Field Report: Rite in the Rain Adventure Travel Journal

My e-mail: bpskids@charter.net
My name: Jodi Cornelius
My Age: 41
Height: 5’4”/1.6 m
Weight: 160 lbs/73 kg
Gender: Female
City: Derrick City
State: PA
Country: USA
Date: October 1, 2003

My area of the country: Northwest Pennsylvania near the Allegheny Mountains

My Background:  I am somewhat new to backpacking.  I have only been backpacking 2 years but did quite a bit of camping before I was introduced to backpacking.  I started out with a mega loaded pack (a medium Army ALICE pack that I loaded so bad it weighed close to 50 lb/23 gm!) and have gradually gotten more comfortable with going with “less”.  Now my base weight is around 20 lb/9 gm and would love to get it even lower.

 Product Information:

Manufacturer:  J. L. Darling Corporation – Rite in the Rain All Weather Writing Paper
 http://www.riteintherain.com/
Year of Manufacture: 2003
Product: Rite in the Rain Adventure Travel Journal
MSRP:  $15.95

Features from the Website:

This 4" x 6 1/2" pocket sized hard-bound book has 78 sheets of horizontal-line page pattern and 15 pages of handy travel reference material. It fits easily into your back pocket so you can travel anywhere protecting your memories and trip notes.

Field Experience:  Well, true to the pattern of this summer, it has rained plenty of times for me to test the water steadfastness of the journal.  I am pleased to say that the space pen type pen worked fantastic.  So did the pencil.  The pencil was also fairly easy to erase, which was a concern I had.  I used a Sharpie fine marker and although it wrote on the page, it blurred very easily unless I allowed the page to dry before closing the journal or turning the page to write on the next page.  A regular pen also worked somewhat, but was not as sharp as the All-Weather pen I used, and it, too, tended to blur when wet.  A plus I found was that even if you bleed on it, it does write through the blood.  But even better than that was the fact you could wipe the blood off and leave no stain on the paper (although if you delay in wiping the blood off, it does turn the paper pinkish in that area).  I dropped it once in a mud puddle when I was being careless and trying to write while I walked, and seeing as I can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, it was only a matter of time before I dropped the journal.  But no damage was done.  The water wiped off the binding and the pages didn’t get all muddy like it would have had I had a “normal” paper journal/notebook.  Although I haven’t been out as much as I would like, I have had some good opportunities to test the journal and so far, all I can say is I love it!  As we have had reports of snow coming our way tomorrow, it will only be a matter of time before I’ll be able to test it in the cold.  I’ll be interested to see how the paper holds up when it is cold.

Also, I was really loathing tearing out a page but in the interests of the test, I tore off a piece.  While I was expecting the page to be difficult to tear, it was fairly easy.  It did, however, tear just a bit harder than regular paper.  When tearing the page slowly, you will be able to see the fibers of whatever coating they use on the paper to protect it.  I noticed that only because as a label manufacturer, I am constantly checking for fibers when cutting labels and the coating on this material stretches like an adhesive does when not cut cleanly.  Taking the piece I had torn, I set my lighter to it.  Although I didn’t start a fire with it, it did catch and burn the tinder I had set up just to see what it would do and it worked fine.

Field Information:  My first trip out was just a jaunt in the woods around my house.  It was pouring down rain and I thought it was a perfect time to test the waterproofness of the journal.  What I didn't expect was to test it for blood-proofness.  After getting into the woods and finding a somewhat decent place to sit down, I brushed off the fallen tree I had picked to sit on and felt what I thought was just a scratchy sensation from the rough tree bark.  However, as I held my journal in my left hand, preparing to write with my right, something red dripped on the page.  I blinked sort of stupidly at the rapidly widening circle of red wondering just where the heck that came from.  When it finally sank into my head that I must be bleeding, I looked and sure enough, I had cut my hand on something on the tree.  Well, I decided that was a perfect time to see how well the journal worked when writing in blood.  So after wiping off my hand on my pant leg, I started writing with my All-Weather Pen.  And I was pleased to see it write on the paper where I had bled.  I then decided to see if I could wipe off the blood and, wonder of all wonders, most of it came off!  There was a spot where it had dried somewhat before I wrote on it and although that did come off it left a pinkish spot on the paper.

The next time I took it out was about 2 weeks later. It wasn't raining but I decided to test other pen/pencil types to see how well each worked.  I already knew how well the All-Weather pen worked in the rain and naturally it worked great on dry paper.  I grabbed the pencil and it worked nice on the dry paper also.  The regular pen was kind of blurry even on the dry paper.  The ink smeared when I ran my thumb over it.  Then I tried the Sharpie Fine Point   It smeared easily also.  And although it was a fine tip it was still really too big for use on the paper.  However, it will work in a pinch.  The yellow Sharpie worked great as a highlighter.  Too bad it didn't work as a dark pen/pencil does.  I really liked how the yellow appeared on the page.  But even with the smearing, it was a good use as a highlighter.  It highlighted the All-Weather pen marks without smearing the pen’s ink; however, it did smear the ink from the regular ink pen.  Again, nothing I'd use frequently but it is nice to know it will work as a highlighter for when I am going over my notes.  The pencil is where the journal really shines, though, in my opinion.  The pencil is sharp, clear, writes well in both dry and wet conditions and erases with little paper destruction.  As I usually make multiple mistakes when writing, I like the option of being able to use the eraser to get rid of any mistakes I may make when writing.

The next time I took the journal out was on a real trip.  I did an overnight on the Morrison trail and fate was with me once again as it poured the whole time I was out.  I brought the pencil, All-Weather pen, and the regular pen with me on this trip.  The journal entry reads as follows:

September 19, 2003.  As usual for this summer, it has rained on my parade.  However, the rain didn't keep the animals from coming out.  I actually got to see quite a bit of wildlife on my hike.  (The next part is from the regular pen and is garbled as the ink smeared so I couldn't read it).  There were a couple of deer by a stream that I startled and ....something I can't read. (At this point I was ready to throw the pen into the woods and let some animal try to write with it so I switched to pencil.)  There were plenty of squirrels out gathering nuts getting ready for winter, a few chipmunks, and one beaver!  That was the highlight of the trip.

It was on that trip that I really liked the pencil for the ability to erase even a wet page without much damage to the paper fibers.  Once the paper dried, it looked as good as new (except for where the pen smeared).

The temperatures were in the range of upper 30s F (0 C) to the mid 50s F (10 C) with rain just about every day.  The trails were wooded with easy to moderate climbs.

Things I like:  I like the color.  It is very easy to find in my pack.  I don’t need to locate a good writing surface for it to work.  The pages also repel blood which is a plus in my life!  I really like being able to use a pencil on the paper without it fading.

Things I dislike:  Not sure if I like all the personal information that they give you space to fill out.  I know I don’t have to put that info in, but that was the only nit I could find.  There is still nothing more that I dislike.