Excerpts from Hikers Journals

IGO · Joined: 08 Feb 2005 Posts: 4144 Location: Las Vegas

Do you write when you hike? I thought it would be fun to hear some of your favorites. Yours or someone elses. Here's one that makes me laugh:

An Excerpt from a Hikers Journal
“I look across the river, maybe a hundred yards wide at this point. Very swift but not quit rapids here. I laugh at the irony of this comparison. I can probably toss a stone over to the opposite bank but to stand on it I’d have to hike two hard days out then drive for a day then hike for another 2 or 3 days. It would take a week of hard work and careful planning to pick up the stone I just tossed across the river. I love this place.”
Written by moonlight by Ditch Digger
Cardenas Creek
1987
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"Surely all God's people, however serious or savage, great or small, like to play. Whales and elephants, dancing, humming gnats, and invisibly small mischievous microbes - all are warm with divine radium and must have lots of fun in them." John Muir

Trishness · Posted: 8/28/2007, 9:42 pm Post subject:

I usually write in my journal after a day hike or after a day on the trail on extended backpack trips.

Excerpt from my first backpacking trip to the Rim in April of 2004:

Chipmunks abound in the afternoon. They scampered everywhere over the old corral, the old outhouse and around the camp area. Then the sun set and it got a tad cooler. Built a fire and had lots of wood to burn. By 8 PM it was cold and I turned in but by the wee hours is was just plain friggin' COLD. I woke at 3:15 AM and was freezing, even in my 20 degree sleeping bag. I slept with every bit of clothing on that I brought and socks on my hands because I forgot gloves...... I won't mention what I put on my head. Got up at 5:45 and there was a hard frost on items we had left out…...you could see your breath. The water bladders had chunky ice in them so I’d say it was in the low 30’s during the night. There was some “ruckus in the woods” during the night but I didn’t want to know who or what that was.
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~~~Trish~~~

"Eastward the dawn rose, ridge behind ridge into the morning, and vanished out of eyesight into guess; it was no more than a glimmer blending with the hem of the sky, but it spoke to them, out of the memory and old tales, of the high and distant mountains." ï¿½ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of The Rings.

Hikngrl · Posted: 8/29/2007, 6:29 am Post subject:

Here's one! It is from my journal on this site.... I stopped writing in it ages ago when I started repeating hikes.... I used to put my trip reports in it then decided that was redundant.....

( Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2003 2:59 pm )

What an incredible day!!!! We did the WFW (west fork wade) yesterday and it was the most challenging hiking experience I have ever had! There were six pools of freezing cold water we had to swim through ( I barely made it through them!) And hiking through water any where from ankle deep to chest deep all day long. It was a fourteen mile hike that took us almost 12 hours. Lots of bouldering and slippery rocks. A huge physical challenge! The people were wonderful!!! There was Sandy J, Todd (GTG), Mike, Tom (hikeringilbert), Kent (arizonaheat), Stan, Hank (hnak), Colin (ck1) and Tony (Colin's friend). Tony and Colin's wife were there but didn't hike. Hooli was there but only did the lower trail with Mrs Mike (Christianna), Catvalet (Randy) and his fiance Patty. I wouldn't have made it if it weren't for Kent. He got me through those pools when I didn't think I could make it! We had a wonderful time and I will remember it for the rest of my life! I am so proud of the fact that I was able to do that hike!!!! If they do it again next year I am there!!!! I will do things a little differntly but I will be there! Thank you God for this wonderful tough and challenging experience., for wllowing me to learn and grow from you wonderous beauty you have given us!
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~~~Diane~~~

I want to shine!

Shawn · Posted: 8/29/2007, 7:13 am Post subject:

I didn't save them and I have no idea where they are now, but I saw some incredible log entries my first time at Club Cabin. The most memorable was from a fellow who had lived and worked there many years ago, and his stories about how "ownership" of the cattle grazing there changed between the area ranchers. I wonder if the FS ever collected those books and saved them or if they were lost when the cabin burned.
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The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see.

thesuperstitions · Guest

... With all chores completed, we stood around the fire-ring talking and reminiscing… not wanting to say goodbye. It was observed that even with no fire within the ring, it still drew us ‘round. It wasn’t the fire at all, but the circle. It brought us all near, and seemed a fitting place to say goodbye. There were hugs all around, as is the tradition in this community. Hugs not of stiff-formality, but of honesty and respect and genuine caring for one another.

YH · Posted: 8/29/2007, 12:12 pm Post subject:

Nice excerpts! I love to read what others feel and experience when they hike. I almost always write and they become my trip reports. Here is a snippet...

