Free veteran resource guide

Reading Ground: A Field Guide to Visual Tracking & the Follow-Up

A disciplined, repeatable method for staying on a trail while it degrades, reading what the ground says about the people who made it, and closing the gap before the sign is gone — written for Kansas terrain, no equipment beyond a notebook, a compass and light.

Free · 10 pages · instant download, no email required

Download the Guide — Free

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Who This Is For

Hunters, search-and-rescue volunteers, landowners, and anyone who spends time reading sign outdoors. No prior tracking experience is assumed — the guide starts with the six questions to answer before you take the first step and builds a fixed, repeatable sequence from there.

What's Inside

  • The six questions to answer before the first step
  • The "first four": confirming sign, counting the group, coding footwear, fixing direction
  • How to count a group without guessing, using the pace-box method
  • Moving as a team — pace, reporting, and reading the group's condition
  • How to age sign: reading edges, what's landed in a print, and moisture
  • The anchor-and-sweep drill for when you lose the trail
  • Ground-reading notes specific to Kansas terrain — tallgrass, limestone, creek draws
  • A full worked example, run start to finish
  • A cut-and-fold pocket reference card for the field

The Follow-Up Mindset

  • Start fast — the gap only grows while you stand still
  • Stay certain — speed of certainty, never speed of haste
  • Keep everyone informed — report every major change of direction
  • Never lose the sign — everything else is recoverable, this isn't
  • Never assume you are alone — read the end of the trail, not just the trail
Instant PDF download — no shipping, no signup. Veteran-owned and built by Veteran's Strategic Solutions, LLC. For lawful use only — searching for a lost hiker or child with the people who own that responsibility, following game, understanding your own property, or teaching the skill. Know whose land you're on and what your standing is before you take the first step.
Download the Guide — Free Questions first? Call or text 785-579-9071.