Blogging while thru-hiking

[Trickytrout]

What device did you use to update your blog while thru-hiking and how did you upload pictures/video? I want to create an online trail journal that can be updated during my thru-hike next year, but I don't really know how to approach it. I plan on bringing a point and shoot that can record pictures/video/audio as well as a smartphone. My main concern is uploading from my camera to the internet while on the trail.

Thanks,
Tricky

[Karma13]

I'm using a WordPress blog (free) and TrailJournals, and updating via iPhone. WordPress has an easy mobile app.

[CarlZ993]

I've been wanting to post a question about this as well. I plan on getting a smartphone before I go (Android w/ Straight Talk). Is is possible to type something out beforehand, save it, and upload it when you get a signal (& power)? I hate to have to hand-write my journals (slow; though I can type pretty fast) and send them to my wife (who types pretty slow). I currently have a blog on Postholer. If another system works better, I'll switch.

[Malto]

I used Postholer with an iPhone.

[CarlZ993]

I used Postholer with an iPhone.

Hmmm. In case I can't figure it out before I go (that might be probable), I'll have someone show me on the trail.

gg-man: Can I type it up on the phone & save it? (Note: I do about 4 - 5 text messages on my 'dumb' phone a year...)

[Don H]

small note pad and pencil, then hit a computer in town.

[Colter]

I used Postholer with an iPhone.

That's what I did.

[Colter]

Can I type it up on the phone & save it? (Note: I do about 4 - 5 text messages on my 'dumb' phone a year...)

I kept a "template" for Postholer updates in my iPhone Notes. Then I'd copy that template and write up my post and send it when I had coverage. There's instructions on Postholer on how to send photos with an iPhone.

[glassman]

so this is my girlfriends blog. http://www.whimsyseasons.blogspot.com/
I helped out on occasion when we hiked together and we spent countless hours in public libraries uploading pictures from her camera. one thing that was very helpful was the delay of posting that she had set up of two weeks due to how hard it was to schedule the huge amount of time it takes to do.......
Be Well and Have Fun
Glassman

[handlebar]

.... Is is possible to type something out beforehand, save it, and upload it when you get a signal (& power)? I hate to have to hand-write my journals (slow; though I can type pretty fast) and send them to my wife (who types pretty slow). I currently have a blog on Postholer. If another system works better, I'll switch.

For the last 3 years I've been using the Iphone Notepad app to write my journals each evening (with the phone in airplane mode). When I get to a town or wherever there is either wifi or 3G, I then cut and pasted from the note into my Trail Journal. I also found I could upload pics from the Iphone using a 3rd party browser (Icab, iirc). To upload pics from the camera, it was necessary to to at a library.

[msupple]

I used a Droid to post to Postholer and take all my pics. I would never do it again. I was trying to save my phone batteries by turning off the phone but would have to turn it on when I wanted to take a pic. Way too much hassle. That and the keyboards are WAY too small, other than to write anything but a short text message. I tried to post something almost daily....it was my most dreaded part of the day. I'll take a dedicated camera next time and may not journal. I did like having a journal and would again if I knew of an easier way to transcribe....something with a larger keyboard but still pretty light.

Cat in the Hat

[BrianLe]

Postholer definitely is the better of the two well-known trail journal sites for use with a mobile device.

"My main concern is uploading from my camera to the internet while on the trail."

My suggestion is that you don't carry a separate camera, but use your smartphone as your camera. Especially if it's the AT that you plan to thru-hike --- the least scenic of the big three, and the one with the least long-distance type of views, but even so. A modern smartphone has a decent camera, great for still shots of scenery and shots of people, and those two are most of what you'll likely want to take.
Apart from the weight savings, when you do it this way your pictures are already stored on the same device you'll upload your journal from.

Using the postholer email template is a fine option. What I did instead was to type up my journal entries using a word processor, and then whenever I had the magic troika of discretionary time, spare battery power, and decent cell signal I went to the postholer site using a mobile browser (and the "mobile" version of the postholer site, something I really appreciated). There I just copied and pasted in the bits. Typically I would upload one or more collected text entries at a break on a high point while on the trail, and then at a zero day in town I would catch up by uploading pictures to the various journal entries. That way friends and family had a closer-to-real-time update on how I was doing along the way.

I carried a folding blutooth keyboard to type up my entries. This of course adds weight and bulk and a little bit of "fiddle factor" to your life, but I found that it made a tremendous difference to the quality and quantity of what I wrote. I literally wrote up a journal entry for every trail day, on all of my thru-hikes. Typing up this stuff while it was still fresh in my head --- rather than referring later to semi-readible scribbled notes --- meant that I really captured the details and feelings, the flavor of the day. There's no way I would have kept the type of journals I did if I had been using a little on-screen keyboard on a 3" - 4" phone screen.

I've tried in the past using voice recordings and later transcribing those, and that can work, but it's different on both ends --- I tend to record something a little different than what I would type, and what I later type out is done at a temporal distance from "when it happened". And in aggregate it's a whole lot more work, so there's the real danger that the transcribing part would never get done.

I'm not suggesting that a physical keyboard is right for everyone, but at 9.5 oz it was well worth carrying for me.

[CarlZ993]

Re: BrianLe

Keyboard on the trail? I can see why you were tagged w/ the trail name of 'Gadget.' That being said, I will look into that as well.

[Don H]

The batteries in my pencil never died they lasted an entire thru

[yellowsirocco]

I was trying to save my phone batteries by turning off the phone but would have to turn it on when I wanted to take a pic. Way too much hassle.

Don't turn the whole phone off, just put it in airplane mode and it will last for weeks if you don't touch it. The two big things that run down the battery are connecting to the cellular network and the turning the screen on.

[Malto]

I kept a "template" for Postholer updates in my iPhone Notes. Then I'd copy that template and write up my post and send it when I had coverage. There's instructions on Postholer on how to send photos with an iPhone.

This is exactly what I did as well. I also used an app to pull lat/long so I had my exact gps location every night where I stopped.

[BrianLe]

"Keyboard on the trail? I can see why you were tagged w/ the trail name of 'Gadget.' That being said, I will look into that as well."

The specific unit I use is this: http://www.freedominput.com/freedom-...m-pro-keyboard
9.5 oz, it folds up into a pretty solid unit. For my first two thru-hikes I used an earlier model keyboard that was about 7.5 oz, similar folding approach. I wasn't able to get my newer smartphone to work with it (driver issue).
Warning if you get the Freedom pro (and perhaps for other units as well, dunno): beware of cold weather. I didn't believe this could have been a problem so it took way too long to diagnose, but it got flakey in cold weather. When I finally figured that out I would just put it inside my clothes while doing in-camp chores in the evening and then pull it out when I was ready to type and never had a problem thereafter.

For me, it really wasn't a chore to type up the days events, it just became part of the daily routine, after eating and before sleeping each night. Worked well for me, anyway. And my journals show what I felt comfortable/happy typing up --- almost all of the entries for all three trips were typed up on the spot, with very very little editing/changes afterwards: http://www.postholer.com/brianle

[grateful 2]

Can someone help me meet a particular need I have? I am a terrible typist, but I want to keep a journal as I section hike the trail. I am looking for a program that will allow me to speech to type dictate from my iPhone without an Internet connection. I am currently using the dictation program from Evernote to type this message. Evernote will not work without an Internet cellular connection. Anyone have any ideas?

[Odd Man Out]

The batteries in my pencil never died they lasted an entire thru

Me too. I have also never had to replace the batteries on my Swiss Army pencil sharpener!

[ChinMusic]

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