Trail Journals.com

imported
#1

I’m not sure if i’m going to use one or not, but I have a few questions that may help me decide. How do people go about updating their trailjournals or posting pictures while on the trail? Is there a certain piece of techonology that they carry to do this? Or are there places at each town to do it? Or do they have to call home every day or so to give their update and have a helper do the actual updating? And pictures…I’m assuming these are done with a digital camera? But same thing…do they have to send them home to be posted? So, basically, how do hikers make Trail Journals work? Any input or opinions on this topic is appreciated. Thank you.

C-Giddy

#2

I kept up with my journal using pocketmail. For a 6 month service plan and the pocketmail device the cost is about $200. I typed my journal each night before going to bed and everytime I came to a phone I emailed all of my journals to my wife. Once she got them she would cut them out of the email, paste them into a Word document, run the spelling and grammar check, and then cut and paste them into trail journals. Works great. The only time I got behind was the 100-mile Wilderness where I didn’t see a phone for a week. In fact, we are still working on getting those pages I’ve already completed posted. I think that will be the only time my journals will be behind more than a few days. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is willing to spend the $200 for the service and has someone who can post the journal entries for you.

I know others just kept track on paper and then each time they got to a library would catch up. Their entries were typically pretty short and didn’t give a good description of their hikes. I didn’t like this method since I like to write more detailed accounts of my experiences.

Sleepwalker

#3

Flame and I would write in our journals every night. We used a small tablet. When we got to a town we mailed them to a family member, who would translate as best they could and type it into our journal page. It was a time consuming process for them because there were two of us writing. The fun part was I did not read her journals except on the internet. You can post on this site for a transcriber. Good luck on your hike. I recommend you keep a journal. I still enjoy reading our. We are printing it up for our grandkids.

Papa Smurf

#4

My husband (Presto) and I hand-wrote journal entries on alternating days and when in town we would mail them to his mom, who typed them into MS Word (to do spellcheck) and then pasted them in trailjournals. On the top of each new entry we would provide miles hiked, starting and ending location, and whether we tented or stayed in a shelter (all of these the transcriber needs to know to post the journal.)

We were not sure we wanted the trouble of a digital camera, with the charger, worrying about losing memory sticks etc. I kind of wish now we’d have taken one. However, we took a zillion 35mm photos and mailed the completed rolls to my mom, who had them developed at walmart. She got one set of prints, and one set on CDROM, and Walmart also posted them online free for 1 month. That way, they could be easily uploaded onto trailjournals. Now, I’m transcribing for Yogi (PCT) and her & I use the same system with journals and photos. Presto is transcribing for Ken and Maricia,(AT) who do the Pocketmail thing and he only needs to cut and paste- no typing. Transcribing can be time consuming if you write a lot, want lots of photos, so be sure your transcriber knows what they’re getting into.

I highly recomend doing trailjournals. The web site is user friendly, and Leif and Zipdrive (webmasters) are awesome. Our family and friends loved to read it to keep up with our hike. We enjoy reading the journals of others we hiked with last year. The only downside is that you sometimes feel like you need to “censor” what you type, and some people prefer the privacy of an old fashioned, not online journal. Also, if you get behind online-journaling people worry and/or get frustrated.

Jitterbug

#5

As far as the pics go, if you have some one that is rather good with Photoshop or some other graphics program they can do the photos for you even if someone else does the journals. Most pics look great if sized to 10"x what ever size and dpi set to 72 for small file size. Here’s a link to one sharpy I just did on our trip to Conn with Hephzibah. http://www.trailjournals.com/photos.cfm?id=29444

This is from my Olympus digital cam with minimal sizing and touch up. Not to knock Wally World and other stores but some of thier c/d’s are a little rough and unless you have some software to play with them, what you see is what you get.

Bushwhack