

Beautiful Pacific Crest Trail Journals - bigalo93
http://www.thehikeguy.com/2011/11/10/pct-moleskines/

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mauvehaus
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!

[1] <http://www.riteintherain.com/>

[2] <http://www.spacepen.com/>

[3] <http://trailkit.blogspot.com/>

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unimpressive
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.

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jmspring
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.

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whyenot
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.

~~~
unimpressive
Ask Jason Scott for help.

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jerryr
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.

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bigalo93
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.

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jmspring
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.

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calinet6
These are spectacular!

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/...](http://digitalcollections.pacific.edu/cdm/search/collection/muirjournals)

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.

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a3n
This guy's great grandchildren are going to be very lucky.

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noonespecial
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.

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Androsynth
best response to a lay-off that I have ever seen

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marssaxman
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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whyenot
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.

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jzawodn
What work do you do in the area?

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imwhimsical
"500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an
ErrorDocument to handle the request."

And now all of a sudden I'm extremely curious.

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bigalo93
I am not all that familiar with error messages, but it seems all of the
traffic has overwhelmed the Hike Guy's website.

~~~
imwhimsical
Yes, it works fine now.

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davidw
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).

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lsb
Interestingly, it's not off-topic by definition: it's interesting and new to
you. (The name changed from "Startup News" intentionally.)

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davidw
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.

