How To Walk Silently In The Woods

You can tell a lot about a person by how they walk. From their personality & emotional state, to how mindful or aware they are of the surrounding environment.

So what does it say when you can’t walk in the woods without causing a huge disturbance of noise & frightened wildlife?

Most people never learned how to walk silently in the woods, but this is a basic naturalist skill that has very tangible effects on your personality, emotions & overall level of mindfulness.

It’s also one of the best ways to deepen your relationship with nature.

As you practice techniques for walking softly outside, you’ll find yourself feeling more peaceful & internally quiet, while externally your senses become very sharp, leading to amazing encounters with plants, wildlife, and moments of awe/beauty in nature.

Whether you want to be a ninja, or see more wildlife, or simply have a more peace-inspired & mindful experience in the woods, silent wandering is one of the best ways to get there.

Moving quietly in the forest is one of the more difficult nature awareness skills to master, but it’s also one of the most rewarding because it really removes a lot of the barriers to exploring the deepest levels of connection with a landscape.

With the right techniques for practice, anyone can cultivate this skill to great success with even just a few days or weeks of honest effort.

Here are some great ways to practice.

#1 Slow Down

One of the most important tips I can give you is to simply practice slowing down.

Most people are used to walking on flat city landscapes and concrete sidewalks. In this environment, the norm is to commit your momentum without paying any attention to what you’re stepping on.

I’ve heard tales of city kids who never stepped foot off concrete, being physically unable to walk in a forest without losing balance because they were so conditioned to hard, flat surfaces.

Fast, inattentive walking works in the city because everything is flat, but if you use the same walking techniques in the forest, everybody is going to hear you coming.

A normal city walking pace is equivalent to running in the forest. It stands out against the background noise and has the feeling of fight or flight.

Animals are very sensitive to this.

So, if all you do is slow your walking pace by 50%, you will instantly notice dramatically different results.

• Practice slowing all your movements down by 50% and take a few steps.
• Notice how much quieter you are both externally & internally.
• Notice how much further you can hear & sense things happening nearby when you aren’t causing a wall of sound with your footfalls.
• Then practice slowing down another 50%.
• Repeat until each step is drawn out at least 30 seconds or longer.

Slowing down will have the natural effect of making you more aware of your body.

‘This exercise will make you quieter, and help you see more wildlife.

You can think of slowing down as both a technique you can use in the moment, and also a training exercise.

There may still be times when you want to move quickly and silently at the same time.

The more you practice walking silently at a slow pace, eventually you’ll find you can speed up again while still maintaining that silent movement.

There are even techniques for running while causing a lot less noise but I highly recommend you walk before you run 😉

#2 Use The Right Footwear

While it is possible under certain conditions to move quietly in the woods wearing big hiking boots, the best results will always come from having appropriate footwear.

The ideal method is simply to go barefoot.

If you’ve ever tried walking barefoot in the forest, then you probably noticed there’s an immediate instinct to slow down (to avoid hurting your feet).

This will immediately reduce your noise level by a huge amount.

Going barefoot enables your feet to conform most naturally to the forest floor. Your feet are designed to softly absorb the impact of any sticks or rocks that would normally snap while wearing shoes.

Most people have very underdeveloped sensing abilities with their feet simply because they’ve spent almost their entire life wearing shoes.

Think of your feet as like an entire sense organ all to themselves.

Imagine spending your entire life blindfolded… That’s what happens to feet when you constantly wear shoes or boots!

Your feet are your eyes for seeing the ground. They tell you when you’re about to snap a loud stick or tumble some rocks down a hill.

But isn’t walking barefoot painful?”

Yes, at first it can be, but it doesn’t have to be. And I highly recommend you take an approach that doesn’t involve pain!

Remember, human feet are in fact designed for walking bare all day long.

It’s just that you’re not used to it.

My recommendation is to go slow.