I gather some semi dry wood and decide to try and build another fire in the community pit. Maybe it will attract more conversation with different folks. The fire starts, but no takers. I feel lonely.

I’m left to my own thoughts for the next hour and a half. You would think that thoughts would be deep at a time like this, and at times they do. Thoughts around the best of times and the worst of times…thoughts about my life. Thoughts of friends…new and old. Missed loved ones.

But those are fleeting. Mostly it is just staring at the fire ~ adding a stick here and there. Simple mindless thoughts like how good campfire smoke smells in the cool air, and how bad it smells on your clothes if you’re at home. I guess that’s an example of how things placed in their proper context can have a very pleasing effect, yet if removed from that context it can have quite the opposite effect. Lesson learned. Perhaps there is more deep thought taking place while adding sticks than I am aware of.

Davis2001R6 · Joined: 12 Dec 2003 Posts: 5591 Location: Italy

I keep forgetting to bring a journal for my trips. There have been many times on recent trips that I would have liked to be able to write.

Hikngrl · Posted: 8/29/2007, 3:56 pm Post subject:

Great thread IGO!!!!!!
_________________
~~~Diane~~~

I want to shine!

IGO · Joined: 08 Feb 2005 Posts: 4144 Location: Las Vegas

These are SO great. I'm lovin' it! Keep'm coming.

Here's one I wrote when I first left Arizona in 1993 and insisted on circumnavigating Cumberland Island as soon as I got to Georgia that July.....

July 11, 1993 – day 5
Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia

"Good morning Cumberland."
"Let me tell you all how I've come to start my day. First I slap on a generous supply of 100% DEET bug juice to freshen up yesterday’s stale juice. Then I smear around some juice from open poison ivy sores. These things fixed with body oils and salts and sea spray has an aroma that is esthetically pleasing……..to crabs and alligators.”
“Then I rub some juice of mosquito and beetle (I like those things in my evening meal too) for color. Then I like to throw in some tick body parts around in my shorts along with some sand for texture.”
“I came here hoping I might meet someone of the kinder sex but if she has acquired the same hygiene practices I’ve come to know on the island then we could only hope to get to know one another as pen pals. And if we met on the boat as she’s coming on to the island and I departing, the only thing I could expect from the encounter is to be cast from the boat”

Wasn’t that precious? Shocked

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"Surely all God's people, however serious or savage, great or small, like to play. Whales and elephants, dancing, humming gnats, and invisibly small mischievous microbes - all are warm with divine radium and must have lots of fun in them." John Muir

IGO · Joined: 08 Feb 2005 Posts: 4144 Location: Las Vegas

Excellent write YH. I've been right there a thousand times.
My how time flys hah Diane?
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"Surely all God's people, however serious or savage, great or small, like to play. Whales and elephants, dancing, humming gnats, and invisibly small mischievous microbes - all are warm with divine radium and must have lots of fun in them." John Muir

evenstar · Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 5548 Location: SCW by way of CA

Picked up my right foot.....picked up my left foot.....Oh! Oh!.....Shoulda put right foot down first.....fell on my Tommy Trekker! Moon

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John Richardson and Richie Rich, El Perro de Playero
http://members.tripod.com/~evenstar/index.html
http://www.arizonahikers.com
When the Man waked up he said, "What is Wild Dog doing here?" And the Woman said, "His name is not Wild Dog anymore, but the First Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and always. Take him with you when you go hunting."
--Rudyard Kipling, from Just So Stories, 1902

Tom Treks · Gear Addict Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 3347

Uh oh, he's baaaaaack. Everyone watch your pints and quarts...

Shawn · Posted: 8/29/2007, 6:18 pm Post subject:

IGO · Joined: 08 Feb 2005 Posts: 4144 Location: Las Vegas

I wrote this on the hike I met Hnak on in 1998. I wrote it just before reaching the top of Grandview after 6 days between Christmas and including New Years 99. I wrote it in 30 seconds at "The Saddle"

7 days in the wilderness
6 nights below freezing
5 days from McDonalds
4 pound hotel rooms
3 ounces of water left
2 granola bars
1 hour from the top
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"Surely all God's people, however serious or savage, great or small, like to play. Whales and elephants, dancing, humming gnats, and invisibly small mischievous microbes - all are warm with divine radium and must have lots of fun in them." John Muir

Hnak · Joined: 06 Jan 2003 Posts: 1766 Location: Prescott, AZ

Was that 9 years ago??? WOW...

That was a memorable trip, in many ways..... Mr. Green

Mayhaps we should put another one together someday... And possibly screen the participants a bit.. Wink

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The world is older and bigger than we are. This is a hard truth for some folks to swallow. —EDWARD ABBEY