18/11/2018
Best Trail Journals
For Hikers
And How To Use Them
The best trail journals for hikers fall into several useful categories:
Collections of musings and amusement
Organizational lists
Navigation notes
Survival situations
Let's take a peek at least seven ways you can use a hiking journal on your next hike.
Trail journals for hikers:
personal musings
The first (and some say best) reason for carrying a trail journal in your backpack revolves around generating great ideas.
If you hike for several hours, and allow your mind to empty its usual chaos and clutter, you might find yourself coming up with some amazingly creative ideas.
And solutions to pressing problems.
But they might slip away, unless you record them as they occur.
Enter trail journals for hikers!
What sets them apart from other journals?
waterproof paper
lightweight
a small footprint
spiral binding to keep pages organized
What's not to love?
Jot down your ideas in one of these little beauties:
Rite In The Rain Trail Journals
You can never have too many
Buying these in a three pack is the way to go!
No need to wonder whether or not you're carrying your trail journal when you switch backpacks.
I use a pencil for my great thoughts, but that means I also carry a small pencil sharpener.
That makes a pen is a great idea.
Just be sure it's the right kind for this waterproof paper.
Otherwise, all of your great thoughts will be lost.
Gel pens and water based inks won't work.
All Weather Pen
Rite In The Rain Larger Trail Journal
Keep the kiddos mesmerized
If you backpack with kids, using a trail journal to keep them occupied while you get food ready and the tent set up makes the day more pleasant for all involved.
Hand them a journal and watch them doodle and tic-tac-toe the minutes away while you get your hiking tasks finished.
One journal per kid, to keep the peace ;)
Trail journals for hikers:
organizational lists
One of the classic signs of a newbie hiker is disorganization:
Jumbled gear in a backpack
Re-inventing the wheel with every hike
Forgetting crucial pieces of hiking gear
You know the story, right?
The best way out of hiking chaos is LISTS. That's the second great way to utilize trail journals.
If you can train yourself to make lists, and know where they are (hint, hint: journal), and then actually use them - wow! you're in an elite category of prepared, organized, bomb proof hikers.
Examples of lists
Examples of lists you can draft and save in your trail journal:
Seasonal gear switches: what to take out of your backpack, and what to add, for each season
Amendments to a current gear list: what you needed but didn't have, what you brought but never used, gear you noticed someone else using and want to check out
Deletions from a gear list: why a piece of gear failed, which backpacking dehydrated food you hated, or why eight pairs of socks isn't a great idea on a backpacking trip
Thoughts about a specific gear list for an upcoming trip to a new region (see my ANWR gear list for an example)
Logging hiking equipment usage: Your Lifestraw Gowater bottle filtration system, for example.
Trail journals for hikers:
navigation notes
Access points to trail heads can be cut off within minutes, with a big wind storm blocking a road or unannounced road crews forcing you to find an alternate route to your favorite hiking spots.
When you learn of a trail head access problem, jot it down in your trail journal.
Why take a chance that you'll forget to check if the road is open next time?
Jog your memory to share the news with your hiking circle.
Another example of using a hiking journal for navigation: Sometimes a trail is re-routed for maintenance or animal activity.
It's tough to remember exactly where, and how, the route changed unless you write yourself a note.
Also take note of the bypass route: was it sketchy footing? well marked with colored flagging?
Write down landmarks along the new trail so you can keep track of how far you need to hike before rejoining the main trail (e.g. ten minutes after the tall pine with a broken top, re-joined the Yellow Aster Butte trail).
Backcountry hikers only
Do you like to do off trail and/or back country navigation?
Making notes of the terrain to complement your photos and GPS way points is a guaranteed way to build up an archive of spectacular, personalized hiking destinations.
And taking the time to document map discrepancies, seasonal water supplies, or alternate routes will pay off if you revisit that spot later.
And the reasons
keep coming!
So we've covered three more ways to use a trail journal:
Prevent frustration due to the "I forgot's"
Keep yourself sorted out when your route changes
Archive your back country ramblings
Let's see, we're up to five great ways to use trail journals for hikers.
Two more to go!
C'mon, we're burning daylight (or electrons).
Trail journals for hikers:
survival situations
Nobody wants to get into a survival situation.
Everyone wants to get out of one.
Carrying pen and paper guarantees you two things in a survival situation:
Communication
Tracking the condition of your trail buddy while you wait for help after an injury occurs
Some examples will clarify this for you.
