I’m generally not a writer. However, I have been journaling my trips for the past 15 years and I wish I had done it from the start There are so many places I’ve been but I don’t recollect the details of the portages, lakes, or campsites.

My journals might not be for me so much as whoever reads them when I’m gone, if anyone.

I use them for reference now as to when I went, where I went, and what I had for breakfast that day. I would urge especially the younger crowd on this forum to journal. As you age and time slips past you, your journals will be your library of your life!

Plant trees too! But that’s for another thread.
Tom

i would keep a journal, then switched to keeping notes on the back of the trip map (to save weight :)).

now i have multiple maps of same areas that overlapped over the years, and nothing is in order, just all in a box that i have to rifle through when i'm looking for something.

i've reread the journals a few times and still need the map to follow along at times.

i like the idea of some type of journaling by hand instead of exclusively electronics (phone, camera, recording device). it makes me feel like i'm living in the time of writing with pen and ink by candlelight.

My wife keeps great journals of all our trips, while I take photos. We use her notes to write our trip reports and a few years back started doing a Shutterfly book of each trip.

TZ

I keep a journal. Not a diary type but mostly "data" collection. Portage info, campsite details, fishing spots and time it takes to get from lake A to lake B for future trip planning. Also have bigger journal that stays home that gets updated with route, lakes traveled through and campsites stayed at. In the back of that one is an alphabetically arranged list of lakes visited.
I hope someone reads them when I'm gone.

TrailZen: "My wife keeps great journals of all our trips, while I take photos. We use her notes to write our trip reports and a few years back started doing a Shutterfly book of each trip.

That's a nice idea!

I will often write down just a bare bones outline and a few highlights on a sheet of scrap paper before it fades from my mind.

I take a few notes and a lot of photos on trips as well as share photos with others I may be tripping with. When I'm back home, I use Shutterfly or other programs to make photo books with details of each trip (more so for multi-day trips). This isn't nearly as space or cost friendly as journaling, but I enjoy having them to share with family or grab a stack in the winter months to reminisce.

I also keep a running Excel spreadsheet of the waterways I've been on with some other details including the year visited, who was with, camp reviews, etc.

portagerunner: "I use Shutterfly or other programs to make photo books with details of each trip (more so for multi-day trips). This isn't nearly as space or cost friendly as journaling, but I enjoy having them to share with family or grab a stack in the winter months to reminisce.

."

Same.
Shutterfly or Google books are the best way for me to document and share my trips. I made a book on an epic trip I did 15 years ago and I still melt when I open the book and reminisce,

One of my greatest failures. I never did. Then after 30+ years of BW trips I started.

Don't let the words of your youth fade away.

cowdoc: "I keep a journal. Not a diary type but mostly "data" collection. Portage info, campsite details, fishing spots and time it takes to get from lake A to lake B for future trip planning. Also have bigger journal that stays home that gets updated with route, lakes traveled through and campsites stayed at. In the back of that one is an alphabetically arranged list of lakes visited.
I hope someone reads them when I'm gone."

Similar here. I mark campsite & portage notes on my maps. Jot down a few additional details in a small notebook. I've been trying to document campsites and portages with lots of "stock" photos for future reference, especially landings or landmarks.

I don't write a full account of my trips anymore, but that's ok with me. I find digital photos to be the best way to replay the trip in my mind.

We generally do journal. At the "back page" of each trip's journal I have a "shoulda-coulda-woulda" list.
I write down what I wish we'd have brought along (or not), done (or not), etc. It's a great way to up our game for the next trip. Sometimes (increasingly) it includes efforts we've made to accommodate our aging bodies.
It's fun to go back and read our entries, because we (spouse and me) record very different perceptions and observations. I never read what we've both written until after the trip.

Yes.

Click on the 'journal' tab under my screen name.

chessie: "We generally do journal. At the "back page" of each trip's journal I have a "shoulda-coulda-woulda" list."

Good point. For sure I always make notes on "what to do the same or different" next time. Food amounts, things to modify, things to leave behind or bring based on conditions or time of year or trip type, what worked well or did not. Those are valuable!

TrailZen: "My wife keeps great journals of all our trips, while I take photos. We use her notes to write our trip reports and a few years back started doing a Shutterfly book of each trip.


TZ


"

Similar in so many ways. The biggest difference being that I journal and I also take the majority of the photos, probably 85-90%. I have always kept a journal on every trip, but we didn't have as many trips as you Minnesota folks. Something like 32 trips between 1971 and 2013. But every trip has a journal (I have still kept the little spiral notebooks, even though the narrative has been transcribed into a book. Can't bear to throw them away.) Every trip has a book with photos and narrative. It is a really nice memory experience to go through one of the books and realize how much we might forget about a trip if we didn't have it.

