I help teach a hunter education/safety course along with a half dozen or so other instructors. Last night's segment was on survival aspects. Along with many things that have been mentioned here, such as leaving a note as to where you are going, calling at specific times, etc., one of the instructors mentioned this. Before leaving your house, take a large piece of heavy duty aluminum foil, put it on your carpet and step on it with the boots that you will be hunting/hiking with. Leave the impression at home with your note, or in your vehicle. That way if you get lost and searchers try to track you, they can differentiate your footprints. I thought that was pretty ingenious.

I have heard of this before, but have never known anyone that actually did this on a regular basis. I personally usually send an email to a friend with a description of where I am going, what I am wearing and a PDF file of the map from TopoUSA with my expected route drawn out. I print this all out and leave it in plain view on my front seat of my truck. The foil foot print might be a good addition.

I've heard this reccommended before for solo hikers. Having been involved in S & R and trained for mantracking, rescue only, I can see where this would be very beneficial if that imprint was available to searchers. Leaving a note, e-mail, or map of a potential location along with carrying an EPIRB should give the rescuers a distinct advantage if the individual is lost or injuried.

I have heard of it for years, but have always wondered how many SAR folks have the tracking ability to pick "your" print out of all the others on a lot of trails. (Using Vibram as an example, there are a jillion Vibram track on just about every trail I have seen in the last thirty or so years)

If one is going to do this, I would suggest cutting a notch out of one part of your boot soles, that would make "your" print different than all the others out there...

Remember it being strongly recommended in Cody Lundin's book, for solo or group's. Make a boot print in the foil, mark your name with a marker, and leave it on your dash.

I don't know jack about tracking, but in a heavily traveled area, it might give the SAR team an edge.


M

Interesting test. I only missed one on the first level, and I am not a tracker. I passed the test on to a friend of mine who is on a CA Sheriff's SAR team...

Nice way to let thieves know that you won't be beack to your vehicle for a couple of days. You might come back to smashed glass and a missing stereo.

Is it enought to leave your plans with a trusted friend only, or is the vehicle thing a good idea?

You might be able to differentiate between different sets of tracks with similar soles using a tracking stick to measure the strides, but we didn't have very good luck with this during training in the snow.

Personally I feel that leaving a scent article would be far more useful than a foot print. The dogs always beat us when following a track.

Putting the information into the car could be a good idea. If you put it in the vehicle it might be good to put it where it can be found easily. That does not mean that the information should be clearly visible. I´d put it in an envelope and maybe into the glovebox.

I wonder if a boot make and model would be as useful, as long as you don't get the sole changed.