[pct-l] Keeping a trail journal

[Sean 'Miner' Nordeen]

>Do hikers keep a paper journal and then when they get to town get hooked to the internet?
Some hikers keep a paper journal and type it up in town or mail it to someone who types it online for them.  Some type it into an email and send that to someone.  Others, like myself, typed it on our smartphone and uploaded/emailed it whenever there was a signal (sometimes daily, sometimes several days apart depending on cell coverage).  Some just wait until they get to town and then use a public computer (like at the library) to type in what they remember over the past week.

>Is a phone the best way to keep it?
I think today, that is what more hikers are doing since most carry phones though some still write on paper.  

>When do you do your journal-evening, morrning, or before a afternoon siesta?
Most hikers I know did their journals at night before going to bed (I did this).  Others do it over the day during a break whenever they felt like it.  Those that didn't force themselves to keep it updated regularly typically gave up on daily entries after awhile and either did a weekly entry when they got to town or gave up entirely.  This is why many hikers force themselves to finish at night before sleeping even if they were tired since they felt that they would forget something or felt they would never catch it up latter.  Taking 15 minutes or so doesn't seem like alot of time until you are tired and its already dark.  So a daily journal is a lot of work to keep going all the way to Canada.  A few just try to recall it all in the next town from memory; I was forced to do this for a few entries that were somehow lost along the way.  But so many hikers start off with the idea of doing a daily journal and slack off latter as they loose interest due to the effort.  However, for me, the effort was well worth it as I have a daily record that I can read years latter and it really helped me figure out where I took most of my photos since I could look at my journal and see where I was that day.

>What website has the best journals?
The 2 main online journal sites that people use is Trailjournals followed by Postholer.  Trailjournals has been around longer and some feel the interface is better, but postholer has more features.  To add an entry in Trailjournals, you have to have an internet connection so most wait til they get to town to add it or have someone else do it from an email or text message sent to them.  Postholer allows you to add a journal entry via email and I discovered sending a photo text message would also work.  You embed a few information fields into your email to set the date, location, miles, etc.  I had a quick insert macro that had all the formating and I just added the details.  I was also able to embed my postholer journal into my own website.  I typically took a photo with my smatphone and sent my journal entry with that photo.  I sometimes added more photos once I was in town from my better camera (up to 5 on postholer).  If I had a good 3G signal, I could edit my journal from the trail using the internet access but I rarely did this as I usually wanted to conserve my battery.

>How often do you communicate with home?
I normally told someone when I was expecting to be at the next resupply town and I would let people know when I got into town.  I mostly just sent text messages with a rare call home when I needed a box sent out.

-Miner

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Check my 2009 PCT Journal out at http://www.pct2009.lifesadventures.net/Journal.php