Journaling on your trip.

[smallworks]

I jot down things on my topo maps and note the date.
Occasionally things get stored inside until much later. I don't write detailed trip reports, just ideas based on visuals I remember.

 

[Robin]

I used to write notes on my non resident short term fishing licenses. My sons and I always took a spring and fall 3 day trip to the Adk's , in those days it was a 3 day fishing license for NY.
I either would buy short term licenses for Quebec or Ontario went I went on my solo or group trips too. Lots of pictures with these notes helped keep the memories, dates, places.

I still have a coffee can full of those old fishing licenses

 

[smallworks]

I keep all of my camping permits. Now they're computer generated, but they used to be hand-written. Souvenirs of good times.
Here's one thought buried and resurrected:

still, and incarcerated within a fluid world
the drowned trees drink forever

 

[redoleary]

I used to be a journaler, but like Canotrouge my followthrough was poor, I'd start out strong and before you know it I was behind then I'd just give up all together. I am however a slave to my camera so the journey will at least be documented in some manor.

 

[sweeper]

I tried journaling many years ago when I was hiking, it went to an after hike report with maps and permits.

When we do the Allagash I have an online map for the sites we plan to use, then the SPOT shot of where we stayed, with a screen shot of the USGS discharge gage for the week along with the permits. That is the extent of journaling now.

 

[Philtrum]

I keep all of my camping permits. Now they're computer generated, but they used to be hand-written. Souvenirs of good times.
Here's one thought buried and resurrected:

still, and incarcerated within a fluid world
the drowned trees drink forever

Very nice. Here are a couple of excerpts from a 2010 BWCA trip report:

Fragrant air of pine woods,
purple ripples of evening.
Flies don't bother me any more.
A person could become a poet out here
if he isn't careful.

... and ...

Today's agenda is challenging:

Eat
Adjust tarp
Walk around
Adjust tarp
Eat
Adjust tarp
Take photos
Watch squirrels
Adjust tarp
Read
Do crossword puzzles
Eat
Adjust tarp
Stash food pack
Adjust tarp
Go to bed

There's more where this drivel comes from. I'd like to see others' choice thoughts from their trip reports or journals.

 

[Marten]

I really enjoy reading my trip journals from years ago but have been using video for a while now. The video does a good job but IMO it plays a different role than a detailed journal. It takes so much time to do a journal justice that it only works for me on solo trips. I do not have the ability to write it up hours after the fact so I like to stop often and record what is going on. The journals are written for my enjoyment in the coming years so if anyone else enjoys them it is a bonus. When I try to document with a video I need to decide if it will be edited into 3-5 minutes that others will watch or include everything I want to remember and end up with over 20 minutes that very few will endure.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

...
I don't need a journal to remind me of that pucker up time.

Had to laugh about that. Those times are the Jalapeños in the spice of life.

I really wish I had practiced journaling in my early professional life. That's when all the unbelievable stuff happened to me. And names - I wish I could recall all the names of the perp....uh....participants.

I tried journaling a trip once. Couldn't hold my interest. My attention has always been outward when in the wild. It's a bother for me to even wield a camera on a trip unless I'm really impressed with something, but I manage to force myself to do that. I appreciate those who do it though. When I'm too old and frail to trip and my memory is gone, I'll be counting on you documentors to keep me entertained.

 

[BWCA66]

I try but usually don't follow through. I do try and at least keep track of how many nights I spend out each year along with how many new campsites and/ or new lakes/rivers I visit. While I do have my favorite places to go I always try and get some new territory each year.

 

[Srobocop]

I carry a small voice recorder. put my thoughts in it as I go and then sometime in the weeks following I transfer it to a written journal. Saves time when I'm in the sticks.

 

[Muskrat]

I've never journaled on a trip, but I always have a surveyor's notebook nearby, whether tripping or every day. They are great little waterproof books you can pick up at engineering/survey supply stores. High viz so you can't lose them. I like the ones with graph paper on one page and lines on the other, so I can jot down a sketch and write notes at the same time.

 

[smallworks]

... and ...

Today's agenda is challenging:

Eat
Adjust tarp
Walk around
Adjust tarp
Eat
Adjust tarp
Take photos
Watch squirrels
Adjust tarp
Read
Do crossword puzzles
Eat
Adjust tarp
Stash food pack
Adjust tarp
Go to bed

There's more where this drivel comes from. I'd like to see others' choice thoughts from their trip reports or journals.[/QUO

no drivel. rainy. day.

 

[smallworks]

Forgot to say " Yeah!"
love it

 

[Philtrum]

Forgot to say " Yeah!"
love it

Thanks.

 

[Mars]

Interestingly I have not kept a journal of backpack or canoe trips. I have thought about it but have yet to. What's odd about that is that the wife and I each keep travel journals and find great joy in occasional readings from them. We will sometimes jump around in them and read a passage about a past trip and it brings back such good memories.

That I haven't done this for these type travels is a mistake. I'm gonna fix that..........