Date: 2007-05-31
From: Daleville, VA

To: Daleville, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: haze

The gang of five votes and it is unanimous: today we take a zero day. But as much as the relaxation is necessary, it is hard to just do NOTHING.TRAINMAN¢S SIDEBAR COMMENT: TJ EditorThis is not an easy job being the transcriber, editor, photo analyzer, ghostwriter and publisher of April¢s Trail Journal. The problem is the time required, and the fact that once I receive fresh material from April, she expects it to be transcribed and posted within a few days. ¢People are waiting to read this stuff!¢ she scolds me.On average it takes 2 to 3 hours of behind the scenes preparation to publish a single day¢s Trail Journal entry. Here are the steps I go through.1. Receive hand written notes mailed in from the trail. These are truly ¢notes,¢ usually containing just a minimum of detail about what happened on the trail, but sometimes including names of people and places. Every 14 days or so I receive 14 days¢ worth of notes (scribblings, actually).2. Receive a memory card (in the same mailed package) containing 14 days¢ worth of digital photos. These usually have no information on them other than the technical stuff that is electronically embedded. Most important is the date and time the photo was taken. April has 3 memory cards so one is in the camera while the others are traveling.3. Transfer photo files to home computer. The simple program that came with the camera works nicely, and is not so complex that I would never be able to master it.4. Analyze photos and notes and start to formulate what the storyline will be. Of all photos taken on a single day, I have to determine which photos are kept and which ones are tossed, which one will be the ¢lead¢ photo, and what is the viewing order of the keeper photos. Some pictures are not first quality straight out of the camera so they are magically resuscitated by using the photo-editing tool. It¢s easy and effective to crop the photos for emphasis, and it¢s amazing how a slight adjustment of the color or contrast helps if the original is off a bit. About two-thirds of the photos posted are modified in some fashion.5. Write a draft of the daily story. Because April¢s notes are short, a lot of editorial license is utilized to fill in the gaps. Fortunately I¢ve hiked sufficient miles and lived with April long enough to understand the hiker¢s psyche. Reference documents used during this stage include two trail guides, state road maps, Google, a dictionary and my beloved thesaurus. The draft is written, then rewritten, ignored for a few days, rewritten again, and saved as a separate Word document.6. Go to the Trail Journals website, log in as the ¢Administrator,¢ and activate ¢Photo ¢ Add.¢ Photos are downloaded to the site¢s photo archive one at a time. This is purposefully a slow process because the site owners do not want you to dump in 100 digital files with a single keystroke. I have to reassign the photos to the proper ¢story¢ date. Then I have to write both a title and a caption for the photo. The process requires that the photos be entered first, that¢s why you see them a week or so before the text catches up.7. Return to the website and activate ¢Journal ¢ Add.¢ Enter the daily destination, the daily mileage, grab the ¢lead¢ photo from the photo file archive and attach it electronically to the text. Open the Word file, do a Copy ¢ Paste, and insert it into the journal page.8. If everything looks ok, do a save and log out of TJ. Because ¢editing¢ has a different appearance from ¢reading,¢ it is then necessary to log back in to TJ (as a reader) and see what the total effort really looks like. If there are errors, log back in again as the administrator and fix them.Being an exacting writer and photographer, I find it takes 2 to 3 hours to do every daily entry. I could do it faster by writing less text and not worrying so much about the photos, but then that wouldn¢t be my very best effort. Most readers would likely not find the journal as entertaining as it is now. And did I forget to mention the occasional SIDEBAR? Well, they also take time to write. The one you are now reading took about 3 hours of writing and reviewing to prepare.As you browse through other hikers¢ Trail Journals, do not find fault with some that may be lacking in finesse. Many hikers are more interested in doing the miles than writing about them. I imagine it to be very difficult, perhaps bordering on the impossible, to run the entire publishing operation from the trail. So if you find other journals deficient in some respects, still read them with interest, and accord them the respect they deserve. These journals are published for the benefit of you, the readers, in the hope that everyone can vicariously share the hiker¢s journey.As I write this sidebar I am about 4 weeks behind schedule. As in any business venture there is a ¢recovery plan,¢ and you can read about that plan in the posting for June 19. The plan is April¢s idea, and I think it¢s a great solution.April¢s last submittal to me included notes and photos for 17 days. You do the math: 17 days at 2 hours per day equals 34 hours (minimum). Getting through this one feels closer to 17 x 3 = 51 hours of work. My free time does have a limit! Maybe I¢ll have to retire from my day job so I can keep up with my writing. Now that¢s something to contemplate!