I find myself going back and looking at my journals to see where I was on a certain date during my hike and end up reading through the entire day’s entry. It brings my mind back to the places I was and sometimes just reading that journal entry reminds me of things I forgot to include. The journal was such a great gift to me.
Equipment
Here are some suggested items you may need or use to keep a journal.
Note pad
Pen
Phone or electronic device
Camera, small and compact but a good one
Waterproof bags to store these items in
Paper or electronic
Decide how you want to keep your journal, either on paper or in electronic form. I used my smart phone to write my journal in every night. Both methods have advantages and drawbacks, so you'll need to decide what works best for you.
Having a paper journal requires you to have a notepad of some type and a pen. If the paper gets damp or wet you will not be able to write on it or it could turn into paper mache. You will need to keep it stored in a water tight bag.
Using any electronic device, you will are dependent on the battery life. You should carry extra batteries. You also will need to keep it stored in a water tight bag.
Getting into writing it down
Start your journal before your hike. Try to get yourself in the habit before you start your hike by doing a journal entry daily. This will help you get into the routine of keeping a journal. During your hike, you can write to it any time you want, as the thought or the occurrence happens or whenever the moment strikes you. Remember this is your journal; write to it when you want or as much as you want. (I did mine at the end of the day before I went to bed, that was what worked best for me.)
Finding the time during your hike
Find the time to write to your journal, it is the most important tip of all. If you do not get into the routine of writing to your journal regularly, you will find yourself skipping a day here and a day there. Next thing you know you will be skipping a whole week. Try to commit or program yourself to write to it daily, or do some form of regular writing. You should not make writing to your journal a chore; rather make it something you want to do. Find a way to make it enjoyable. A journal can be a helpful way to wind down at the day's end, especially if it's a comfortable place for you. After dinner and once in my sleeping bag, this was the time when I did most of my journal writing.
Keep in mind, if you wait until the end of the day you may forget about some of your thoughts and the events that took place during the day. Keeping your journal accessible can be helpful. You can pull it out during the day as you are hiking and write down your thoughts and describe events as they happen. Now, you may find that stopping during the day while you are hiking to write in your journal is an inconvenience. It doesn’t have to be. You do not have to stop and write full page entries or even a paragraph. You can simply stop for a minutes and write down a sentence or a couple of words that will help remind you of your thoughts or what you wanted to write about later. I would stop briefly during the day when there was something I wanted to record and I would type a one liner or a short note This would be enough for me at the end of the day when I was writing to my journal to remember my thoughts and elaborate more on them. You could also use your camera to take pictures of something to help you remember what went on during the day or what your thoughts were at that time. This will also help you later when writing to your journal. One of the best things I did was buy a good lightweight compact camera before my hike and played around with it to become accustomed to all the settings. During the day I would try to take lots of pictures. When I was writing to my journal at night I would look through those pictures from that day and it would help refresh my memory and remind me of things that went on and I wanted to write about in my journal. Take a lot of pictures during the day and every day. Some cameras have a sound record option which you can also use as a memory aid. And geotagged pictures will further help to tell your story.
Always remember to date your entries and your location!
Writing ideas
Here are some ideas of some things you may want to write about:
What you saw
What you did
What you experienced
What you felt
What is the weather like-cloudy, sunny, hot, cold, windy, etc.
Who you saw and communicated with
Were you having a bad day and if so explain why
Did you take pictures and if so what of
Did you stop for water and what way the water source like
What was the campsite or shelter like
Who spent the night with you
Did you see any wildlife and if so what
Did you see any plants or flowers or species and if so what
Did you get hurt or injured and if so how and where
How is your equipment and gear holding up
What gear did you get rid of or add
Who have you hiked with and what do you like or don't like about them
Who annoys you and why
How are your feet doing and holding up
How is your body holding up
What were your thoughts
What annoyed or annoys you during the day or night
Remember whenever you feel down, antsy, brimful of ideas, etc., that your journal is the perfect outlet.
Don't fuss about grammar, spelling, or other imperfections. You need to write it down while it is still fresh in your memory. You can always go back and fix the grammar and spelling later. Wanting to erase errors while working through the day’s events and your thoughts and ideas can hamper your flow.
Sometimes it is easiest to start with your current feelings. Transfer them into your journal and see where this takes you. There are no rules at all about journal writing and you may find that your starting points vary every time you begin a new entry. Sometimes it is easier to begin with a narrative about something that happened to you during the day. Writing down the mundane facts and events can open up a whole stream of consciousness as you're writing, leading you to insights you would not have been able to bring forth before.
Pretend you are with a group of friends that were not with you during the day and you are telling them all the details and events of what went on during the day.
Write in your journal anything you want. Doodles are totally acceptable. Lyrics to songs, poems, book excerpts, anything goes. Remember this is your journal, write whatever you want.
