Tracker School
When I was a little kid, I found a book at the library called Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Wilderness Survival. I saved up to get my own copy, and I read that thing into tatters.
My obsession with wilderness survival was probably rooted in a fantasy fiction series called Lone Wolf, which I had been reading during the same time period. These books were like those Choose Your Own Adventure books, but better. The main character was something like a cross between a Shaolin monk and Conan. I liked to make-believe I was that guy.
On numerous camping and fishing trips, I would alternate between studying my wilderness field guide and pretending I was a forest warrior hell-bent on revenge for the murder of everyone in my monastery. This juxtaposition of practical skills and fantasy role-play was perfect for a little kid like me. I put a great deal of time into practicing a bow drill fire, setting wild animal snares, and practicing my wicked bo staff skills.
Sadly, I never was very good at that stuff. My snares never snared anything, and my bow drill fire never caught. (I still believe I was a born natural at the bo staff, however.) I wanted desperately to be around other people who could teach me wilderness skills. But I was on my own.
The back of Tom Brown’s books advertised his wilderness survival and tracking school. I wanted to go so badly I could hardly stand it. Alas, it was held in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, clear across the country. The fee alone was beyond my family’s means. And, I was just a little kid, so they probably wouldn’t let me take the course anyway. I pined away for this school for a few years, and then all but forgot about it until I was in my thirties.
I’m quite fond of the author Neil Strauss. In 2009 he wrote a book called Emergency, chronicling his time spent learning to be a survivalist. Part of that time was spent at… wait for it… Tom Brown’s Tracker School! I eagerly read about his experiences there, and felt all the emotions of being eight years old rushing through me again. I suddenly realized I not only could afford to attend the school, it was actually located close to where I was living. Woo!
Keep in mind that a lot had happened between being eight years old and 34 years old. Part of that included joining the Army, and then Special Operations as an Airborne Ranger. That meant putting in a lot of “dirt time,” but it never included in-depth training on how to track animals or survive in the wilderness sans equipment. (I’m long since out of the Army now.) I was shocked to learn later that Special Ops teams routinely send operators to train in small groups with Tom Brown, to learn exactly those sorts of things. Evidently he’s been doing this for decades now, as far back as 1964. I wish I had known this when I was in, I would have fought like hell to attend as a part of my team’s training.
At long last, just this past year, I found myself on a bus headed for the New Jersey Pine Barrens. I was conscious that my expectations were unrealistically high for the course. At the end of the week, I realized my expectations had been exceeded! I could write a book on the things I learned at the Tracker School, but of course there is already a good one. Here are the summary notes I wrote down during the final hours of the class:
Huge amount of information… about 14 hours of instruction each day. Emphasis is on quality of lecture, not “roughing it” or individual experimentation. There are several hands-on workshop opportunities (e.g., bow-drill.) Instructors are demonstrable experts, enthusiastic, patient, and have a clear desire to present information effectively. There were four instructors. There are also a handful of volunteers, who seem similarly engaged. They help with cooking, various class prep tasks, chore coordination, and some limited instruction. Finally, there are caretakers who live on site, primitively. Instructors seem to have progressed through these roles. Some instructors still live on site. There is an explicit sentiment of “non-denomination”… it isn’t a Native American curriculum, it is teaching skills for “living” (primitively) not “survival”.
Instruction has a clear feeling of practicality. Lessons go into sufficient detail for a perceptual change in understanding. It’s clear that TBJ [Tom Brown, Jr.] hand-picks instructors very carefully. TBJ very rarely misses a class… usually personally gives the Intro to Tracking. If TBJ’s motivations are to preserve primitive skills, he’s already been wildly successful: tens of thousands of people from diverse background have been to the standard class, and it’s enough instruction to be practically useful for broad application in primitive situations. It’s likely that his motivations go beyond this, however. The most interesting aspect of the Tracker School is the diversity of its people, both students and staff.
Oh, and I finally got that bow drill fire going!
There were moments when I was a bit critical, or at least wary, of what I experienced there. During the course I caught a whiff—not anything overpowering or obnoxious, mind you—but just a whiff, that this school has the potential to be a full-fledged eco-doomsday cult, complete with its own spiritual belief system and unwaveringly loyal acolytes. Tom Brown’s boyhood teacher and surrogate grandfather spoke of terrible visions of the future. These prophesies correspond with cataclysmic events of environmental decline, and Tom believes them to be literal prophesies. He writes about these in his book The Quest, and speaks very passionately about this during the course. This belief is clearly the foundational reason for his ongoing work.
Anything that starts feeling even a little bit like a cult sets off my warning radar like crazy. Regardless, if the fabled shit does indeed hit the fan, there are definitely worse people to be friendly with. They will have nice warm fires going and plenty of food available. But personally, I won’t be obsessing much about the apocalypse. I’ll stick to learning the skills, treating the school and its instructors with much-earned respect, and, just in case, I’ll keep my skepticism up in case somebody pressures me to donate my life savings to the end-of-the-world-prevention fund.
I’m heading back to the Tracker School this year for a second helping. The “Standard Course” (which is what I’ve described above) is only the beginning of a very broad offering. I’m looking forward to the “Advanced Standard”, where (I believe) I’ll have the experience to put the things I have learned to practical use, as well as learning new skills. Lone Wolf, eat your heart out.
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