Many Trails To Travel, Many Tales To Tell
By Barbara B. Baker, Event & Volunteer Coordinator
Tracking Time
One of the prettiest trails in the San Dieguito River Park is the Highland Valley Trail, located just south of Lake Hodges in northern Rancho Bernardo. The elevated trail is on a wooded hillside offering sweeping views of East Lake Hodges and the beautiful San Pasqual Valley; a portion of it is dedicated to the late Ruth Merrill, a San Dieguito River Valley Land Conservancy volunteer and long-time advocate of preserved open space. Designated as the Ruth Merrill Children’s Interpretive Walk, this two-mile round trip section of the trail offers Discovery Points – numbered posts with corresponding numbers in the guidebook, located at the trailhead. These Points describe how the river benefits and influences the environment. The longer, four-mile round trip Highland Valley Trail offers walkers and joggers a chance to exercise or simply escape along a path of scenic natural habitats. (Horses are okay on the Highland Valley Trail, but bikes are not allowed.)
When the San Diego Tracking Team agreed to a session on tracking and basic awareness for San Dieguito River Park hikers and volunteers, they determined the Highland Valley Trail would be most suitable. Not a loop trail, we could easily go in and come back out along the same path – tracing both our steps and the animals’ tracks over a short period of time. I have to admit that I thought we would only find the paw prints of dogs! This is a postcard-perfect trail after all, overlooking a Christmas tree farm and running through shady areas that include a little bridge over a creek and sun-dappled meadows. What could be out here other than dogs, on leashes of course, and shoes that we could track by the tread as Nike Air or Adidas? I thought the exciting art of tracking was best done in exciting out of the way places. I was sure that this was going to be disappointing.
San Diego Tracking Team members Doug Schanzenbach, Bryan Webber, and Karen Larsen-Gordon greeted us in the small seating area at the staging site. They explained that before we got out on the trail to begin tracking we would need some basic information. This included how to move in nature in order to discover patterns of awareness within common San Diego habitats, and the techniques for recognizing associated flora and fauna. It sounded technical, but as it turned out, it was very low-tech. In nature there is no yesterday or tomorrow, only now. “Be quiet, and don’t let anything distract you from the Now”; there’s a life lesson in here, I’m sure. I only noticed how much noise surrounds us when it was pointed out – traffic, airplanes, machinery – most of us are probably inured to many of the sounds of daily life. We had to be so quiet that I almost felt like we were going fishing instead of tracking!
The last exercise we were shown before hitting the trail was how to keep a journal and record signs, patterns, and tracks. For such an exciting field of study this was beginning to seem like a lot of detailed and mundane work, particularly when they talked about collecting scat. We didn’t have to do this, but the trackers taught us how useful the knowledge would be when we came upon droppings on or nearby the trail. Observing what was in the digestive tract of an animal is a sure way of determining whether the animal is domestic or wild; for instance, stools peppered with “Kibbles N’ Bits” is an indication of a pampered pet. Observation skills are essential, they stressed. How many of us see without actually observing? We weren’t just fixing our eyes on the trail. There were peripheral things to learn about tracking. I was beginning to see that tracking takes time, which means patience. Tracking is as much a science as it is an art.
We were given pictures of animal tracks to aid us in studying and describing the gait, footfall, size, and shape of a track. We discovered how to spot a wood rat’s nest and the type of vegetation most suited to certain species. We spotted beehives in two trees and saw poison oak growing off trail. When we came across the bank around the stream it looked like a seafood buffet at closing time! While we couldn’t find any of their tracks we learned how raccoons love crayfish and the way in which they forage for them and eat them, leaving behind a mess! We tracked rabbits and squirrels and dogs. I’ve seen deer in the area but we didn’t see their tracks that day. We saw a lot of lizards, but their tracks are almost impossible to pick up; they’re so light and quick. I was most surprised by the snakes that had crossed the path both coming and going! Their tracks look like a crooked stick and the bend in the pattern lets you know which direction they’re moving.
By the time the session ended I had to confess that there is no such thing as exciting out of the way places. Excitement is everywhere! This pretty little trail in our own backyard is full of life. The next time I go out there to escape my routine I’ll think about what’s around me in this natural world and know that I am never really alone.
Join me on Saturday, September 10 th, for a hike down the Ruth Merrill Children’s Interpretive Walk. Learn about the plants and animals that share our environment and how the river influences the land. This is a great opportunity for upcoming school projects! Discovery Points booklets will be given to participants. We will be taking the 0.75 mile one way option and equi-distant return.
If you are interested in wildlife tracking and would like to learn more, please contact the San Diego Tracking Team at www.sdtt.org for more information. They offer monthly trainings and tracking walks.
