BWCA Log or Diary-how many have one? Boundary Waters Listening Point - General Discussion
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      Log or Diary-how many have one?     

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03/05/2021 02:55PM  
I never did until about 2007 and still not real good at it, also identify and mark your photos as you can see I ma trying to figure where a photo is from.

Just mentioned it because especially you newcomers you will be very glad you kept one. Lakes, fishing campsites, camping buddies.

I know some of you have that photographic memory but even those photos fade with age.
 
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PineKnot
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03/05/2021 03:12PM  
Used to bring a small notepad. But since about 2010, I've been using a small digital voice recorder....allows me to make short recordings throughout the day....
 
JWilder
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03/05/2021 03:24PM  
Neither. Two years ago a friend gave a journal/diary to take along. Man, for some reason I didn't have any ambition or inspiration to write in it. I can't really explain it.

But, I am currently "practicing" journal writing, and documenting worthwhile events and experiences on our new property. I am not good at it but am improving. I think it is like anything else in life. Practice makes better.

This year I will be making a concerted effort and writing a detailed trip journal including pictures. I certainly would like to provide a readable trip report for everyone's enjoyment...

JW
 
andym
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03/05/2021 03:29PM  
We both keep journals. They are great to read back through and could help with photos too. I like getting up in the morning and reviewing the previous day and my thoughts. I never do that anywhere else. My wife keeps notes on all trips. She's also just a fantastic notetaker which makes her a great field scientist. I'm a horrible notetaker except inside the BWCA.
 
03/05/2021 03:53PM  
I’ve kept a journal since 1995. It’s fun to look back and read observations and thoughts over the years. It’s also interesting to see all the people that have tripped with me. Lately I’ve been doing an audio journal with my phone. When I’m back home I listen back and write it in my journal.
 
03/05/2021 04:52PM  
andym: "We both keep journals. They are great to read back through and could help with photos too. I like getting up in the morning and reviewing the previous day and my thoughts. I never do that anywhere else. My wife keeps notes on all trips. She's also just a fantastic notetaker which makes her a great field scientist. I'm a horrible notetaker except inside the BWCA."


I think it would be relaxing at the campsite just thinking about todays events.
 
03/05/2021 05:03PM  
I keep a journal. It consists of several loose 8.5x11 inch lined pages. I fold the pages in quarters and keep them in a small ziplock bag with a pen. Each evening I write down the events of the day and what I was noticing, thinking, and feeling. Doing so helps me to remember what happened during a busy day, and it is enjoyable.

The journal also helps me when I need more information about a photo. My DSLR does not have built-in GPS tagging so I need to keep notes for locating the images on maps.

When I get home, I transcribe the pages into a text document and add a few photos as illustrations. I give each photo a descriptive file name and number them sequentially. I enter more detailed information in their EXIF data with a post-processing program.
 
03/05/2021 05:37PM  
Since our marriage we have only had 32 canoe trips. There was always a journal. And it was always a little spiral note pad, one that would fit in a pint ziplock freezer bag along with its pen. That packet was put in my waist pack, along with the emergency insulin (starting in 1977), a small tube of sunscreen, a chap stick, and in the early days a roll of film or two for the camera. But the one thing that was consistent was that I had a little book to write in.

If you have read any of my trip reports you know that I kept track of a lot of different things. Time of retiring and time of starting out. Temperatures. Most of the time I mentioned what we ate. Sightings of wildlife, bugs, interesting things that I saw. Flowers. Butterflies and dragonflies. Notes on the trip to the canoe country from home, and on the way home, too. There are some very personal moments that I recorded in code. Notes on portages. Notes on campsites. Notes on the route in general. Notes of what to remember to bring another time, notes of things we did bring that made us particularly glad. Etc., etc.

Occasionally I would even write down a few deeper thoughts, philosophize a bit. It was fun to find a couple of those pages when I was recently preparing the Trip Report on our 1977 Quetico Trip.

