View Full Version : Bummin: Would you do this?
steve hiker
07-20-2004, 22:14
In another thread someone posted their gear list, and I made a suggestion for reducing pack weight. Instead of carrying a full size notebook, get a few pages of waste paper from someone's wastebasket when in town. Don't carry more than that.
Then, I got to thinking. There's already been lots of disapproval over bumming or grabbing leftover food at restaurants. To follow my suggestion, a hiker would have to stick his unshaven head into a business and ask to root around in the wastecan for paper. Could make a bad impression.
On the other hand, at work I often grab throwaway paper from wastebaskets to write on when a tablet isn't handy. It's clean, nobody wants it, and more people than you'd imagine are "round file" raiders. I don't think any secretary or counter clerk would mind if you asked to grab a few pages of paper from the trash can to write your AT journal on, do you?
Alligator
07-20-2004, 22:20
An easy place to find scrap paper is right near a printer, typically a can is there for recycling misprints/drafts. Might be easier than a wastebasket.
Pencil Pusher
07-20-2004, 22:25
Smells like salt water and cruising at about 10mph on a nice sunny day, with a gentle sway. There's a line or two about a hundred yards out. I can hear the rumbling sound of an engine...
Smells like salt water and cruising at about 10mph on a nice sunny day, with a gentle sway. There's a line or two about a hundred yards out. I can hear the rumbling sound of an engine...
Pencil you lost me on this reply. What the heck was this sppose to mean?
Pencil Pusher
07-21-2004, 00:25
The attroll is curious about trolling???:-? Ah, I was looking for a regular boat with lines extended, but could only find these commercial rigs.
The attroll is curious about trolling???:-? Ah, I was looking for a regular boat with lines extended, but could only find these commercial rigs.
I do not see what this has to do with the original topic of this thread. I might be mistaken but if you are trolling you pickied the wrong site to troll on. If this continues then the post that seem to be trolling will be deleted. But like I said I could be wrong. If you can explain what this has to do with this thread then please do so. But if you can not then it will be deleted.
Pencil Pusher
07-21-2004, 01:04
Ah, a misunderstanding. I was indicating the author was trolling. Feel free to delete away, but do you think this would ever fly at any office:
"I don't think any secretary or counter clerk would mind if you asked to grab a few pages of paper from the trash can to write your AT journal on..."
Lone Wolf
07-21-2004, 02:54
5 thruhikes and no journals. am i missing somethin? :rolleyes:
Kozmic Zian
07-21-2004, 04:12
Yea......What's the Thread Subject? Just go to a store and buy a very small note pad for a buck or less....what's so hard about that. KZ@
i'm with KZ!
go to the Dollar Store or whatever discount store you have near you...buy a small pocket-size notebook pad. most have about 100 pages or so..use front & back please...should be plenty!
i use this type of small notebook pad, water-proof paper & Space Pen (http://www.spacepen.com) to make sure the ink doesnt run. It gets the job done. & i have my memories for the rest of my life i can share! :D
Happy Hikin' & writin'
White Oak
07-21-2004, 08:28
100 pages? 100 pages? You saw the handle off your toothbrush to save .05 ounce and you pack a 100-page notebook complete with cover and binding? Do you know how much that weighs?
Jersey Bob
07-21-2004, 10:37
at least 10 characters
Pencil Pusher
07-21-2004, 10:58
100 pages? 100 pages? You saw the handle off your toothbrush to save .05 ounce and you pack a 100-page notebook complete with cover and binding?
LMAO, good point.:D
A 3x5 100 page pocket notebook
Weighs about 2 oz.
Costs .79.
Worth the weight to keep those memories clear, cause sometimes my head hurts when I try to remember far back. :confused:
johnny quest
07-21-2004, 11:35
and thats the point isnt it? if you hike without a journal, camera, or tape recorder, its because you dont need/want one enough to. and that is fine. if you do use one or all it is also cause you want to. i plan to carry a sketchbook and different pens and pencils to document my thru hike. i know it will be extra weight but i will leave the trail with sketches of the trail. priceless. but that is my hike. hyoh.
i plan to carry a sketchbook and different pens and pencils to document my thru hike. i know it will be extra weight but i will leave the trail with sketches of the trail. priceless.
A couple monthes ago I went to a presentation by a man that sailed around the world solo. Took him 4 years with time off for boat repairs.
He of course did not have to worry about weight and took along watercolors, he made some beautiful paintings that are surely precious memories for him. It made the presentation something better than boring slide after slide.
SalParadise
07-21-2004, 14:47
what the "I have no paper but want to keep a journal" is going to eventually translate to is the hiker taking paper from the registers.
what the "I have no paper but want to keep a journal" is going to eventually translate to is the hiker taking paper from the registers.
You are correct. I am constantly seing registers with lots of pages ripped out.
