The expedition journal

Salal from the journal of Lewis and Clark

When ever my family would go on a trip I would get a little spiral notebook with plenty of paper some pencils and a sharpener to journal the trip.  I always looked on adventure as a way to relive the  exploits of people like Lewis and Clark, Livingstone, or maybe even Marco Polo.  

The great explorers of the past not only wrote about their thoughts and feeling of the days events but also drew pictures and description of local plants and animals.  They were not only recording historical data for posterity's sake but also learning.  What I mean by this is, whenever you take the time to draw a picture out you find subtle differences and nuances created into nature.  Also, when the hands and eyes are engaged the mind must be engaged which is where learning takes place.  

To illustrate my point.  Back in the summer of 1991 a friend and I decided to do an 11 day 90 mile hike around Glacier Peak, the most remote of the Volcanoes in the Central Washington Cascades.  I took a little note book and recorded both the events of the day and drew pictures of plants and landscapes with notes about them.  

For some people the future also hold fame and what better way to show where you came from then to keep a log or journal of past adventures.  I am sure Teddy Roosevelt wrote about his great hunts while on Safari and the trip that almost killed him into the jungles of South America.  Here is the real point, whenever you go on an adventure the best learning device is a pencil and a piece of paper.