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From November 15-19, 2025, we had the pleasure of hosting Senior Tracker Kersey Lawrence and Master Tracker Lee Gutteridge to help us hone our skills of finding fresh trails and following that spoor to the elk or deer in the tracks. Conditions were particularly tough this year, with dry soil and leaves and no snow cover during our program dates. However, the twelve participants jumped right in during these days in the Wisconsin North Woods: finding the partial skeleton of an elk, distinguishing elk from deer tracks in leaf litter and sandy substrates, pushing the limits of their abilities to age tracks in frozen sand roads, and watching 41 elk gallop, bound, and pronk past us.
We are particularly grateful to Josh Spiegel and Jamie Goethlich of the Wisconsin DNR for all their support since 2021: sharing their knowledge of the local herd, helping us locate the best sites to find fresh elk sign, and meeting with us to share updates on their research on the Clam Lake elk herd.
Seven participants chose to be evaluated, and every single one received a level in trailing. Please join me in extending a hearty congratulations to our local Trackers!
Allison Van Dyk: Tracker I
Collin Arnett: Tracker II
Robert Daun: Tracker II
Bill Kass: Tracker II
Greg Schayes: Tracker II
Erica Schroyer: Tracker II
Maria Wesserle: Tracker III
If you'd like to receive news of future trailing program opportunities, please join our mailing list.
In the meantime, we encourage you to join us at the next monthly Trailing Practice, hosted by Kirsten Welge.
Details for our January 2026 Trailing Practice are here.
Sometimes, you see the animal! Elk cows and calves returning to their usual feeding and bedding grounds eye us in the dusk.
That's an elk track?? Hoofprint in aspen and birch leaf litter.
Kersey Lawrence and Bill Kass discuss the approach to the next section of trail.
See the flagging? The lighter underside of those upturned leaves is a visible clue that we're still on this fresh elk trail.
Elk hair left behind on a rubbed tree.
Elk hoofprint and size 41 boot print in sphagnum moss bog.
Clear disturbance through a sphagnum bog show where a herd of elk paraded through.
Classic elk scat form with scale.
Kersey Lawrence and Maria Wesserle showing a fresh elk trail.
Elk have undercoats, too. In brushing by this broken twig, this elk left a small fuzzy sign of its passage.
Jonathan Poppele and Kersey Lawrence look down an elk trail -- the ruffled line of disturbed dry leaves.
A beautiful, messy elk bed in tall grass.
(Ruler for scale in upper middle section of bed.)
Sharing snacks at the back during a short workshop break.
(From Left: Maria Wesserle, Allison Van Dyk, Nicholas WazeeGale, Erica Schroyer.)
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