• Start by letting your feet breathe every opportunity you get.
• Practice walking barefoot on soft, comfortable surfaces like grass, mulch, or sandy beaches.
• Gradually increase the amount of barefoot time, and roughness of the surfaces you’re walking on.
• Start practicing in the forest, and give your feet lots of time to adjust. It can take months or even years of consistent effort to build up the strength of your soles.

Eventually your feet will be capable of comfortably walking on a every variety of surfaces, even running on cold gravel without discomfort.

Important: Please don’t hurt yourself or cause any wounds. Treat your feet with the same care & attention you give your eyes. Go slow and use the balancing techniques in tip #4 so you don’t impale your foot on a stick.

It’s normal to feel a bit of warmth & gentle throbbing or tingling on the soles of your feet after walking barefoot… But if you feel pain, you’re probably over-doing it. Be smart about this.

As you’re working up to being barefoot, there are whole variety of footwear that can serve as an intermediary.

You can use leather moccasins, water-shoes, or any thin/soft-padded shoe like Vibrams.

I even know people who simply wear socks (if you don’t mind ruining an old pair).

#3 Keep Your Eyes Up

One of the first things you’ll notice as soon as you start trying to walk silently in the forest is your eyes feel pulled down to stare at the ground in front of you.

This is a very natural urge because your brain thinks, “Hey, if I look at what I’m stepping on… I can avoid sticks, or noisy leaves, or painful objects.”

But, it’s important to resist this urge and train yourself to keep your eyes up.

Don’t stare at the ground! 

Staring at the ground gives a sense of fast results because you’re using your eyes to pick and choose the best spots to step for optimal quietness… but the losses are too great for this to be a good strategy.

When you stare at the ground, you miss the deer up ahead.

You miss the grouse & other birds that call out alarms and give away your location.

You’re so focused on what’s happening 3 feet ahead that you lack awareness of the big picture so you troupe into the middle of a noisy thicket rather than walk on the soft conifer needles around the edge.

If you ever need to look down, the best strategy is to stop first. Plant your feet so you feel balanced. Then look down. Then readjust your attention up and out before moving again.

Keeping your eyes up just takes practice.

• I recommend checking out my exercises on sensory awareness to get the basic peripheral vision skills.
• Then once you have some practice expanding your sight and hearing abilities while seated, you can move on to combining those skills with slow walking.

I first practiced this on a grassy lawn. It’s a very meditative experience, and if you’re really doing it properly and honestly using your feet to feel the ground, it’s TOUGH.

But it gets easier and you can eventually graduate to more challenging substrate.

#4 Train Your Balance

Something you might notice as you stop staring at your feet and practicing keeping your eyes up is that without your visual sense staring at your feet, you feel very uncoordinated.

Most people rely too heavily on their visual sense for keeping balance.

This is why it’s important to train your balance.

The more balance you have, the more flexibility of step & awareness you’ll have.

You should get to the point where you can feel a stick under your foot before transferring your weight, lift your foot back up and reposition so you don’t cause a big snap… all without looking down at your feet.

• Practice standing on one foot and see how long you can maintain that balance. Then try it with the other foot.
• Then move on to doing it with your eyes closed.
• Eventually practice keeping your weight grounded in at least 1 foot at all times.
• Slowly shift 100% of your weight onto your right foot. Then feel forward with your left and find your footing before transferring your weight and repeating.

I shared this exercise in more depth in my article about stalking animals.

#5 Pay Attention To What You’re Stepping On

But wait… I thought I wasn’t supposed to look at my feet! How can I pay attention to what I’m stepping on without looking at my feet?”

I already alluded to this when we talked about keeping your senses up.

Here, I’m not talking about the sticks or rocks immediately in front or below you… I’m talking about the big picture of the forest type you’re exploring.

A big part of being able to walk silently in the woods starts with having a strategic understanding of the landscape.

For example: If you’re trying to get from point A to point B without making any noise… is it better to walk through crusty deciduous leaves? Or take a route through the pines?

