When Does a Thru Hike Become a Slave to the Trail Journals

[Praha4]

A question for other long distance hikers who have kept Trail Journals ...

a. Did you ever begin to feel pressured on your hike.... to do a Trail Journal (or other Trail Journal-like social media) ?

b. If yes, why were you feeling that pressure?
(1) Family and friends requesting updates
(2) Your online "fans" posting comments
(3) Putting pressure on yourself to maintain an "interesting" or "entertaining" Trail Journal, with lots of pics

I'm curious, because I've met many hikers on the AT who talk about feeling pressured to entertain their TJ or Facebook "fans" or "friends", to post interesting TJ or FB entries, and pressure to hike higher miles each day, as if the hike is a race, and the hiker feels a need to impress others on how many miles they are cranking out. Then I've seen this on some journals post-hike, where numerous TJ entries give the impression the hiker was doing the hike for the Journal and misses the daily diary entries and fan following. Not knocking these folks, cuz many of these Journals are filled with helpful info to fellow hikers.

I'm wondering if other hikers have felt this, or encountered this, and their reaction. I have decided to not do any Trail Journals for next year's AT hike, too much work & hassle, and I want to experience the hike absent any social media.

[Starchild]

I never felt pressured to do it, but felt like I should, even typing while hiking (is that illegal yet?). But had to send a message or 2 in response to we haven't heard from you in a while, were you eaten by a bear.

[Dogwood]

When we get comfortable with who we individually are expressing ourselves there's less need to feel we must entertain someone else unless we're in show biz. Too many people want to live vicariously through someone else's life because they are not comfortable with their own.

I aim to inspire and be inspired - to let others find comfort in their own lives and find greater comfort in my own.

[ScottTrip]

I did it the old fashioned way, I kept a notebook journal using paper and pen. I did write just about everyday, then would update a Facebook page when in town.

[Coffee]

I have written a non hiking blog/website in the past and know how all consuming it can be. When I got back into hiking after many years in an office, I started a hiking blog but quickly felt the pressure to write (even though I gad hardly any readers) so I stopped. I now keep an old fashioned notebook for a trail journal that I write only for myself.

[Lone Wolf]

A question for other long distance hikers who have kept Trail Journals ...

a. Did you ever begin to feel pressured on your hike.... to do a Trail Journal (or other Trail Journal-like social media) ?

b. If yes, why were you feeling that pressure?
(1) Family and friends requesting updates
(2) Your online "fans" posting comments
(3) Putting pressure on yourself to maintain an "interesting" or "entertaining" Trail Journal, with lots of pics

I'm curious, because I've met many hikers on the AT who talk about feeling pressured to entertain their TJ or Facebook "fans" or "friends", to post interesting TJ or FB entries, and pressure to hike higher miles each day, as if the hike is a race, and the hiker feels a need to impress others on how many miles they are cranking out. Then I've seen this on some journals post-hike, where numerous TJ entries give the impression the hiker was doing the hike for the Journal and misses the daily diary entries and fan following. Not knocking these folks, cuz many of these Journals are filled with helpful info to fellow hikers.

I'm wondering if other hikers have felt this, or encountered this, and their reaction. I have decided to not do any Trail Journals for next year's AT hike, too much work & hassle, and I want to experience the hike absent any social media.

on my first hike in 86 i tried to keep a written journal. lasted 5 days. too much of a chore.

[Slo-go'en]

I gave up on keeping a Trail Journal. Never had anything profound to say and no one cared about the drivel I did write. But if your a good writer and can make a mundane and boring day sound interesting, that as they say "is a different story".

[Malto]

This will be a good place for my 2000th post.

Keeping a daily journal is a big commitment while being on trail especially if you hike long days. 2011 was a huge snow year on the PCt and coming out the Sierra I found myself near the front of the pack. Since I kept a daily journal I had quite a few hikers and families of hikers using my journal as a beta for trail conditions. This added a bit of a slave component because I knew that people were counting on my for these updates. by the mid-point that pressure was off and I spent quite of bit of hiking time thinking about today's theme or what was important. but I am so glad I took the time to do the journal and post additional pictures of the trip because I can go back and reference where I stayed and partially relive the trip.

[MuddyWaters]

Im in awe of people that do, and do good job. I tried to write up a short hike one time for my own benefit. Gave up after 5 pages and still on day 1. Decided it wasnt that important to me. No time to write a book.

[Maui Rhino]

Since I'm always carrying my smartphone, I use a voice recorder app to record an audio journal. Sometimes I dictate it while walking and in the background, you can hear my poles clicking, streams flowing, ragged breathing, etc. Listening to them really brings me back to the trail. I keep telling myself that I'm going to type them up.....

