Reviewer Information

• Name: Cora Hussey
• Age: 23
• Gender: Female
• Height: 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
• Weight: 155 lbs (70 kg)
• Email address: cahhmc "at" yahoo "dot" com
• Web page: http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~chussey
• City, State, Country: Los Angeles, CA, USA
• Date: August 6, 2003

Basic Product Information

• Manufacturer: J.L. Darling Corporation
• Year of Manufacture: 2003
• URL: http://www.durarite.com/ (As listed on Product)
  http://www.riteintherain.com/ (Alternate link)
• Listed weight: None
• Weight as delivered: 3.4 oz (97 g)
• Date of arrival: August 6, 2003
• Condition upon arrival: Excellent
• Notebook construction upon receipt: A spiral bound notebook with green plastic covers, lined DuraRite pages, informative pages at the back, and a removable cardboard hanger.
• Additional contents separate from this Journal:
  • One All-Weather writing pen
  • One package of 25 sheets waterproof copier paper

Product Description

+ General:

The Extreme Journal is spiral-bound with black wire at the top, a green plastic cover on front and back, lined pages, and information pages for "Snow, Water, Rock, and Survival" information at the back. The paper is supposed to be "Waterproof, Tearproof, and Bloodproof", and the Journal is supposed to give the user the ability to write in wet conditions.

The titles and descriptions of the informative pages (in order) in the back are:

• Planning: General trip planning common sense
• First Aid Basics: Short descriptions of common outdoor conditions
• Survival: A list of ten essentials and instructions on how to build a fire
• Climbing/Bouldering: Yosemite Decimal System and Hueco ratings
• Climbing/Bouldering page 2: International climbing rank conversions
• Kayak/Raft/Canoe: Whitewater ratings
• Kayak/Raft/Canoe page 2: River emergency signals
• Snow: Wind chill chart
• Snow page 2: Hypothermia/Frostbite treatment and snowcave instructions
• Sailing: Beaufort Wind Scale
• Signalling: Ground, Air, and Water signals for rescue purposes

+ Dimensions:

The website states that the dimensions of the Journal are 4 in x 6 in (10.2 cm x 15.3 cm), and I found these dimensions to be accurate. The pages are the same size as the covers. The first top line is located 5/8 in (1.7 cm) from the top of the page, and the spacing in between the lines is 1/4 in (0.6 cm). The Journal is 1/4 in (0.6 cm) thick, and the spirals are 3/8 in (1 cm) in diameter.

+ Details and Other Notes:

My Journal includes 45 lined pages, and the 6 information pages (11 pages of information since each is double sided and the last side is blank) listed above. The Journal states that its covers are made out of 100% recycled material. There are 21 lines on each side of all of the lined pages, and there are 11 wire spirals on the top of the Journal. The bottom two corners (opposite the top spiral) are curved rather than being sharp 90 degree corners.

The website states that the Journal has 50 pages, and according to these counts it either has 45 pages (only lined) or 51 pages (lined plus information pages). Other than that issue, the product is exactly what I expected from reading the website.

Field Testing Plan

Trip Details:

I plan to test the Journal on approximately 5-10 trips over the six month period. These trips will include dayhikes, shorter overnights, and at least one trip longer than one week. My testing purposes include:

• Use as a journal (for poetry and personal uses)
• Use as a log book (for first aid, avalanche conditions, and other recording uses)
• Use as an outdoor instructional tool (during the trips I take a leadership and educational role in)

Locations will probably include the Sierras (Yosemite, Sequoia, and King's Canyon National Parks, along with Inyo National Forest), Joshua Tree National Park, Angeles and San Bernardino National Forests, and the Santa Monica Mountain National Parks.

Weather will probably include wind, rain, snow, and temperatures ranging from 90 F (50 C) to well below freezing. The trips will probably include abrasive, wet, and sunlit conditions. Elevations will average between 8,000-10,000 ft (2,400-3,000 m) with a standard deviation of 3,000 ft (900 m), and the trips would be mostly in mountainous terrain.

