SWTI Weekend Classes
Can Be Taken Singly or All Together
Dig deep into animal behavior—Our weekend classes are designed to be stand-alone courses. Each one is a field-based tracking weekend—we might spend our morning interpreting a mountain lion kill site, looking at harvest mouse tracks by the wash, or discovering a quail roost up an oak-filled canyon. Our goal is to sharpen our observation skills, then identify and interpret the animal sign on the landscape, and we'll go wherever our curiosity takes us.
Never the same tracks twice—Because each class is a singular field experience, no two weekends will be the same. We'll be at different locations, and we never encounter the same stories on the landscape twice. So if you're hungering for more tracking skills, but don't have the time to commit to the 5-month Intensive, consider taking two or three of the weekend classes!
Something for everyone—Whether you're just starting out in your tracking journey, or you're a seasoned veteran of CyberTracker certifications, there's something for you in these weekends. Every story we encounter on the landscape presents a myriad of potential questions we can ask and answer, and these can be tailored to your skill level.
Topics may include:
- Observation Skills: How to eliminate the visual “noise” around track and sign, and hone your sensory skills.
- Foot Morphology: The shape of an animal's foot dictates the way its tracks look. We'll spend time understanding how animal feet are structured, and how this relates to their behavior, evolutionary history, and the tracks we see on the ground.
- Animal Life Histories: Learning the life histories of the animals we track deepens our understanding of their behavior, creates a more fulfilling relationship with them, and gives us insight into how they use the landscape.
- Animal Gaits and Movement: Animals all have different body plans, and they move in different ways. Understanding their gaits, and the tracks they leave behind, helps us identify to species, and also creates a framework for understanding behavior—a key component of reading their stories!
- Clear (and Not So Clear) Track ID: After observation skills, track ID is perhaps the most important part of your tracking toolkit. We'll learn how to identify clear tracks, and then work backwards from there, until we understand how to identify partial and obscure tracks referencing our clear track knowledge.
- Reading Alarm Calls to Interpret the Landscape: Bird and mammal alarms can tell us about the presence of predators, about how animals react to human presence, and allow us to interpret behavior and mindset.
2026 Weekend Class Dates
For 2026, we are offering three Immersive Weekend classes, in locations around the greater Southwest. Choose from the low deserts of San Diego County CA, the peninsular mountain range just east of San Diego, or the Los Padres National Forest northeast of Los Angeles.
Weekend Class 1: March 6-8, 2026
Anza Borrego Desert—Southeast California
The Anza Borrego desert in San Diego County, CA, is over a million acres of desert wilderness—a tracker's paradise! Terrain varies from low sandy creosote flats, to rocky mountain canyons, and everything in between. This desert is truly wild, and we'll have the opportunity to get out into some extraordinary places with a ton of wildlife.
We'll spend our entire weekend out in the desert, observing and interpreting animal track and sign. There's plenty of free BLM camping, as well as a nice, shady campground with showers and bathrooms. The town of Borrego Springs is roughly 30 minutes away.
By the end of this weekend, you'll have some serious dirt time under your belt, and a host of new skills and knowledge to show for it.
Weekend Class 2: April 10-12, 2026
Julian, CA—Mountains and Foothills of San Diego County
The peninsular mountain range that separates San Diego on the coast, from the low deserts to the east, is a diverse and fascinating place. We'll explore creeks, canyons, pine forests, lakes, and mountains, and get to know the montane environments that buffer the arid lowlands from the coast. With huge tracts of preserved land, the tracking here is excellent, and we'll have many good field locations to choose from.
This weekend will be fully field-based! Come prepared to spend long, satisfying days out in wild places, sharpening your senses. There's free camping near our field locations, and several mountain towns with amenities a short drive away.
After completing this weekend, you will have had the opportunity to apply a host of new observation skills, and will come away with deep knowledge of this mountain ecosystem and the animals that call it home.
Weekend Class 3: May 1-3, 2026
Ventura County, CA—Cuyama Valley
The Cuyama Valley, at the south end of the Los Padres National Forest, lies just north of LA—but it's a wild, hidden gem, full of animal life. We'll explore the canyons, perennial creeks, and grasslands, and come away with the stories of the land and its inhabitants.
We'll spend our days in diverse and wild terrain—chilly weather is possible at this altitude during May, so be prepared. We'll make the Reyes Creek campground our home base, but the town of Taft, with hotels and amenities, is less than an hour away.
This weekend will hone your tracking skills! Like always, we'll have plenty of field time, and deep connection to our locations and the animals who inhabit them.
Sample Weekend Class Itinerary
Curious what a typical SWTI weekend class looks like? Here's a sample itinerary to get a feel for how we spend our time.
Friday activities are optional, as some people may not be able arrive until later in the evening due.
3:00pm Arrive and set up camp.
4:00pm Optional tracking show and tell—bring your track casts, photos, cool stuff you found in the field, and mysteries you've found. We'll have a chance to share our experiences and learn something in the process. Instructors will provide show and tell if nobody else does, so there will always be something to do.
6:00pm Optional group dinner at the social campsite
Saturday is our long day in the field. Expect this day to be tiring, satisfying, and full of awesome animal track and sign.
8:30am Meet at our field location, usually a short drive from where we've camped. We may head directly out into the field, or we may spend some time by the trailhead—there's usually a lot of interesting animal sign at the beginning of a trail or forest service road! We'll spend the next several hours finding stories on the land, talking about what we've found, reviewing our learning objectives from previous weekends, or perhaps journaling tracks.
12:00pm Lunch in the field. We'll find a comfortable spot, with some shade, relax for a bit, and eat.
12:45pm Keep tracking! If our first field location is productive, we'll continue exploring there. If not, we'll head somewhere else close by and continue with our day's lesson.
5:00pm Head back to camp. Clean up and get some dinner started.
6:00pm Optional group dinner and social time around the campfire. How the evening goes will depend on the group atmosphere—some students are very social, while others prefer to grab some down time in the evenings.
Sunday is shorter, and we'll end our day mid-afternoon.
8:30am Meet at our field location. Usually we'll visit a different site, unless our previous day's location was highly productive, and still had a lot left to explore.
11:30am Lunch in the field
2:00pm Review, wrap-up, and go over optional homework for our next weekend together.
3:00pm Class concludes