need to have this discussion when we are at camp. Right now each of you need to take your place in the scout line, watch your side, check on the guys in front and back of you, and follow your point person (the leader which in this case was me). After making that announcement, I took off running. The team had to focus on keeping up and all the feeling of frustration was used up in running.

When we made it back to camp, Paul asked who had been on point. He had been on rear guard and in the darkness had thought the speech was given by a shadow scout. He didn’t know who was on point making us run so fast for the three miles back to camp.

The Log

One of the activities of the scout class took place in the heat of the day on “the Log’ that was suspended over a pool of water formed by a small stream running through camp.

The log was used to help us increase our senses independent of our sight. First we walked the log with eyes open. About 50% of the class made it across without falling in the water. Then we put on blind folds and walked across the log. About 5% of the class made it across. (Having been a gymnast, log walking with and without sight came pretty easy for me). Then we had moch battles with a partner on the log. I was not very aggressive and got knocked off right away. I realized that in order to give my partner and I the best practice, I would need to match her aggression. the next time we had on the log together, I upped my defensive and offensive tactics. I remained study on the log while she fell off.

Next they opened up the partnerships and whoever won the match could be taken on by any challenger who wished to give it a try. I watched a lot of folks hold the log and then loose it until Ryan got on. Ryan ins 6′3″ and solid built. He was not being moved by the assaults. I decided it was the job a the meek to change the situation and mounted the log to face Ryan. Ryan was so sure that he could take me down that after landing a solid blow on my thigh, he follow through with his bodies movement that assumed I would fall. As a result he fell while I stood solid without having taken a swing.

The next challenge was with a large ball suspended from a rope strun above the log. We approached the fall, put on our blind fold, hit the ball and feel where the ball would go. Paul got up, put on his blind fold and hit the ball. As the ball came back toward his body off to the right, Paul turned his head to the right as if he was seeing the ball and hit it. The ball circled around him to the left, he followed it with his blindfolded eyes, anticipated it coming close to his body and hit it again. All of the other students cheered and were astounded that this was possible. Two women came and told me that our performance on the log gave them hope that humans could retrieve some of their senses.

When it was my turn with the ball, I had an equally amazing experience. I hit the ball and felt it going around the back of me. As it did, I felt it would hit my back and put me off balance so I shifted my spine out of the way. As I did this, the other students awed and cheered. I continued to follow by body’s sense of where the ball was for several minutes making suttle shifts in my stature to avoid being hit by the ball. I hit the ball in order to keep it moving and remained stable and aware of the location of the ball. I eventually thanked the ball for the lesson and jumped off the log.

One of my fellow class mates approached me to tell me that she was moved to tears as she watched me dance with the ball. This was another amazing experience letting me know that the potential of the human sensory system is so much more powerful than we know or experience in our every day lif.

Tracker School Lessons

I am so grateful for my experiences with the Tracker School. I learned about myself things I had not had the opportunity to know. The classes created an environment to bring those aspects of myself out. I feel empowered by that knowledge of self. I feel confident that I can perform many of the skills I learned with skill and pass them on to others.

I feel disappointed in the dietary practices, inner staff relationships, commercialism of the school, and the loss of sacredness in the recreation of the ancient skills. The “Prophesies” were also a part of the teaching that we felt, in the end, may do more harm that good. It seems that spending time studying, feeling and imaging a negative future outcome is not the best use of energy. If we used the same amount of energy to create a better future image and act on the images we create, we could bring a whole lot of good to the earth and her people.

I feel we got out of the classes what we put into them, and that is a lot