Backtracking

[BlueTrain]

I live in Northern Virginia in a suburb of Washington, DC. For a place so close to the big city, there are a surprising number of thick backwoods, log houses and one lane bridges. Naturally there is a lot of wildlife, especially deer. In my nearby backwoods tract, I always see deer tracks, often the deer themselves and numerous other tracks. It is a low lying, muddy and overgrown area that helps to keep the more normal humans away, which is fine with me. In my last visit an hour ago, when I saw my own tracks on the way home, I started wondering about something.

You sometimes hear the expression, "backtrack" and I was wondering how many ever use the expression and what they mean by it. I have heard it used to mean nothing more than going back the way you came but also to a technique used to describe a form of disguising your direction of travel. I'd be interested in other people's thoughts on the subject.

Since I do see deer tracks a lot, I also inquired from a couple of enthusiastic deer hunters I know about what you can deduce from a deer's tracks and the answers were sometimes the weight of the deer but usually no more than how big his hoof is.

 

[Leigh Robinson]

You can deduce a lot more than that by reading a deer track!

 

[m.durston]

You can deduce a lot more than that by reading a deer track!

its like any tracks made by any animal you can deduce a lot from the gait of the animal ie how far apart the tracks are and what pattern they are in.
for example i was walking down the woods last weekend and saw the prints of a large german shepherd that a local takes for walks down there.
i saw from the initial patterns he was walking beside his owner but then the tracks suddenly lengthened and veered off into the bushes.
it doesnt take a genius to see the dog had spotted something in the undergrowth and gave chase!