About The Heart of Tracking:

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 a 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.

The Heart of Tracking comes to life with illustrations by artist Kayta Plescia.

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 business.