For nearly 30 years, I've kept a field journal. Any time I've ventured out into the backcountry, even if it was only for a day, I've made notes. These notes have been written mostly in cheap 3"X5" pocket notebooks, bound with wire, and usually worn around the edges by the time I filled one. A few years ago I discovered the same notebooks with fancy, waterproof paper and plastic covers. I have all of them bundled in small stacks, wrapped in rubber bands, and hidden in a drawer in my gun safe. Whatever current journal-in-progress I have is kept somewhere close like my dresser top, reloading bench, or in my day pack. Sometimes I've recorded descriptions of my surroundings in the mountains, and other times I've simply written in a sort of stream-of-consciousness way, just getting down on paper how I was feeling at the time. Many times I've pulled out one of my journals and re-visited a place or time in my past. It's a way for me to pull back those thoughts or places and run them through my mind all over again. Here's an entry from July 2010, when I had backpacked alone up into a high valley that I've been going to since I was in high school...
July 20, 2010
A quote from Craig Childs (author) - "Each of us is born to a particular place, a landscape that lies in our oldest memories. Some of us remain in our places, while others flee. I am one who remained...we carry our memories into this place as if cupping water in our palms, guarding them as we walk. When we stop to rest, we open our palms and drink."
I've done this for years as well. Most of mine are about birds. I'm looking forward to hearing about your adventures.
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