[pct-l] Writing on the trai

[Diane Soini]

I brought a small notebook about the size of a quarter piece of paper  
with about 300 pages. I went through about 4 of them. I used a  
mechanical pencil and went through a few of those. A mechanical  
pencil was always sharp. It was better to have a pencil than a pen  
because I ended up taking a few unexpected swims. The journal dried  
out and the pages with ink on them were empty of text, but not the  
pages with pencil. I wrote at night in my tent with my dinner. Later  
I used what I wrote as notes as I wrote my online journal, combining  
my notes and my recent memories. Later I took both the online and the  
paper and together constructed another document. Then I made my  
"books" out of that.

Of course I was always composing in my head as I walked, too.

Good luck!

On Feb 13, 2014, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> Subject: [pct-l] Writing on the trail
>
> Say I wanted to write a book while on the trail. Don't worry about  
> the why
> or whether that's a reasonable thing to do, this is a technical  
> question:
> what is the lightest way to do it electronically?
>
> Typically, I carry a journal or a stack of loose leaf to rough  
> things out,
> then I transcribe that into a Wordpress on my android phone. I carry a
> stack of extra phone batteries that I either recharge in town or  
> mail home
> in exchange for new ones. But that's for updating my blog and I'm  
> thinking
> I'll need a real keyboard and more power to write a book. Any  
> thoughts on
> how to accomplish this? Maybe just a bounce box with a netbook,  
> then write
> by hand and transcribe in town? Or has anyone tried using a  
> bluetooth or
> usb keyboard with an ereader? Maybe this would give acceptable,  
> rechargable
> battery life that would be light enough to carry all the time.
>
> Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.
> ~Jes