Reflections on the Successful Completion of the Mountain Trackers Association Spring Class

This week, April 13through 17, The Mountain Trackers Association (MTA) conducted a training exercise at Montgomery Bell State Park in beautiful Burns, Tennessee.  The weather was perfect and the wilderness areas we trained in were good for our training purposes. We trained, ate great food, and fellowshipped with a verity of people from multiple states. We had three levels of students who participated.  Team six, comprised of 13 school-aged children of our instructors, were given instruction throughout the class.  Some of these younger folks can match stride sticks with anyone.  We also had an entry level Basic Forensic Visual Man Tracking course.  These students came to our class with various levels of experience with visual man tracking. They trained hard, learned a lot and left as trackers.  They were instructed in the different types of signs (changes in the surface area of the ground and things on it) and how to look for it (cutting for sign).  The investigation of this sign can lead to the location of the lost, hurt, distraught child or adult.  It can also help in finding dementia patients, criminal suspects and crime scene evidence acquisition. The next level training class started with a brief refresher and then were put through difficult scenarios. They topped off the training with a long track that covered approximately 1.5 miles of hard terrain.  They were rewarded with lessons in Bush Craft on Thursday. We made new friends and strengthened our bond with our old friends.  You should come and join us. Our Fall Class will be at Fall Creek Falls State Park in Spencer, Tennessee from September 7 through 11, 2025.

Thanks to our Sponsors: Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, and their staff. Middle Tennessee State University Forensic Institute, and their staff. West Virginia Department of Natural Resources. Montgomery Bell Park Manager Pat Wright and his staff.  a special thanks goes to our other State and Local Agencies that support us by allowing our instructors to attend and teach/train.

The Mountain Trackers Cadre strive to teach First Responder the lifesaving skill of Visual Man Tracking.  This training teaches the acquisition of information that could be used as evidence should the track indicate a crime.