Shelter Journals

Most of the shelters along the trail, as well as stores that cater to hikers and some points of interest, have journals. These are a great way for hikers to keep track of one another. This way you can see who is ahead of you and how far. It is not completely accurate, I have been known to get the date wrong from time to time and not everyone signs in every journal. Some people do not sign in at all. People also leave messages for those behind them or recommendations on places to stay or restaurants to eat in. If a business pisses off a hiker word will get out about it very quickly. Not all of the messages are that interesting. Most people say whether they are stopping for the night, or if it just a quick break, and do a quick synopsis of their day. Others simply right "in for the night," or "stopped for lunch." These are pointless to me. They are great for finding out when someone came through and whether they are going faster than you or not. But it is not very satisfying to read. Since I am not carrying a book, I am looking for something more entertaining. This is why I also try to be more entertaining in my entries. I try not to say anything about the weather or the trail. You can tell if it was hot or raining that day based on other peoples' entries. Also why talk about the terrain, everyone who is reading it just did the same miles, or is about to. It is also annoying to brag about how many miles you have done that day. I am happy that you were able to do 17 miles before lunch, but do you have fun?
When people have passed me, I have often heard them say that they have been following along with what I have been writing or that they particularly liked one entry or another. Several of my posts, such as the cult post, started out as a journal entry. But for the most part they are very different from my blog. The blog is to keep the people off the trail informed about what I am doing and what life is like on the trail. The journal entries are for people on the trail. They know what trail life is like, so I talk about other things. I have told lots of stories unrelated to hiking. There is another Nekton employee on the trail, so I have been telling boat stories for him. Recently Shadow, Filidelfia and I have been making up stories about the horrible things that Shadow has done to South bounders. All in the hopes that we can make some people laugh.