There will certainly be areas where the trail disappears, but tracking isn’t necessarily about locating every individual footfall.

With an understanding of movement and behavior, one can make inferences about where the animal went to find and follow the next sign.

Even moving over rock or packed soil, sign is left. You may not be able to perceive it yourself, but to someone who spends hours a day reading and studying the ground over the span of years, those subtle differences are perceptible.

An animal will eventually reach a place to stop and rest, but with repeated interruption that rest won’t count for much.