Date: 2016-07-25
To: Sharing Your Journey
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

SinceI started seriously hiking the trail, I have always enjoyed sharing my journeyswith the world. I¢m sure only my familyand a few friends actually read my shit, but I really write it for me. I like to be able to go back and read what Iwrote and have it bring back memories and good feelings from myadventures. Sometimes, it also bringsback the pain and that is a good thing. It¢s good to remember the pain. I haveused various methods of logging my hikes. Trail Journals (TJ) is one where I have recorded all of my hikes, bothon the A.T. and elsewhere. The websitehas good and bad attributes. It isreally good at keeping track of your miles and your stops. Where you sleep andpictures you take and a few other good things, but you must fill out the entryform correctly and string them together properly. The bad is that it is a little hard tonavigate using a phone with spotty signal out in the bush. Many times I have abandoned posting from thetrail and just took good notes. When Ireturned home to my computer, I would update the journal. I have seen long distance hikers use the appthroughout their hike. Updating from themountain tops and staying fairly close to real time. I will try this during our long hike, butmake no promises.I alsohave maintained a blog using the blogspot (blogger) website. The site has an easier interface both at homeand on the go and has a better layout than the TJ site. What I have learned is I can create somethinghere with pictures and links and then copy its html over to a TJ entry and itwill look the same. Pictures and linksand all.Sothis blog has all of my hikes on it too with additional content about the weirdand special things I think about, then write about in this world. This is sort of my Central InformationCenter, my Home Base.Facebookhas also come in handy where it is really easy to post a quick update with alittle bit of signal. You can even postpictures if the signal is strong enough. This is the old go-to if I¢m feeling lazy, but still want toupdate. I have created this Like Page toalso track our journey. We will see howit works out.Thereis another site, not unlike TJ, called Postholer.com. It could do a lot of things and had a greatapp for your phone, but it was spartan looking and the app disappeared fromGoogle Play. (I heard that the author ofthe app died and when the license ran out, the app was removed). I have an account on postholer, but I don¢tplan on using it any time soon.There are multitude of other sites to use.  Snapchat, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter and Wordpress to name a few.Regardlessof which site(s) I choose to use, I will always have my handy dandy lo-technotebook where I record the particulars of the day and can refer back to whenit is time to write the journal entry, which will be written into my phone inthe Google Keep app. From there I willbe able to cut and paste to whichever app or site I want. Thebig question is, will I be able to maintain my journaling while we arehiking? I have seen it happen countlesstimes. The hiker starts out updatingevery day, then it falls off to a couple times a week. Before too long, the hiker is updating aboutonce every week or two, before they throw in the towel and admit that afterhiking for 10 to 12 hours, getting water, eating dinner and any other chorethat needs to be done, writing a journal entry loses to sleep.Ifthat happens, so be it. I will have mynotes and eventually, I will be able to tell my story.PeaceEarthTone