Journals on iPhone

imported
#1 
									I'm getting ready  to set up a journal for my thru hike. I'll be using my iPhone.  Can someone run me through the best way to write and post to trail journals on the iPhone.   My age is showing. Ug!  Thanks. 

									_Den Mother_
#2 
									I've always had someone back home post my journals for me.  I composed an email to them each night giving info of starting location, stopping location, miles traveled that day, and the description of the days hiking.  My transcriber also had a copy of the guidebook I was using but that isn't totally necessary if you give enough information.

I have an AT&T phone which had coverage on most of the trail, the people with Verizon seemed to have reception in places I did not. There were some nights where I would walk around the campsite or go back up a hill near the site to get the phone to work. Remember to let your transcriber there might be a string of days your phone will not work and not to panic. Once you get reception you can send numerous days of journals.

									_Old Goat_
#3 
									Den Mother,

I used my iphone on the PCT and it worked fairly well. I set up a blogger.com site, and then registered my iphone with it so that I could email a blogger address (with pictures) and it would automatically post to the site. I kept my phone in airplane mode while hiking and typed “draft” emails at night in my tent. Then, when I’d get to a place where I knew I had signal or into a town, I’d fire up the phone and send off the drafts in order, and they’d all get posted to my blogger site. I never did figure out a way to get posts up on trailjournals and usually just copy/pasted them over from the blogger site when in towns. Last i checked there wasn’t a smartphone auto-post technique for trailjournals.com (but that may hve changed).

									_lakewood_
#4 
									The problem with iPhones and similar is they use power while composing and sending emails, blog posts, etc.

I use TrailPhone. I dial a toll-free number, punch in my pin and the nearest AT milemarker and leave a short voice message. Friends or family transcribe to my TrailJournal for others. I then update my TrailJournal after the trip with the notes I take along the way. Very efficient and it uses little power. A cheap $20 Verizon button phone works great.

Also, TrailPhone updates a map with a pin in the area I’m hiking so folks know within a mile or so of where I am. Kinda like SPOT without buying a SPOT and subscription.

									_BigHodag_
#5 
									Just finished a section hike of the AT from Springer to I-40 and I used my iPhone to update my trailjournal. I have Verizon and had enough service to post every night except 2 I think. A few other times I was about to give up and just barely got enough service to make it work. That's just for the journal part which only transfers a small amount of data in comparison to the pictures I added to the journal.

I got in the habit of uploading a photo or two at some point during the day when I was at the vista/a higher elevation, as the shelter/tent sites are usually at a gap/low point. I kept my phone off at other times.

I would turn the phone on in airplane mode while I typed my journal in the Notes app. Then I would turn the phone on, wander around the site/up a hill if necessary to find a signal and open the TJ page and cut-paste the journal entry, along with the other information on the page.

I’m not going to pretend it wasn’t frustrating at times and I wasted more “campfire hangout time” than I wanted. It also killed a lot of battery to attempt the uploads at times. I was carrying a new trent external battery, and I sometimes used 3 full iPhone charges before I made it back to an outlet somewhere to recharge. So if you’re planning on journaling every day between towns, you’ll probably have to carry a backup battery as well.

									_Goober_
#6 
									I detest facebook like a plague, but I wonder if that would be a viable option. You could upload photos and a log to once place fairly easily, even if you had to create a new FB page just for the hike. That's how I plan on keeping people in the loop. But this thread may make me change my mind. Not sure how many external batteries I want to carry!

									_TurboPants_