[Connie]

I have never kept a journal. I do not have a "trail name".

I am not "into" the social aspect of backpacking, at all.

I like wilderness: Even if only a small place. I like a place that has never been logged. I like a roadless wilderness. I like seeing no one, at all. I like to see the world unmodified by mankind. I like to breathe that air. I like to be there.

I hike. I backpack. I kayak. I find that, and, I am there.

I share that experience, by helping others get out there.

[Spirit Walker]

I kept a pen and paper journal on all my hikes. I loved taking time every day to write what happened and how I felt about what happened. I did this for me, not for anyone else. A lot of the detail gets lost, when you don't write it down. A lot of the days just blend together in your memory. I like going back and rereading and remembering what the trail was like and how my hike was going. For my later hikes, I put the journals out on the web because at the time (2000) there weren't many journals available that described what the CDT, PCT and GDT were like. We hiked the CDT just when trailjournals was starting out. I never put my AT hike on the web because there were plenty of books and journals online so my story wasn't necessary. I wouldn't do a realtime journal, because then I would be writing for others, not for myself. It is a lot of pressure. What we did do was send weekly updates for friends and family, so they knew that we were still hiking. Those updates just had the highlights, and probably about as much detail as most non-hikers could handle. Even then, it was sometimes a hassle trying to find an open library with internet so we could send our updates. Small towns often have limited library hours.

[Odd Man Out]

I have not taken a long enough hike to do a trail journal. But I have written travel logs / travel journals for vacations I have taken. They were short enough trips that I would write the narrative from memory after the trip was over, rather than writing while traveling. I really enjoyed reflecting on the trip after the fact. Also, I was finding that I quickly forgot little details about the trip and the process of recalling them and getting them down in writing helped me remember things. Thus, I wasn't really writing for someone else. I was doing it for my own enjoyment and benefit.

[aaronthebugbuffet]

on my first hike in 86 i tried to keep a written journal. lasted 5 days. too much of a chore.
Ha, well you made it four more days than me.

[VTATHiker]

Keeping the journal serves all of the purposes mentioned above, but it is a pain. For me, I was pressuring myself to keep one because I know how days blur together and I wanted something to have to look back at. I also knew that friends and family were following diligently. I consider the pressure I felt to be positive, because in the end my trail journal is more valuable to me than any photo album.

As far as difficulty in maintaining the journal goes, it really matters how you go about it logistically. For the AT I brought along a small keyboard and paired it with my dumb smart phone, and although this sounds excessively techy, it's really a simple set up and drops your journal writing/transcribing/posting time by at least 50%. The last trip I took (only about a week long) I used pen and paper and later on I typed and posted it, and this took so much time I almost quit.

[takethisbread]

I felt I was a slave to it almost immediately. Stopped doing it almost immediately. Took lots of pictures and I texted friends and family. That's how I kept connected.


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[saltysack]

I have never kept a journal. I do not have a "trail name".

I am not "into" the social aspect of backpacking, at all.

I like wilderness: Even if only a small place. I like a place that has never been logged. I like a roadless wilderness. I like seeing no one, at all. I like to see the world unmodified by mankind. I like to breathe that air. I like to be there.

I hike. I backpack. I kayak. I find that, and, I am there.

I share that experience, by helping others get out there.

+1


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[Sugarfoot]

For twenty years, I kept a pencil journal when hiking, but when I attempted a thru-hike in 2013, I made daily entries to a TrailJournal, usually making the entry to Notes and then cutting and pasting it into the journal when I was in town. I also posted a daily photo. I had great feedback, and that was nice, but if I had hiked much longer, I think I would have abandoned the journal. It's the same problem I have with cameras. I find myself viewing my own experience through a viewfinder and instead of just living in the moment. I would ask myself the question of what was the "key" experience of the day, forcing a level of analysis that I find incompatible with why I hike. I will continue to use Notes this year for my private journal, mostly so it will be backed up to the Cloud. I lost my paper notebooks in a house fire a few years ago so I want the backup.

[garlic08]

I met that guy! He was stressing about getting to a motel room to upload photos and journal data and recharge all the devices. Later, I just had to look up his blog (he was very proud of it). It was pretty lousy--full of typos, poor grammar--and only had a few hits. Gadgets don't make you a good writer or photographer. The blog and devices were definitely controlling his trip, and I was thankful I wasn't in that trap.

I've kept on-line journals, but not real-time--written notes uploaded when I find a public computer--boring things with no photos. A week or more delay in posting just heightens the suspense.

I've gotten lots of benefits from keeping a journal and I understand the compulsion, but I agree it can go too far.