Other things that I did
I created a mailing list and I emailed my entries to friends and family whenever I had cell phone service. Have a friend or family member keep all the emails entries you send to them as a backup. I also created a second email address for myself that I sent my entries to. I used the second email address for myself as a backup for my journals in case my phone would have bit the dust for any reason.
iPhone
Blackberry
Android
I used a Blackberry curve for my hike and purchased an app for it called Documents to Go. I spent some time before my hike learning to use this app and all the ins and outs about it. I found it best to use a date format as file names when saving the file to the phone. The format I used for saving the filename was 2010-07-24 (year-mm-dd). The reason for this was when trying to pull up old entries they were all listed in chronological order which made past entries easy to find. I am not saying this is the best way to save files; it is just how I did it. You may find a better way of doing it.
I know hikers that used iPhones and Droids. They worked well for them but the biggest complaint from them was their batteries were always going dead. The reason for this is because the iPhone and Droid style phones use touch screen technology. The touch screen technology has an extremely higher battery consumption rate and drains the battery quicker. The Blackberry Curve that I carried did not have touch screen technology, hence better battery management. I would not use a phone with touch screen technology. Do your homework before you before you pick the phone if that is what you decided to use. The only small issue I had to the Blackberry that was short lived was the small keyboard that I had to type on. After using it I became pretty efficient and could type without looking at the keyboard. I would carry at least one spare battery if I was using a phone or any electronic device for journaling.
Notes for using any cell phone:
When you’re not using your phone either turn off the phone or place it into airplane mod. Putting it into airplane mode will turn your phone off from trying to find cell phone towers. That is the biggest battery drain your phone will experience when you are hiking. When your phone is on it is constantly looking for a cell phone tower to lock onto and if it is not locked onto a tower it will continue to look for one until it finds one. Roaming is the biggest battery drain your phone will most likely experience. This is the reason to either turn it off or place it in airplane mode when not using it, off is better. I left my phone in airplane mode because when it was turned off it usually took two minutes or more to power back up. Also, check online for battery sparing tips specific for your particular phone. Often there are programs running in the background that can be disabled
Online journals and blogs
One other thing you may want to consider is keeping an online journal on the web. There are a few sites where you can do this quite easily. Online journals and blogs are a great way to allow your family, friends, and even the general public to follow you progress. I kept an online journal during my hike.
I only found one down side to keeping my journal online. A few times, people that were reading and following my journal tried to surprise me and meet up to say hi or give trail magic but we didn’t connect. They tried to guess my location given my pace and my routine and showed up where they thought I would be. Occasionally though I took an unexpected layover or a day off and this put them a day off from where they thought I was. However, it is fairly easy to follow someone’s online journal and know where they might be at by their last entry. (If you are worried about someone stalkin you in this manner then I suggest you post your journal entries five days or more apart.
Web sites that allow journaling and blogging
www.trailjournals.com
www.whiteblaze.net
www.postholer.com
Sample of one of my journal
16 April 2010, Mt Collins ShelterToday was a great day. I was able to make it to Clingmans Dome without getting to out of breath as I have in the past.We actually only did 14.0 miles today but only 13.5 miles today were trail miles because the shelter was 0.5 off the trail.Someone made a comment while on Clingmans Dome today saying "since we are on the highest point of the AT that everything now will be all downhill". We all got a good laugh. The views from the top of the tower were awesome today. It was a little scary walking up the ramp but well worth it. Donna you would probably have been scared walking up the ramp to the tower. The tower was wheel chair accessible.There were a lot of blow downs north of Clingmans Dome. There were also spots of snow along the back sides of the ridge lines today but not enough to worry about or to be too much of a hindrance.Snowman and Escargo did not make it here tonight. Babalu said they stopped at the first shelter for the night. If that was the case then they only made six miles today. I hope they are OK.I ran into a thru hiker named Longshank and he told me that MEB was about seven miles behind me right now. He told me that her trail name is now Jibits or something like that. She was the woman from Maine that I was at one time going to ride down to start the trail with but things did not work out and we both found our own way down.Bismarck is a hammocker and has been hammocking every night since he started his hike. He pulled his hammock out at Clingmans Dome and took a three hour nap. His nap that he took on Clingman’s Dome today caused him to arrive late here tonight.I have decided to head into Gatlinburg tomorrow for the night. I called at Clingmans Dome and made reservations at a motel there. Once hiking the 0.5 miles from the shelter back to the trail it is 4.5 trail miles to get to Newfound Gap. This is the road crossing that will I take me to Gatlinburg.The water source for the shelter was further down the trail tonight from the shelter. The guidebooks say it was 0.1 west of the shelter but I think it was a lot further than that and everyone else here seems to agree. I went down to get water for myself tonight and offered to get Hoppers water too. Once down there I filled my bladder, water bag, and Hoppers bag. I started heading back but the trail was nothing but rocks. I was having a hard time carrying all the water, luckily Hopper came down the trail to meet me and help me carry the water back to the shelter.There are some weekend hikers at the shelter tonight with a bottle of liquor they passed it around and shared it with us. Llano, Chili, Hopper and I got a fire going. It was not easy because everything was wet all around us but we managed to get one going.Here tonight, Hans, Llano, Shaken, Longshank, Babalu, Bismarck, Red Stick, Pepper, Chili, Hopper, and some weekenders.
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