These are beautiful, inspiring, and--for me at least--serendipitous. Just yesterday, I resolved to start a daily journal for personal retrospection. This post motivated me to actually write my first entry today. Thank you.
The Hike Guy's journals were highly influential in my original motivation for starting a journal. For some reason I had thought of this blog post the other day, and felt that it would be good to share with other Hackers. I am glad to hear that these journals inspired you as they once inspired me.
Both that he took the time to write, and that he took the time to scan. I'm in a losing battle at the moment to preserve (before they disintegrate or become illegible) the letters my grandparents wrote to each other and back home as they waited to get married, separated by the war.
If you ever go into the back country where they have first come/first serve cabins (they are spread throughout the west), there will often be journals there filled with notes from people that have been there.
I've read some great stories about people discovering things they didn't expect in the back country of Death Valley. The tall tales some write instead are equally fun.
This is the kind of "off topic" article that adds something to this site. It's genuinely interesting to a subset of people here, and it's about a real accomplishment, rather than some political screed calculated to induce rage at some aspect of politics in the US (they're always about the US).
Thus, the quotes around 'off-topic': it is not about the site's usual fare, but it is unique and interesting.
I'm fairly critical of a lot of political junk that gets posted, so I think it's only fair to point out something good that I believe is in the spirit of the site.
I challenge you to do this with a tablet that doesn't have a Wacom screen. Even if power was a solved problem, a device that is essentially a computer screen (easily the most flexible graphics medium on earth) can't get depth like this because of the rough input. For all the hype that mobile gets, paper should be obsolete, yet if you actually stack the two side by side paper is more powerful.
It is slowly getting better, but higher resolution on input is surely needed. Penultimate + Evernote are a good combo. The said, there is definitely a resolution (and performance) limit.
Longevity - analog mediums have their limits for preservation and digital have theirs.
If you write something down on acid free paper today and store it away from sunlight, bugs and high humidity, there is a very good chance someone will still be able to read it 500 years from now. If you store something in Evernote, who knows? I have letters my dad wrote in Wordstar and stored on an 8" floppy 35 years ago. If I or my kids wanted to read those letters now... I wouldn't even know where to start.
I challenge you to do this with a tablet that has a Wacom screen, or for that matter with any tablet. On the PCT you could probably get away with solar charging, but now you have two pieces of electronic gear that need to survive 5 months of continuous abuse.
Packs fall apart, boots fall apart, tents develop leaks, sleeping pads develop leaks, T-shirts tear where a pack rubs on them, critters chew through your food bag, O-rings in stoves wear out, and socks have maybe a 2-3 month lifespan. This kind of use occasionally gets the better of headlamps, and they're designed with this sort of use in mind. Hell, I broke a camera lens (mechanically, not the glass, and it was repairable) that was made in the era when such things were made of metal throughout and you had to focus for yourself.
Cell phones travel surprisingly well, but that's probably because they fit in ziplock bags, it's easy to get a silnylon stuff sack with a roll closure in that size, and they aren't big enough to be subjected to serious bending stress in a pack. Seriously, there's nothing iPad sized in a pack that'll protect it from the repeated bending as the whole load shifts slightly at every step. Paperback books tend to get curled from it, even if you try to pack them carefully.
I agree with you whole-heartedly that even in general use paper is more powerful because of the input limitation. Even once that's overcome, paper will still be more powerful in any situation where durability is key and replacement options are limited.
These are awesome trail journals! I think one of the things I regret when I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2010 was not taking a picture of every shelter register entry I left. On the AT, pretty much every shelter has a notebook that people write their thoughts in for the day (at campsites without shelters, check the privy).
I debated taking a journal, but so much of the trail culture is in the registers that it seemed like it would be almost churlish to not share my thoughts like everybody else does. Not that my writing is up to The Hiker Guy's standard (nor is most anybody else's). It's still nice to read an entry from somebody who you haven't seen in a couple weeks and hear their triumphs and frustrations in their own voice.
With storage for digital cameras being so cheap and with smart phones being almost ubiquitous, snapping pictures seemed like the obvious compromise between participating and journaling, but I never really got in the habit.
Incidentally, if you find yourself wanting to keep a journal on a hiking trip, I highly recommend the Rite-In-The-Rain [1] soft-cover journals. The paper is wonderfully waterproof; they'll survive immersion without falling apart (the covers of the hardcover journals will warp, however). The only downside is that they don't take ink as well as normal paper. Pencil works well, but will smear like on normal paper, but I have yet to find a ballpoint that works really well, although the Fisher Space Pen [2] does well enough and will write on the pages even if they're soaked.