Test Plan Details:

Over the next six months, I intend to test the following attributes of the Journal:

• Use with different writing mediums
• Durability and packability
• Ease of use in different weather conditions
• Usefulness of included information sections
• Applicability as a journal, log book, and instructional aid
• Any new and creative uses I can find for it
• Any changes, repairs, or needed maintenance over time

Initial Tests and Personal Observations

+ Tests:

I first wanted to see how some common writing mediums performed on the Journal paper. I wrote three sentences on the first page, the first sentence with an All-Weather pen, the second with a normal cheap pen I had at home, and the third with a #2 mechanical pencil. All mediums were easy to write with and appeared equally dark and easy to read.

I then decided to perform a series of three tests on the writing. In the first test, I smudged the writing heavily with my thumb right after I wrote the lines. The picture below shows the results, and one should notice that the All-Weather Pen and the #2 pencil smudged significantly, while the cheap common pen barely smudged at all. (Please note that the paper is, in fact, very white. My digital macro lens was somehow sensitive to the flourescent lighting I was in and made everything an odd shade of beige.)

I then held the entire notebook under a running faucet, and smudged the writing again with my thumb. The picture below shows the results (when still wet). All of the smudging wiped off, but the ink and pencil writing itself held on nicely. No additional smudging or fading was apparent.

Finally, I let the notebook dry completely and tried to erase everything I had written. One can see the results in the picture below. The #2 pencil writing erased completely, the cheap normal pen erased enough to be significantly lighter, and, to my surprise, the All-Weather Pen erased almost completely as well.

+ Concerns:

• The Smudging and Erasing
  The ability to smudge and erase both the pen and the pencil above worries me. I did not expect both of them to erase so easily, (as the All-Weather pen did not erase from normal wood-based paper in my control testing) and I hope that the ability to erase does not affect the permanence of inks in the future. It will be interesting to see either way, however, as nothing but the above test has been performed.

• The Information Pages:
  First of all, I feel that problems in the information section at the end of the Journal have nothing to do with the Journal itself. My initial impression is that the Journal is a fine, fun, and functional piece of gear. However, on the information page with First Aid Basics, the advised treatment for Unconsciousness reads: "Never give mouth to mouth to unconscious victim" [sic]. Upon reading this, I was very surprised. By both the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association training and guidelines, when a victim is found unconscious, restoring breathing is a rescuer's primary concern. (It is both the A and B in the ABCs of first aid.) There is, of course, the guideline: "Never give anything by mouth to an unconscious victim" because he/she will then choke on it. Perhaps they meant to write that or a number of other things. Other minor errors included defining Class 2 climbing as a "Flat, but inclined surface" to which organizations such as the Mountaineers and the Sierra Club would have a say otherwise. In short, I found the information sections to be spotty and not very well edited or researched.

+ Confidences:

• The Binding:
  The binding has so far thwarted my attempts to causally pull and prod it apart. It also lets the Journal fold back on itself for easy writing. Most of my pens and pencils also fit or clip securely to the binding. When inserting the Journal into my pants pocket, nothing catches anywhere or rubs the wrong way. It is a very well designed binding, from my preliminary observations. I very much look forward to tweaking and playing with it in the future.

• The Paper:
  The paper is smooth, very easy to write on, and I (being a heavy-handed writer) no longer have any fear of punching through the paper I am writing on to my leg beneath. Initial attempts to tear it with my fingers did not even stretch or bend the paper, much less succeed in tearing it. And although this durability has also prevented my attempts to tear pages from the Journal, at least I can feel safe in shoving the Journal in my pocket and not having the pages fall out. I also dunked the Journal in a bucket of water, and the pages dried out nicely without sticking annoyingly to one another and gluing themselves together upon drying out as normal paper does.

• The Flexibility of the Journal:
  The plastic covers and the paper together were both bendable enough for me to stow the Journal in my back pocket while sitting during the writing of this report without discomfort (I cannot even keep my wallet in my back pocket because of my sensitive rear!) and yet stiff enough to write in the Journal while holding it in my other hand. I never thought I would specifically enjoy how bendable a journal was, but there you go!

Many thanks to the Rite in the Rain / DuraRite companies and BackpackGearTest for the opportunity to test the Extreme Journal!

Read more reviews of Rite In The Rain gear
Read more gear reviews by Cora Hussey

Reviews > Books > Blank Journals and Writing Implements > RITR - Extreme Journal > Cora Hussey > Initial Report