Making Tracks

Last week, Talie climbed into my bed at 5:30 a.m. clutching a small spiral bound book that she found in my office. TRACK PACK: ANIMAL TRACKS IN FULL LIFE SIZE is filled with prints — track marks — of 38 animals, with all the drawings to scale.

In particular, the fold-out Grizzly paw print grabbed her attention: "Mom, are these bears in our life?" she asked. (Translation: Is there one lurking in my backyard?)

The book had little maps that mark the home regions of each species, so I was able to I set her straight on the Grizzly habitat. Then I pounced on the track book as our ticket for Saturday's walk.

I'm learning to avoid the word "walk" when I want the girls to come along for one, and the track book would help me do just that.

After studying the pages of TRACK PACK over breakfast, Caitlin, Ellie, and Talie eagerly marched off with our Lab Trapper and me. We had a ball scouting for tracks on a nearby dirt road. We found deer prints (which take on a different look when the deer who left them were running full tilt), wild turkey prints (big and spiky, almost star-like), and Trapper prints (very coyote-like, we decided).

Tracking became looking for mica and sparkly rocks before we eventually turned for home. The conversation was all about where else we could look for tracks, and what other creatures might leave them behind here in Maine. With Talie so gung-ho to find bear tracks, I'm sure glad we don't live in the Rockies.