In canoe-speak, tracking isn’t exactly what springs to mind if one is indeed making tracks.
Tracking implies waking upstream dragging the canoe behind. Dragging being the operative word. I am reduced to ping-ponging between river banks as the current is generally to strong to paddle against. I can make some progress stapled to the bank out of the stronger currents less than a boatlength from the bank. It is progress, but brutal work and painfully slow. When all else fails, we make tracks.
The bank in this photo is a trackers dream. Like all good dreams, they are rare and end too soon. I have added muck, mire, goo, glue, gumbo, and gunk to my descriptions river banks.
I recall the Inuit had more than 30 words for ‘snow’. First Nations living along the lower Fraser must have at least that many for mud.