Lastly, I'll leave you with a truly entertaining blog from a current AT hiker [3]. I'll note (thank goodness) that most people don't find themselves in nearly as much peril as this crew. The author is a friend of a friend, and I do hope their luck improves!
Beautiful. I usually cross paths with PCT hikers when I am working near Carson Pass. They always look so happy. Every year it's tempting to just set aside my responsibilities and join them. Maybe next year.
Very fitting to see the tradition carried on, and on John Muir's birthday too. Muir was a prolific journal-writer, and some of them are full of iconic and timeless quotes about nature and the Sierra Nevada mountains, as well as drawings and random observations very similar to these. "My First Summer in the Sierra" is of particular significance and can be found in published form.
My 19-year-old kid sister left for the PCT trailhead yesterday; she's planning to spend the next six months hiking from the Mexican border to the Canadian. I wish I could have shown her this link before she left!
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 64.0 ms ] threadI've read some great stories about people discovering things they didn't expect in the back country of Death Valley. The tall tales some write instead are equally fun.
I'm fairly critical of a lot of political junk that gets posted, so I think it's only fair to point out something good that I believe is in the spirit of the site.
Longevity - analog mediums have their limits for preservation and digital have theirs.
Packs fall apart, boots fall apart, tents develop leaks, sleeping pads develop leaks, T-shirts tear where a pack rubs on them, critters chew through your food bag, O-rings in stoves wear out, and socks have maybe a 2-3 month lifespan. This kind of use occasionally gets the better of headlamps, and they're designed with this sort of use in mind. Hell, I broke a camera lens (mechanically, not the glass, and it was repairable) that was made in the era when such things were made of metal throughout and you had to focus for yourself.
Cell phones travel surprisingly well, but that's probably because they fit in ziplock bags, it's easy to get a silnylon stuff sack with a roll closure in that size, and they aren't big enough to be subjected to serious bending stress in a pack. Seriously, there's nothing iPad sized in a pack that'll protect it from the repeated bending as the whole load shifts slightly at every step. Paperback books tend to get curled from it, even if you try to pack them carefully.
I agree with you whole-heartedly that even in general use paper is more powerful because of the input limitation. Even once that's overcome, paper will still be more powerful in any situation where durability is key and replacement options are limited.
And now all of a sudden I'm extremely curious.
I debated taking a journal, but so much of the trail culture is in the registers that it seemed like it would be almost churlish to not share my thoughts like everybody else does. Not that my writing is up to The Hiker Guy's standard (nor is most anybody else's). It's still nice to read an entry from somebody who you haven't seen in a couple weeks and hear their triumphs and frustrations in their own voice.
With storage for digital cameras being so cheap and with smart phones being almost ubiquitous, snapping pictures seemed like the obvious compromise between participating and journaling, but I never really got in the habit.
Incidentally, if you find yourself wanting to keep a journal on a hiking trip, I highly recommend the Rite-In-The-Rain [1] soft-cover journals. The paper is wonderfully waterproof; they'll survive immersion without falling apart (the covers of the hardcover journals will warp, however). The only downside is that they don't take ink as well as normal paper. Pencil works well, but will smear like on normal paper, but I have yet to find a ballpoint that works really well, although the Fisher Space Pen [2] does well enough and will write on the pages even if they're soaked.
Lastly, I'll leave you with a truly entertaining blog from a current AT hiker [3]. I'll note (thank goodness) that most people don't find themselves in nearly as much peril as this crew. The author is a friend of a friend, and I do hope their luck improves!
[1] http://www.riteintherain.com/
[2] http://www.spacepen.com/
[3] http://trailkit.blogspot.com/
Very fitting to see the tradition carried on, and on John Muir's birthday too. Muir was a prolific journal-writer, and some of them are full of iconic and timeless quotes about nature and the Sierra Nevada mountains, as well as drawings and random observations very similar to these. "My First Summer in the Sierra" is of particular significance and can be found in published form.
You can read ("read" is used liberally here—the cursive is difficult) or just look at nearly all of them here: http://digitalcollections.pacific.edu/cdm/search/collection/...
This modern-day version brings delight to my soul in this trying week. I miss these, my mountains, my home. Thank you for posting this.