The pines are a much better route simply because the substrate is naturally easier to walk silently on.

This just comes from your own knowledge of the forest, what kinds of plants and surface conditions to expect in different landscape types, and keeping your awareness up to see what’s coming ahead.

Each step you make is a decision point. The full implications of where you choose to step might not fully manifest for another 50-100 feet ahead of you.

If you’re not paying attention you might find yourself in a tough navigation spot that could easily be avoided by being more conscious of the forest around you.

It just comes from practice. Eventually, you’ll get to know how your movement requires different speeds & levels of difficulty depending on what kind of surface you’re walking on.

#6 Stop Scaring Birds!

Birds are such great teachers of awareness because they are a living, breathing, sensing part of the forest watching your every move.

You could master all the above skills for moving quietly in the woods, only to scare a grouse out of the thicket, and suddenly the whole forest knows you’re there.

The same is true for most songbirds that spend any amount of time on the ground. They all have alarm calls that can betray your location in the blink of an eye.

If you pay attention, you can learn to spot the signs of birds up ahead by watching, listening & getting to know the birds in a more personal way.

You’ll get to know which birds are disturbed by your presence (like robins, doves, grouse, sparrows & juncos) and which birds don’t seem to mind having you around (like chickadees).

When you spot a bird up ahead, you can either wait for it to move on and let you pass (usually this only takes a few minutes), or if you’re more advanced, you can gently communicate with body language your intentions to pass.

As long as you don’t violate the bird’s comfort zone, birds will respond to your body movements, eye contact, overall energy… and circle around you. This is an advanced ninja skill.

I do a whole lesson about birds & stealth in my online bird language course. It’s well worth studying this skill if you really want to master the art of moving silently in the forest.

If you’d like to learn more about bird language, I have a short series of videos that will introduce you to some core concepts in the Bird Language Adventure series.

#7 Use Wind & Sound For Camouflage

Here’s another key thing to notice…

Sometimes you don’t need to be completely silent in order to pass like a shadow in the landscape.

There are times when it’s actually quite easy to blend in with the overall noise level.

Pay attention to sounds like wind, rain, or flowing water, even noisy bird sounds.

You can use these sounds to very effectively mask your own noise.

It’s a good idea to adopt a movement strategy like a cat.

Cats take a few steps then pause, look, listen before taking a few more steps. This helps to ensure you’re balancing movement with open sensory awareness.

It also enables you to take advantage of sound shadows like blowing gusts of wind, or momentary outbursts from territorial birds.

• Practice being still when the forest is quiet
• Then match the timing and speed of your movements to the background ebb and flow of the noise level.
• You’ll be able to cover distance with the wind, while still being very tuned in and very quiet.

#8 Practice Blindfolding Yourself

The last thing I’ll mention is a super helpful training exercise for all the above skills.

I would encourage you to practice blindfolding yourself… or even to go out at night sometime.

This can be a really great way to test your skills, and push the limits of your combined awareness + stealthy walking abilities.

Blindfolding completely removes the element of sight. You’ll really come to understand your true level of balance & walking mastery (or lack thereof) by blindfolding.

Rest assured it is absolutely possible to walk silently and even navigate long distances through the forest completely without your sense of sight.

Then when you eventually bring your eyes back, it’s like having a whole new sensitivity that you didn’t realize was possible.

Always practice blindfolding with the help of a “spotter”, or possibly in a place that you know very well with your eyes open.

With all of this, the best results come from long-term practices. I encourage you apply these techniques over and over again in order to gain gradual improvements.

If you just do anything just once, the effect will be less… But each time you practice, you will see progress!

The best thing is to integrate silence & mindful walking with your everyday nature awareness routines.

You should be used to hearing me say this by now 😉

Start with adopting a sit spot and practice these movement methods every-time you walk to your spot. 

• What are your favorite strategies for walking silently in the woods?
• What techniques are you excited to practice?