| |
Gear Reviews
Documents
Tools
|
Field Report - RITR All Weather Adventure Travel Journal
Date: October 4th, 2003
Reviewer Information
Name: Jim Sabiston
Age: 49
Gender: Male
Height: 6' 3" (1.91 m)
Weight: 207 lbs. (94 kg)
Email address: JimSabis(at)aol(dot)com
City: Bay Shore (Long Island)
State: New York
Country: USA
Backpacking Background:
I've been camping for several decades. I joined the Adirondack Mountain Club three years ago, the Appalachian Mountain Club a year later and am active in both. I have also expanded my backpacking to include more winter trips, mountaineering and back country cross country skiing, and participated in the AMC's Winter Mountaineering training program with Chauvin International Climbing Guides. More recently, I have actively studied ways to backpack lighter and more efficiently. During the summer months, my style tends toward very light, but not quite ultralight. I use a hammock or tarp for warm weather, and a small four season tent for winter trips. Most of my other gear is very changeable, as I am constantly experimenting with gear and techniques.
Product Information:
Manufacturer: J. L. Darling Corp.
Year of Manufacture: 2003
URL: www.riteintherain.com
Listed weight: N/A
Weight as delivered: 8.0 oz. (227 gm)
MSRP: $15.95 US
Overview:
Quite a few years ago, I once kept a journal. I had all but forgotten it. Having been reminded in applying for this test, I dug it out of the dark recesses of my junk drawer. This old stenographer's note pad was my 'travel journal' over 30 years ago. Inside is the reason why people should try their hand at keeping a journal of their own. It was a truly fascinating experience to read the entries that I had made over thirty years ago, just beginning my journey into life's adventure. Reading the notes written in my own hand was somehow a far more intimate experience than glancing through a stack of photographs could ever be. A photograph is limited to being an illustration of a scene. A journal, on the other hand, brings the reader right into the mind of the writer. There was a much more palpable sense of time and experience when I thumbed through the entries, actually able to sense and re-live the moment.
The old stenographer's notepad is barely more than a loose stack of pages now, held together by little more than a whisper and a prayer. This is where the RITR All Weather Adventure Travel Journal comes in. Conveniently sized and made with the apparent quality of a proper hard cover book, the Travel Journal has made a good, durable traveling companion and appears as though it should last for many years.
Field Testing:
The RITR All Weather Adventure Travel Journal has handily survived a Summer's worth of family trips and several backpacks. These trips included several days of camping at Raquette Lake in the Adirondacks:
Journal Entry: Raquette Lake, Adirondacks NY, 8/19/03 - “A gorgeous morning. Up before the sun and paddled south to some interesting coves. Found some good fishing. Very foggy. Sun burned off fog for spectacular views. Katie called on the new radio for breakfast. Paddled back to the beach thru sun-baked fog. Noticed the sun glinting thru the hull, refracted by the small bow wave. Very neat….”
And, most recently, a two day backpack and climb in the Catskills:
Journal Entry: Blackhead Mountain, Catskills NY, 9/21/03 - “Up early, breakfast and packed. On the trail by 7:30. The climb above the lean-to starts easy, going thru a very pretty stretch of woods. The trail soon steepened (is that a word?) and became increasingly rocky. Climbed up to the Sun and we met about 8:00 am. Well up the ridge is an overlook which looks east over the Hudson. The horizon was many, many miles away. Hazy, but still good visibility. Summitted at about 9:00 am….”
The journal has spent the majority of this time tucked into the inner top pocket of a Deuter Futura 32 Daypack. This is a very handy and well protected storage spot, ideal for the journal. I pull it out when something of note occurs, but more often it stays put until sometime in the evening. This is when I take a few quiet moments to consider the events of the day and jot down a few notes.
My take on the RITR All Weather Adventure Travel Journal is that it is constructed to be impervious to the indignities thrust upon it during the less than ideal conditions experienced while traveling. It has held up exceedingly well so far. This is no doubt largely due to the well made hard cover. A soft cover pad would have reduced to a twisted wreck by now, as the pack has been stuffed into the back of my Jeep along with the rest of the family gear, crammed into the cargo hatch of my sea kayak, where it did not really want to go, and generally banged around rocks, trees, tents and lean-tos. The RITR All Weather Adventure Travel Journal shows no signs of wear at all!
As the RITR All Weather Adventure Travel Journal spends a great deal of the time in the outdoors, I decided to test what might be considered unusual characteristics of the journal. For instance: In a pinch, I might want to use a page to start a fire. If so, could I tear a page out? If so, how would it burn? I should mention that the RITR All Weather Adventure Travel Journal is far too nice a book to go tearing out pages willy-nilly. It would require a real emergency before I surrendered any pages. But, for the sake of a thorough test, one would have to come out. I carefully removed a page and had at it.
The obviously heavy paper tears easily enough, resisting only so much as I would expect from a heavy weight paper. Putting a match to a small bit, the paper burned, but somewhat reluctantly. It might serve as a fire starter in a pinch, but it would not be my first choice.
My writing instrument of choice to date has been my Fisher Space Pen. I have found that the oil-based ink of the Space Pen is a very happy match with the treated paper of the journal. Pencil also works very well. Liquid ink pens, such as the popular roller ball type do not seem to work as well. The ink of these pens seems to bead up and sit on the surface of the paper.
Unfortunately (?), in spite of a record setting wet Summer, it refused to rain whenever I had the journal along. I am starting to suspect that it may also be an anti-rain talisman! Accordingly, much of my other testing had to be done in my laboratory (aka: the kitchen).
Sprinkling water across a page I proceeded to test if the wet paper could still be written upon. The pencil was the least affected, writing through the water as if it wasn't even there. The Space Pen was a close second, with the ink coming out just a bit lighter than when dry. The roller ball was severely affected, barely writing at all.
I then scribbled a few lines on a bit of the cut out page, using each of the three writing instruments and soaked a bit of it overnight. The results were somewhat unexpected in that the Space Pen ink was the most effected, with the ink bleeding out into the paper. Legibility was still pretty good, though. The pencil lines were, once again, unaffected. The big surprise was the roller ball ink, which was also entirely unaffected. I had thought that the latter would be the first to dissolve.
All three could be rubbed off if I tried hard enough, but this was largely because the surface of the paper was actually rubbing off, not so much the ink or pencil. As the Space Pen's ink had bled into the paper, rather than just lying on the surface, it was the least affected by this. The paper itself had softened considerably, becoming much easier to tear. It appeared to recover fully once it dried out.
And, finally, the journal floats! The cover floated fully above the water's surface and the yellow cover should make the journal easier to spot if it should happen to go overboard.
Summary:
The RITR All Weather Adventure Travel Journal is becoming an inseparable traveling companion. Its combination of convenient size and durable construction will serve to ensure it always has a home in my backpack or duffle. The weather resistant features add a great deal of security, knowing that this journal should survive to the end of the journey and beyond, regardless of what the weather or I throw at it.
Continued Testing:
With the arrival of the Fall season, my focus will be on how the journal continues to hold up to even more backpacking. The typically rainy Fall season should provide a properly wet environment for more observations. The test period will carry into the Winter snows I hope!) for some good cold weather experience.
Read more reviews of Rite In The Rain gear
Read more gear reviews by jim Sabiston
|
