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SEARCH  AND  RESCUE  - Having been an EMT for a short time and a fire radio operator, Karen Evans Odell has always been interested in wilderness survival. Being an animal lover, she also wished to find some interest for her dogs. She and Gwylm studied water rescue where the dog smells the water from the bow of a boat. They have practiced cadaver tracking with human teeth. They did warehouse training and learned about indoor fans and sweeping of the air indoors. They learned night tracking with a dog flasher and flashlight. Gwylm and Minnie have enjoyed finding many kids and people in practice and real searches. Karen has also learned tracking without the dogs. This mantracking can also be done at night and she has spent many hours finding tracks with flashlight, beneath snowfall, and across rocks. It has
                                                                                                                        been an adventure that she has also depicted in her novel,  
Joel Hardin Trackers Training at Lusk, Wyoming                            'Search For Rescue".
Joel Hardin Professional Trackers and Rocky Mountain Trackers at Bowman, ND 2017

Joel Hardin Professional Trackers


​Karen Evans Odell has studied mantracking for many years under Joel Hardin. Mantracking teams (without the use of a dog), follow the evidence left by the passing of a human. This step by step tracking follows the actions, direction and even the thought processes of the lost person. 

Rocky Mountain Trackers



​​For many years Karen Evans Odell has been a member of Rocky Mountain Trackers. This dedicated group of people are trained mantrackers from many and distant areas of the Rocky Mountain states. They are dedicated to search and rescue and finding lost or injured people in those states. This kind of tracking is not restricted to wilderness tracking, though many times that is their venue.

Air Scent Search and Rescue

When Karen Evans Odell began working with her Scotch Collie, she soon learned that collies see no reason to keep their noses to the ground when the air has the scent they are searching.  Collies see no reason to follow a long turning trail when they can cut across directly to the object of their search in a straight line. Karen soon understood that air scent training made more sense to a Collie. Her Husky also likes air scent training. Gwylm has been trained in water rescue, cadaver, wilderness and warehouse searching.