[Coffee]

I would add that Facebook can now be a leash as well if updates are expected by friends and family. I get around this by setting up my SPOT to post to Facebook for a limited distribution (people who actually might want to know the track of my trip) and I usually post a very brief update at a resupply stop along with a couple of photos that I've taken over the past few days. Keep the expectations modest and people will be happy with periodic informal updates. Write an essay every day for the first couple of weeks and then when the posting drops off, readers will be disappointed and/or worried.

[imscotty]

I would like to keep a journal, both for myself and to have a record that I hope will inspire my kids someday to get out there and hike (right now they think it is just another annoying thing that dad trys to get them to do).

For those of you who have journaled, I am wondering what you estimate the daily time investment to be?

Also, in following several thru-hiker's journals, it seems to me that the ones who create YouTube type video updates seem to be able to keep it up better than some of the TJ's I have followed. Is doing videos really easier than the written word? Or perhaps they were just more motivated to begin with?

[VTATHiker]

For me the daily investment on the AT was about 15-20 minutes just after finishing dinner. I had a keyboard in that case, so I could write much faster than with pen and paper. Sometimes I e-mailed the entries to a friend who posted them on TJ for me, sometimes I used a computer to upload them once week or so - which took about 30 minutes. Two months ago I used pencil and paper for a week-long trek and it took me roughly 30 minutes to write up after dinner, and wayyy too long to put in digital form afterwards.

[two isles]

I am Soooo glad I did a journal.
I generally like to express myself through the written word and it happens to come off well.
I never felt pressure by the TJ, only by the internal pressure to get to Katahdin before it closed!! I made it by August 23, so, silly me.

I'd lay in my hammock after dinner and chores and write whatever I felt about the day.
I did find me holding back a bit with social correctness regarding a couple of experiences because I knew someone partner / wife/ husband was reading my journal. I would have liked to have been a tad bit more honest about a couple of douchey things people did.


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[Just Bill]

Joey Camps and many others used the "voice to text" features on their phones- just a thought if you have the phone along and like this feature. A friend of my wife has written two books this way while driving to work and shuttling the chitlins.

I would think a simple, "I'm hiking and don't have access to the internet on a daily basis, so you'll get entries when I'm damn good and ready." should work.
It's your hike. Thankfully my wife or family has been used to this over the years and understands the limitations of trail communication and its not a point of contention.

I like using Microsoft One Note to store ideas and notes. But prefer to sit down and organize my thoughts or reflect after the fact. It's much easier to lie about it that way.:)

[RED-DOG]

I tried to keep a trail Journal on my 2012 AT thru-hike but gave up on it Farily quickly for me it just became to much of a hassle and a major distraction from my hike instead i took many many pictures and videos and when i got home i showed them off i did the same thing on my 96 and 2006 thru-hikes. but for some reason i promised a really close friend that i would keep a trail journal for my 2015 PCT thru-hike.

[Francis Sawyer]

Just my opinion but the whole idea of hiking is to leave all the electronic devices behind and live in the woods. "No phone ,no lights,no motorcars. Not a single luxury" Aren't way too many of us slaves to a smartphone? If we can be REALLY truthful with ourselves we can admit that nobody really cares how our hike went day to day so we don't need to post of fake book or some dumb blog . Again, just my opinion ; I'm an analog man in a digital world.

[Tipi Walter]

Just my opinion but the whole idea of hiking is to leave all the electronic devices behind and live in the woods. "No phone ,no lights,no motorcars. Not a single luxury" Aren't way too many of us slaves to a smartphone? If we can be REALLY truthful with ourselves we can admit that nobody really cares how our hike went day to day so we don't need to post of fake book or some dumb blog . Again, just my opinion ; I'm an analog man in a digital world.

No devices needed to keep a trail journal---just paper and pen. Post when you get home.

On the other hand, most trail journals are horrible, mine included. Example---

"Hi, my name is Succubus and this is my trail journal."

Okay, pre-trip post #1 is finished and after 50 more pre-trip posts the big day arrives---

"Day 1 at Springer. Today I linked with up Choke Bolus, Anus, and Ring Gotterdammerung (his real name) and began the journey of a lifetime. Along the way we met a father/son team named Smudge Account and Turd. We stopped for lunch and I had 2 bags of marshmallows with a can of Mt Dew."

"It's getting colder and the temps have fallen below 40F so I decided to bail out to the closest town until warmer weather." ETC ETC

You get the idea. It never gets any better. Who can read such crap?

[Mags]

I think most journals are a nice way for people to keep the folks back home informed. Certainly easier than many, many, many post cards, emails and phone calls. :)

[Connie]

I did keep a notebook, once. It helped with "good memories" to have a few names and little hand-drawn maps.
An experienced traveler suggested it.