No doubt fire starting and Privy usage, I'm sure journaling is also a cause of this.
art to linda
07-21-2004, 16:39
Some journal, some don't....me, I'll be taking pens,penciles and paper. While many things will be simmilar to what I've seen in other places much will be new, special in its own way. Be it flora, fauna, views or people the artist in me will want to capture things that my camera cann't (though I'll have one of those too). If I finish a thru hike only time will tell but what I bring back with me will surly find its way into my future work :)
steve hiker
07-21-2004, 18:47
To get back to my original post, is it acceptable to beg for throwaway paper from waste baskets? Would you do it, if you didn't carry a notebook? Come on people, I can't heeeeeeeeeeaaar youuu.
If you are not willing to pay the .79 for a small pocket notebook, I don't think asking for a scrap of paper from a clerk at a store would be out of line. I have asked for a scrap of paper in a store once or twice to write down info while shopping.
If you plan on diving into a garbage can without letting the clerk know would be poor etiquete in my opinion.
Yes, I know that they obviously do not want it if it is in the garbage, but just be polite and ask.
Like it or not, people will let the behavior of one hiker sway their opinion of all that follow.
Did you hear that?
SalParadise
07-21-2004, 19:21
hey, if they're not already disgusted by our dirt, smell or strange behaviour, I don't think using garbage-paper is going to throw anyone over the top.
libraries have printer-paper and some motels do, too. You could definitely get by with keeping a journal on scrap paper.
peter_pan
07-21-2004, 23:17
Personally I cut a sheet of printer paper in quarters. Count the expected days until your next drop and add one. Staple that many sheets together, put it in the drop and include a stamped envelope for the last journal section to mail home. This solution minimizes weight, improves reader contact/ morale at home, saves on embarassing looks as a scrounger, is cheap and works great.
PS. The extra sheet is for the unexpected delay.....or possibly as the Rangers say," a one sheet hygene solution" since everthing should have multiple use.... or, for the more timid...lend it to a long worded hiker out of pages...or use as fire starter.....or use it for a note left for a following hiker in a baggie.....I'm sure there are several other uses for this single extra sheet....cutting board for sharp cheese you want to share( as opposed to0 biting off a hunk at lunch).
PPS. I vote to require scroungers to give up their gortex and effectively reclassify from hiker to bum.
Staple that many sheets together
PS. The extra sheet is for the unexpected delay.....or possibly as the Rangers say," a one sheet hygene solution"
.
Watch out for that staple if using for your "hygene solution" at night.
:o OUCH!
Take the sheet of paper, cut the cheese, wipe your hands, write your journal entry, use it in the hygienic depository, and then start your fire. :D
No offense to those who take this thread seriously.
To get back to my original post, is it acceptable to beg for throwaway paper from waste baskets? Would you do it, if you didn't carry a notebook? Come on people, I can't heeeeeeeeeeaaar youuu.
Yeah, UGH...go ahead and BEG for the paper.
steve hiker
07-22-2004, 23:35
Yeah, UGH...go ahead and BEG for the paper.No I will buy and carry my journal paper loose. But there are bum hikers who will BEG or STEAL what they need in town, like leftover fries, journal paper, rides, etc. And will BORROW asswipe.
bobgessner57
07-23-2004, 22:10
To borrow implies a return. Neither a borrower nor a lender be. I'll give the tp to the bum, thank you.
I'll give you a bushel of roasted pecans if you work a few hours on my farm. And let you write on my tablet too. And neither a bum nor a pilferer will you be.
Pencil Pusher
07-23-2004, 22:58
:) Man I'd work all day on your farm for a bushel of roasted pecans.
smokymtnsteve
07-24-2004, 09:25
I'll give you a bushel of roasted pecans if you work a few hours on my farm. And let you write on my tablet too. And neither a bum nor a pilferer will you be.
Me too....when do you need me there? how many is a few hours..do you have multiple days???
[QUOTE=UGH]In another thread someone posted their gear list, and I made a suggestion for reducing pack weight. Instead of carrying a full size notebook, get a few pages of waste paper from someone's wastebasket when in town. Don't carry more than that.
This may be carrying it to the other side, (more weight instead of less) but I've read Mouse's Trail Journal and she is carrying PocketMail Composer, which doesn't seem to list the weight but appears really light and stressfree (no scrounging around for paper).
http://www.pocketmail.com/us/products/composer
Actually, I found a way that requires only a pen. I was riding on the back of a motorcycle once and decided to write a story about it, but I had no way to write and nothing to write on. So I memorized a key word about the event that I wanted to remember. When we stopped for gas, I wrote it all down on paper given to me by a clerk, or grocery bag paper.
I don't know if this would work but if you have a bad memory, (which I do) you could write the key words down on your arm, leg, etc. until you have a temporary tatoo to be washed off in town (after you record it all of course). This would require waterproof ink, I guess. Or...writing it on a white shirt that you don't mind decorating in this fashion.
My list back then was composed of words like squirrel, cops, bug, hand waving, waterfall, slippery road, rhododendrum on cliff, etc. The story was my first one published too.