I think tracking is a valuable survival skill Bob...and I think it has nothing to do with TEOTWAKI. I don't see how dwestes post gave you that impression.

Always possible.

Then again: it is fun, animals routinely visit food and water sources that may not be obvious to someone not familar with an area, setting snares or hunting can be more successful if you know where the critters wander by everyday or can find their night resting places, you might want to locate someone who is not "found"or lost a piece of gear somewhere "back there", you might need to backtrack yourself if you are suddenly not "found" or lost a piece of gear somewhere "back there", and you cannot track well without practice. But that's just off the top of my head.

Second thoughts:

Tracking is far more than just looking at the ground. It is developing a heightened awareness of the evidence of "what happened here" all around us.

I am still a babe in the woods, but already I can sit and begin to figure out the "track" of: birds in the air (they are creatures of routine so they fly the same routes over and over), past avalanches, geological events like earthquakes and glacier passage, high water of lakes and rivers, and animals who left hair, nibble marks, scrapes and clawmarks on trees, brush, and plants etc.

It may seem a bit crazy, but it is all there like a book for us to read. And I spent most of my life just not looking.

So if a piece of gear can make tracking easier and faster, then I am interested.

You are already tracking everyday anyway.

You can tell by the way the table is set who did it, who drove the car last by the seat adjustment and the radio station that comes on, who used the toilet last by whether the seat is up or down, who was in the refrigerator by what package is left open and what container is closest to the outside, whether someone is upset by how the car is parked, and a thousand other clues that tell you "what happened here."

Tracking outdoor is just more of the same, but the "tracks" just happen to be different.

in my experience, color rendition is the opposite, Do NOT use red when looking for red stuff, etc. I used a red LED on a map one night in the car, couldn't see the road's for sh*t. Even the blue lines of waterways were tough to find, but at least readable. Anything with red ink was gone.

Jennifer on eastbaytrackers Yahoo Group mentioned success at using ultaviolet light to highlight urine.

As I understand it, and will soon be testing, that is the idea: wash out the background color so the shadows of tracks stand out. Use yellow on sand and the sand "disappears", for example.

So now all I need to find is an LED multi-color and UV combo keychain-sized, solar-rechargeable, waterproof light.

Anybody already got one?

My 10 color LED flashlight doesn't have UV but I carry a UV Photon on a key ring attached to the same light. It won't throw much light but it's handy for things like that. It will also light up some spiders and scorpions which could be handy before you go poking and proding in some matted grass 6 inches from your face.

I should also note that I'm Red/Green color blind so the application of color likely won't work the same for me as it does a person with normal vision. This is something I'm still trying to figure out and why I got a light with so many colors...what works for me might differ from accepted standards.

All that and keychain sized! LOL! That's a tall order. Besides the Gerber Carnivore, there's also the Gerber Recon. Has white LED and red, blue, and green filters. Runs off 1xAA, which you could charge with a solar charger. Water resistant. No UV, though. Cheaper than the Carnivore. Definitely not bright, but I'm assuming that you don't necessarily want bright when you're tracking something at night.

You could add UV capability by getting something like an Inova X1 or X5. The X1 is also a 1xAA light.