I have purchased a little digital camera, that records GPS. I am thinking I will upload the photos to one of the online maps for bicyclists and hikers. I really like those at Bicycletouringpro.

[royalusa]

+1 on the voice recorder ideas mentioned above. We do that for all of our hikes. Time investment on trail is about 5 minutes per night. Time investment once the hike is finished to turn those tired-mind-and-body ramblings to something that is coherent is much more, but then we have it captured with all of its detail (which some may find boring, but hopefully we keep some folks entertained with our Trail Journal entries.) Because of the ease of voice recording, we journal way more than if we were writing or typing it on the trail.

It's even fun to go back and listen to our voices for that day - how excited we are ....or how tired we sound...or ...whatever.

Brakeman & Grasshopper

[rocketsocks]

+1 on the voice recorder ideas mentioned above. We do that for all of our hikes. Time investment on trail is about 5 minutes per night. Time investment once the hike is finished to turn those tired-mind-and-body ramblings to something that is coherent is much more, but then we have it captured with all of its detail (which some may find boring, but hopefully we keep some folks entertained with our Trail Journal entries.) Because of the ease of voice recording, we journal way more than if we were writing or typing it on the trail.

It's even fun to go back and listen to our voices for that day - how excited we are ....or how tired we sound...or ...whatever.

Brakeman & Grasshopper
With the advent of speach recognition and hands free typing programs like "Dragon" many find this much easier than the pain stakinkley hunt and peck.

I term this condition forever more be known as....."Dragon Breath"

.....Mwahahahaa

[full conditions]

I spent nearly 20 years as a field biologist and as an integral part of the job, I had to keep good notes on weather, topography, plant communities - you name it. After a while, it just became second nature for me to keep notes whenever I'm outdoors. It's never felt like much of a chore and I'm forever stopping to jot down whatever grabs my attention - make sketches, etc... . After all these years I have several bound 'rites-in-the-rain journals and I value them more than any photo albums I have.

[Don's Brother]

On my 2013 thru-hike I was on trailjournals, had my own website, and posted to FB. I wrote every day and posted an entry for all 164 days of my hike. All the writing was done on my iphone. My writing actually motivated me to keep hiking on many occasions. After the hike I edited the journal, re-wrote many of the entries, included some new material and published a 330 page book which has been selling well on amazon.com and Kindle. Now I'm doing speaking engagements and book signings to share my thru-hiking experience. So in many ways the writing was more important than the hiking. Still, maintaining a daily journal does take time and a great deal of discipline. For me, completing a thru-hike and publishing a book were both significant accomplishments. I'm definitely glad I kept the daily journal. The book, by the way, is Don's Brother: A Hike of Hope on the Appalachian Trail.

[Lady Grey]

Wow, what a lot of interesting responses. I gained so much from reading other Trail Journals before my 2013 AT hike that I decided I wanted to post one as a way of giving back to other aspiring middle aged hikers. I never felt as though I was a slave to my journal, and found it very easy to keep up with throughout my hike. I also certainly never felt as though I was a slave to my smartphone, actually far from it.

Journaling became part of my nighttime routine, usually after I'd eaten and when I was relaxing either in a shelter, hostel, or my tent. I typed my journal each day in the notes part of my smartphone, and would post it when I had service. Some days there was no service, so I just waited until I had a signal. Not a big deal whatsoever.

What I hadn't anticipated was how much inspiration I'd receive from the people reading my journal. I had a lot of people following me from all over the place, not just my friends and family, and reading entries in my guest book kept me going many days. The journal really took on a life of its own, and I felt as though I had a huge community of people supporting me every step of the way.

Now that my hike's over, I appreciate having the journal to read occasionally. It keeps the hike fresh in my mind on those days when I'm really missing the whole experience. I've been asked to speak about my hike several times, and it's so nice to have the daily journal available. As Don's Brother said, I too am definitely glad I kept the journal.

Lady Grey AT 2013 www.trailjournals.com/LadyGrey (http://www.trailjournals.com/LadyGrey)

[Grampie]

I guess my answer would be; It's up to you. When I thru hiked I found my only need to keep in contact with those off trail was my wife. Back in 2001 without a cell phone I was able to call home at least once a week to let her know that I was doing O.K. and that I missed her and family. It was up to her to let folks, who were interested, how I was doing. When ever I had access to a computer I would send some info. out to a list of those interested. just how I was doing and where I was.
I did keep a personal journal. Daily entries were made as to weather, milage and things of interest .
It,s your hike you are not obligated to keep the world informed, unless you are hiking for a cause and folks paid donations for your hike.