I still have all of the little original books, too. In almost every instance I have made a photo album or a Snapfish book now for each of the canoe trips. There is no reason to keep them once a real book has been made, but I still do. It is hard to throw them away. So many memories, and so fresh in the mind when I pull them out and look at my notes. They will be in the next group of things to go when we downsize one last time. Or else our children will find them and say, "Why on earth was she keeping these?"
 
airmorse
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03/05/2021 06:19PM  
My biggest regret is not ever keeping a journal.
 
03/05/2021 07:01PM  
Spartan2:

Thought of you when I started this thread, you have such good data and info from way back. I knew you must of kept a good Journal.
 
03/05/2021 07:04PM  
airmorse: "My biggest regret is not ever keeping a journal. "


I agree so much and not doing a good photo record. Now it is so much easier with SD cards and organizing on the computer.
 
Snowbound
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03/05/2021 07:26PM  
I’ve started writing trips notes on index cards. One card for each trip. I’ve written the memories I still have from old trips onto cards. Now I pack a fresh card on each trip and jot down the highlights from each day. The index card has limited space so It removes the expectation of having to write something poetic I feel when I have a blank journal in front of me.
 
03/05/2021 10:50PM  
Been keeping one for years. Mostly meat and potatoes....no fluff. Who, where, when. Routes, portages, campsites, travel times.
 
arm2008
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03/06/2021 08:40AM  
I started logging my hikes, camping, and canoe trips around 2013. I started with index cards and gravitated to the Field Notes memo book, which fits easily in a breast pocket. Along the way I tried the rite in the rain brand but did not like the feel, so I just toss these ones in a ziploc or in my map case when on the water.

I document facts (date, location, etc), observations, occasionally sketch, squash bugs in the pages, and very rarely wax poetic (twice in 7 years?). On occasion I write up my notes in an online app I use to record my tracks.

At home I have a semi-daily journal on my computer but I do not squash bugs in the pages of that one. One thing I do not dwell on in any of my journals are negative thoughts and experiences.

I have found journaling to be a useful tool in managing my life-long depression. Since I started spending more time outside and journaling the experience, when my mind begins to wander it is much more likely to fall on one those positive memories that I have reinforced by writing it down and less likely to dredge up one of the unpleasant experiences of my younger years.

 
OldTripper
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03/06/2021 09:47AM  
While I lived in Alaska I always kept a journal of my outdoor activities and adventures. It was almost like writing a short-story for each of my adventures as some were pretty long.
Starting in 2018 I started keeping a detailed journal of my travels while in the BW. When I get home after a trip I will convert those journal notes into a short-story or "trip report". One thing I really enjoy is keeping precise times of our travels... when we entered a lake, when we portaged out of the lake, how long it took to do the portage, total travel hours and miles traveled on travel days, etc. At the end of the day I will write a synopsis of the days events. I find it helpful in planning future trips and helping others plan their trips. I find it to be one of the trips many pleasures.
 
schweady
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03/06/2021 10:17AM  
We keep a simple log. Just a few paragraphs on the highlights of each trip, the route and campsites, the roster of participants. Provides good fun reading and rereading around the fire on subsequent trips. Good way for our newbies to catch up on the stories that get told and retold. Some of our early notes were a little sketchy, but we'll add details as folks remember them, if they can be verified. It has often been the final say in quelling arguments about when something happened and who was there and how many trips somebody has taken into the wilderness.
 
BAWaters
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03/06/2021 01:05PM  
I bring a notepad and digital voice recorder. I tend to use them both extensively on solos, and not as much when with others. I also use a GoPro Hero 8 Black, which I am careful not to point at other trippers when in the park.
 
BAWaters
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03/06/2021 01:17PM  
arm2008: "I started logging my hikes, camping, and canoe trips around 2013. I started with index cards and gravitated to the Field Notes memo book, which fits easily in a breast pocket. Along the way I tried the rite in the rain brand but did not like the feel, so I just toss these ones in a ziploc or in my map case when on the water.


