Conferences, meeting with vendors, training sessions, these are all good occasions to score free note books. I get childishly excited when I receive a nice one. Reluctantly it opens as I pull on the front cover, as if it doesn’t quite want to reveal the virgin pages inside. Immediately I start dreaming about the stories and the notes that I will put in it. With apologies to conference organizers, trainers, and people that try to sell me something, very few of those fleeting dreams relate to work.
Unfortunately only two of these notebooks have been used. As excited as I am about the prospect of collecting my observations through a whole year of hiking, scouting, and hunting, I rarely actually do it. The white paper intimidates me, it urges me to not defile it unless I have something of relevance to commit to paper. So my notes go on loose sheets of printer paper: telephone numbers, doodles, names of basins I suddenly remember I need to revisit, things do do, and especially many more doodles – I’m in a lot of phone meetings – until nothing is really legible anymore, and all context is lost. The sheet of paper first goes on a pile and then into the recycling bin.
The first exception I made for the 2013 sheep hunt in Cadomin. According to my notes Darren suggested I’d keep a journal, and indeed I did, at least during the preparation phase. It’s fun to read back and go through the process of discovery of a then-new area again, and smile at some of the comments reflecting uncertainties and questions that have long since been answered.
The first time I actually used a journal to collect my thoughts and organize my memories during a hunt was on last year’s tahr adventure in New Zealand. Every night, inside the tent, I would scribble down the events of the day. Days were short in the middle of the Southern winter, and with temperatures below freezing and no campfire, retreating early to the warmth of the sleeping bag was not something that needed encouragement. I don’t think I’ve ever slept better (and longer) in the backcountry than on that trip.
So, after these quick trips down memory lane, I have made my 2019 resolution: keep a journal, a record of training runs, hikes and scouting trips, planning and actual hunts, bow shooting practices, and whatever else seems relevant. To get over my fear of white paper I have made my first note in a brand new, clean, virgin notebook. There is no going back now. I suggest you do the same. One day you may achieve fame or notoriety and after you die your grandchildren will fight over who gets to auction them off to pay for their mortgage. In any case, years from now it will be fun to relive some of your adventures (provided you have better handwriting than I do – I find my notes very hard to read).
Go ahead: write your story!
P.S. Kyle is much more diligent than I am and keeps notes of most multi-day trips. On his phone. Which I doubt will have the same appeal and value at the post-mortem auction.
