It doesn’t look like much of a book. The tattered pages are dog-eared and yellow. The scribbling inside is hard to read beneath streaks of dirt and faded ink. The stories the book contains are pretty drab stuff. Nevertheless, it is the most precious book in my library.
It is a book of travel and adventure, a book of love, joy and sadness. Inside are treasured memories, a chronicle of triumphs and disappointments, a recital of feelings and emotions. It is an album of my uncommonly common life afield, a legacy to my children and their children. It is my outdoor journal.
On the face of it, keeping a journal may seem like a rather inconsequential piece of busyness. But there are good reasons why I started one.
Ego is part of it. I hope someday my sons will want to follow the trails I’ve taken, to hunt the fields and forests I love. Perhaps they’ll want to discover what made me tick, and if they do, my journal will serve to guide them. But ego isn’t the whole of it.
I use the notes in my journal as references for many stories I write. They help me relocate that secluded thicket where cottontails are thick as July blackberries. They tell me how many ducks I harvested last winter, what types they were and the type of weather on the days I took them. They help me remember how long it takes to get from this point to that and the name of the greasy-spoon restaurants that serve good barbecue. They tell me when bears can be seen with their cubs in the river bottoms, and when elk are bugling in the mountains.
But these aren’t the real reasons why I keep a journal, either. It isn’t a reporter’s notes or a travel guide or an address book. It’s more than that.
My journal is something special to warm my heart and mind when each season ends. I want to be able to savor my experiences outdoors because, regrettably, they are harder to come by every year. My journal lets me look back with a clarity of memory better than that which nature gave me.
Exactly which day my son killed his first limit of rabbits or where I shot a turkey in the mountains may not seem important as I record it. But when I’m wiggling my toes in front of the fireplace, I can pick up the book and relive special moments.
You need not be a professional writer to keep a journal. There’s no need to be particularly creative. You don’t have to be philosophical. Just sit down with paper and pencil, or your computer, and write what happened. Different pursuits demand different kinds of notes, and each person should keep track of things that please him or her.
You may want to record what happens on your hunting or fishing trips, or the types of wildlife you see. You may want to write about everything important that happens to you every day, or you may write only about special moments or very specific aspects of your life — your vacations, days spent fishing or times outdoors with your kids.
Hunters and anglers will find that keeping a journal is an enjoyable sideline that will help make future trips more successful. Fishermen often keep notes on water temperature, weather, how many fish are caught, what they are caught on, who caught them and so forth. If you’re a duck hunter, you may want to write the location of the best blinds, arrival dates of birds, and the kind and number of birds taken. If you enjoy deer hunting, you’ll improve your chances of bagging a big buck by noting preseason sightings; location of signs such as scrapes, rubs, tracks and licks; the location of good stands; and escape routes from cover.
For most of us, a journal begins as a book of blank pages upon which we write our thoughts. The book may be something simple and inexpensive, like a spiral notebook, or something elaborate, like a special-made, hard-bound volume with our name etched on the spine, or something between these extremes.
A pencil may serve as your writing tool, or a pen filled with permanent ink. Do not use felt-tip pens, as they will run and smear should liquid splash upon the page. A No. 2 pencil is OK, but if you want your journal to be a permanent record for future generations, write it in permanent India ink on a good stock of white, acid-free paper.
Not all diarists use books for their journals. Today, some input their journals into a computer. Others use a video camera to record the things they feel are important.
You may want to keep one journal or several. You may want to draw or paint in your journal, or add photographs. You may prefer to focus on experiences, or choose instead to write about the feelings your experiences evoke.
Remember this above all things: Your journal should be what you want it to be. A person cannot tell you how to create a journal any more than one might tell an artist the brush strokes and pigments he must use to create a painting. Release yourself from all thoughts of what a journal should be, and create a journal as you want it to be. Be spontaneous. Be uninhibited. Be yourself.
I urge you always to write about special moments in the field and on the water. Keeping a journal gives you time to think about the day before letting go. What has the day held? Why was it memorable?
Here’s a bit from an entry this spring: “We were in the woods this morning before the sun came up, and when the first rays broke over the horizon and cast a warm glow on the treetops, the squirrels started moving. Matthew killed the first one — his first ever — at a quarter to seven, and we had enough for breakfast and were heading home to clean them by a quarter to nine. Served with hot biscuits, gravy and scrambled eggs, they were, Matt said, a meal fit for a king!”
It means nothing to you, but to me it is a priceless memory from the family album. It was the day my 10-year-old son bagged his first squirrel. Had I not written it down at the time, that moment might have mixed with others until it was impossible to remember where it belonged. Now, the re-creation in my mind will be so vivid that the memory is nearly as enjoyable as the actual experience.
Your outdoor notebook will provide many hours of enjoyment in the years to come. It is a written record of your outdoor experiences to pass down from generation to generation. With you as the author, it’s sure to become the most important book in your library.