I document facts (date, location, etc), observations, occasionally sketch, squash bugs in the pages, and very rarely wax poetic (twice in 7 years?). On occasion I write up my notes in an online app I use to record my tracks.


At home I have a semi-daily journal on my computer but I do not squash bugs in the pages of that one. One thing I do not dwell on in any of my journals are negative thoughts and experiences.


I have found journaling to be a useful tool in managing my life-long depression. Since I started spending more time outside and journaling the experience, when my mind begins to wander it is much more likely to fall on one those positive memories that I have reinforced by writing it down and less likely to dredge up one of the unpleasant experiences of my younger years.


"


I typically use Moleskin and other similar notepads. These look great. I will definitely have to add them to my collection.
 
WIMike
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03/06/2021 02:01PM  
I used to keep a fishing log where I recorded all kinds of data--date, time, water temp, air temp, barometric pressure, lures used, fish caught etc. Stopped during a winter and never started again.

I don't keep a journal but I do record my adventures on my FB page and on my blog.
 
straighthairedcurly
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03/06/2021 07:25PM  
I kept a personal journal on my really long trips in the 80's, but it was mostly personal musings mixed with only a few trip notes. I started keeping more complete trip journals again a few years ago. I love writing every evening, especially on my solos. It makes organizing/labeling photos after the trip a bit easier, not to mention it provides the material for my trip reports on here.
 
03/06/2021 09:57PM  
straighthairedcurly: "I kept a personal journal on my really long trips in the 80's, but it was mostly personal musings mixed with only a few trip notes. I started keeping more complete trip journals again a few years ago. I love writing every evening, especially on my solos. It makes organizing/labeling photos after the trip a bit easier, not to mention it provides the material for my trip reports on here. "


I do the same. I mainly keep a journal for a trip report but someday hopefully way in the future I’ll go back and read them. It will help bring back memories along with the pics.
 
03/06/2021 10:00PM  
TomT: "
straighthairedcurly: "I kept a personal journal on my really long trips in the 80's, but it was mostly personal musings mixed with only a few trip notes. I started keeping more complete trip journals again a few years ago. I love writing every evening, especially on my solos. It makes organizing/labeling photos after the trip a bit easier, not to mention it provides the material for my trip reports on here. "



I do the same. I mainly keep a journal for a trip report but someday hopefully way in the future I’ll go back and read them. It will help bring back memories along with the pics. "


One thing gained by looking at pictures of the past, you can see the emotions and feeling of people you know. They are real people.
 
missmolly
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03/07/2021 08:56AM  
I don't. I like stepping away from words for a stretch. I have a word-percolating brain and it's tiresome. Remember the little glass knob at the top of old coffee pots? That's me, but with words. So, I like to become a critter when I'm in the woods and on the water, a watcher and not a writer/talker.
 
03/07/2021 12:21PM  
I have been keeping trip journals since the 1970’s. They help me recall events, places, etc. I have referred back to them many times.
 
03/07/2021 12:27PM  
deerfoot: "I have been keeping trip journals since the 1970’s. They help me recall events, places, etc. I have referred back to them many times. "


Great job
 
Fearlessleader
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03/07/2021 07:46PM  
Have been keeping a journal on our trips for many years. I never intended for it to be a serious log of everything we did and saw but rather focused on the group dynamics (even if it was just the two of us) and always tried to keep it humorous. It is usually told from my perspective and so I often am accused of slightly bending the facts.

Everyone on the trip gets a nickname, usually based on some amusing event early in the trip. The nickname carries over to future excursions. I got my name from my niece who said that I was not necessarily wise, insightful, intelligent, etc, just Fearless.

Hearing a slightly biased account of the day’s activities provides lots of fun and considerable discussion around the fire at night.
 
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