The Heart of Tracking: Inner and Outer Practices of Nature Awareness

Originally published in recurring dispatches for a small town newspaper, this collection of essays by noted California naturalist Richard Vacha reads like a delighted field journal, full of insights into the mystic, sensory, and nearly-forgotten world of animal tracking. Through a series of outings, Vacha traverses the prismatic experience of tracking and brings it to our level. Practical investigations of signs and tracks draw close to the lives of all the animals in his landscape, including bobcats, badgers, skunks, coyotes, and one particular vulture. With spontaneous energy, Vacha's essays reveal the practice of asking sacred questions, and the process of stripping down to your senses in order to enter this primal awareness.

Literary Nonfiction. California Interest. Religion & Spirituality.

Richard Vacha is the founder of the Marin Tracking Club and the Point Reyes Tracking School. He has been practicing animal tracking for three decades and has a class III certification through the international CyberTracker Tracker Evaluation program. He maintains a cabinetmaking and woodworking business from his home in Point Reyes Station, CA. His most recent book of literary nonfiction is THE HEART OF TRACKING (Mount Vision Press, 2019).