Backpack… check.

Water… check.

First aid kit… check.

Journal… check!

I can’t picture myself hiking without packing my journal first. I have hiked nearly one thousand trail miles since May 2009 and every step of the way, I had a journal in my pocket, ready to take out to jot down trail conditions, comment on the weather, or maybe sketch a nature sighting. They say that there are ten essential pieces of gear that every hiker should bring with them in case of an emergency. Items like food & water, a first-aid kit, a knife, and matches. Those are all well and good, but I consider a journal to be the eleventh essential. To me, forgetting a journal on a hike would be like forgetting to turn off the kitchen stove. Without question, I’d drive home to retrieve it, just as I would drive home to turn off the stove.

I’ve jokingly told people that if my apartment were to catch fire, you’d see me running out of building with just a bag full of my journals. Truth be told, I keep them in a drawer near the front door, just in case.

I normally write in just one journal a year, recording my annual international trip. This was not the case for 2010. Here are a few pages from the three journals I wrote in over the last 12 months. I guess I had a lot to write about.

To view more pages from my journals, check out this Flickr Collection.