In the beginning it was a photo album with narrative pages included. After we had digital cameras and I discovered how to make books on Snapfish, I transitioned from the large, somewhat awkward and bulky photo albums containing hundreds of photos to the Snapfish books. Slowly I have even transferred a few trips to that format by scanning photos and typing the texts. . .but it is a tedious process and I won't live long enough to put all of those big photo albums into the photo book format.

In our early trips I was the only one with a camera, and there was NEVER a photo of me unless I handed my camera to Spartan1 and insisted on a shot, just to prove that I was really there! After digital photography entered the scene, I bought Spartan1 a nice, easy-to-use camera, and in our later trips he took some very interesting photos. Made me wish he had taken a camera himself in the nineteen-seventies! :-)

Once we had our two grandchildren, we did a summer "Grandchild Vacation" with each of them and each of those has a book, too. These were not canoe trips. Then we began taking cruises in our older years. For those trips I kept my journal notes on an iPad to transcribe later to Snapfish. I try to make the book soon after our return while all is fresh in my mind. (It could be said that this is a bit of a compulsion. "Book days" are intense around our house.)

Like Chessie, I also have a back page in every journal with "coulda-woulda-shouda" items and often that includes "shouldn't have", too.

The photo is from 2005, Lac La Croix campsite.

I don't, but I should. Which is my life's motto ;)

I should have.
A book could be written .
Love you all

I started when I was 30,on my first solo trips. It was mostly to remember each day, events, wins, losses, and experiences as I know they'll all blend together in a couple year's time. Not to mention I like the thought of my kids reading them. I try to crack a joke and capture my mood but they're usually very brief and factual. " Day-4: Call me Windy McWindface. PITA north wind all day from LIS to LLC. Was able to duck behind the islands once I rounded the bend and grabbed the campsite by..."

This makes me really want to do a dang trip report!

This page takes me right back to the night in question, forty-five years after the events described. I don’t believe that any electronic drafting would have captured the experience nearly as well:

You found a pen!

As much as I love telling the stories afterwards, I've never journaled on a trip.

I believe that's because for my work I did lots of writing of reports, proposals and keeping of various records--probably more than was neccesary for most people but it served me personally towards success on the job. A BWCA trip provided me a chance at departure from those daily disciplines so a journal was not going to be part of the trip routine.

For the last 15 years or so, I have made sure to publish a trip report on this forum as soon as I returned and while the events were fresh in my mind (LOVE the idea of assembling these reports and the photos that go with them into a Snapfish book!). I also try to edit and post a video telling the story of our trip. For trips prior to that, I'm just content with what was burned into my brain. I'm sure many details are lost but with a little thought I'm still able to recall plenty. Recently, I challenged myself to come up with every entry point, outfitter, and specific people of every year's trip(s) and was able to do it!

Now recently retired, I may just journal on the remaining trips I've yet to do over the next several years because it will now be a part of breaking the routine, rather than adherence to it.

I have two full journals that I've filled over the years. The past few years I've been recording my thoughts with my phone and then transcribing them when I return.

I've journaled all of my trips except my first one. Wish I had on that one! As time goes on the memories fade somewhat. My memory has never been great, so I've always journaled so I could remember later on. So glad I did.

On the other hand, it can be convicting, after I start embellishing stories and exaggerating fish lengths, to revisit the journal and read the truth.

gravelroad: "This page takes me right back to the night in question, forty-five years after the events described. I don’t believe that any electronic drafting would have captured the experience nearly as well:




"

With those few words, I have what I think is an apt image of Odin.

JimmyJustice: "

gravelroad: "This page takes me right back to the night in question, forty-five years after the events described. I don’t believe that any electronic drafting would have captured the experience nearly as well:





"

With those few words, I have what I think is an apt image of Odin. "

And now you have the real thing:

Yes, I love to journal on my trips. I use the info and thoughts to write my trip reports.

I don't but my wife does, sometimes for an hour or two.

I don't personally journal, though many of my BWCA/Quetico trips have been with my parents and for better or worse, Dad keeps one. Typically, the route and location stayed at are accurate... as for who did what, let's just say that some creative license is taken with the events... and that's being excessively kind. Perhaps a more accurate statement is that it's mostly damn lies.... funny ones though!

I suspect that as they get older, and frankly, we're on the last couple years of them going, the journals will become ever more valuable. The written word reminds us of who we are and where we've been. Much to appreciate there. As has been often said, "if someone remembers you, are you really gone"?

Long may the remembering continue.

gravelroad: "This page takes me right back to the night in question, forty-five years after the events described. I don’t believe that any electronic drafting would have captured the experience nearly as well:




"

This drives home the old adage "A short pencil is better than a long memory"!!

TZ