My AT Blogging Kit: Gear, Workflow, and Why It’s Important How I Blog About AT: Gear, Workflow, and Why It’s Important

My preparation for the AT flip-flop this year has been less about which tent to take and where to resupply than about this: how to write honestly and well about the trip while I’m inside.

There are three parts: the mechanics of how, the timing of when, and the stakes behind it all. I’ll write about each one here.

My blog kit:

• Moleskine Pocket Journal (Hardcover, 240 Pages, 3.5 x 5.5 Inches, 11.6 oz)
• iClever Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard (40 Hour Battery Life, 5 oz.)
• NANAMI Bluetooth Headphones and Microphone (20 hours of battery life, 0.8 oz.)
• ATUMTEK Selfie Stick Tripod (5.9 oz.)
• Nitecore NB10000 Gen II External Battery, 10000 mAh (5.3 oz.)
• UKCSIS 140W Fast Charger (4.2oz) and Fast Charging Cables (2.1oz)
• S22 Android Phone (plus Otterbox case, 8.3 oz.)

Total weight: 2 pounds. 13 ounces. Weight minus phone, power bank, charger and cables: 1 pound 8 ounces.

Moleshine Pocket Diary

Journaling is essential to my walking. My journals from the PCT, CDT, and years of hiking and wilderness trips record details of places, people, and experiences. I use a hard cover so I can write leaning against a rock or on a laundromat bench. I usually write 2 to 3 pages per entry. It has some weight, but I like that. It fits well in my hand. I have a rule: don’t sleep until the day’s entry is over.

iClever Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard

I envy those whose thumbs flutter across the tiny keypads of their phones with the dexterity of a manic woodpecker. Unfortunately, my thumbs have other ambitions. They are neither agile nor precise and my fingers are too fat. For me, writing well, physically pressing the keys is essential. I’ll be writing blog posts during city breaks and having my own keyboard will free me from dependence on local libraries and hotel computers. And if I have to hide in a shelter waiting out the rain, I’ll have it in my backpack, ready.

NANAMI Bluetooth headphones and microphone

While the headphones are for listening to books, music and podcasts, the built-in microphone is for dictating on the go and during breaks along the way. The speech-to-text app I chose is Letterly, for its offline functionality, high accuracy, and ability to clarify messy ramblings.

ATUMTEK selfie stick tripod

The photos say it all and, to tell the story of my walk, I have to be in them. I use the tripod more than the selfie stick to take photos of myself and my surroundings. Context matters. It comes with a detachable remote control, so I don’t need to rely on the phone’s timer.

Nitecore NB10000 Gen II External Battery

When I went up the CDT, I carried a power bank because the distances between cities were long. On the AT, towns are frequent and close, so I’ll take something smaller. The Nitecore NB10000 gives me a charge and a half, enough to get my phone and me where we need to go.

UKCSIS 140W Fast Charger and Fast Charging Cables

If you’re doing a hero and don’t want to delay, fast loading is imperative. This baby will do it. My phone and keyboard take less than an hour; my power bank needs less than three. Fast charging cables are essential. The best charger in the world is only as good as the cables you connect to it.

S22 Android Phone

paraphrasing The temptationsMy phone is my everything: camera, navigation, entertainment and blogging tool.

Camera: When I first went up the WA PCT in 2018, I brought a compact SLR camera to take good pictures. It took good photos, but most were taken with my phone. The phone was always there on the strap of my backpack, easy to reach and easy to use. And the photos weren’t bad; some were even great. Since then, the SLR has been left behind. One thing I plan to change: fewer videos, more photos. On the PCT and, to a lesser extent, on the CDT, I recorded many videos. It seemed right at the time. Now, when I think back on those walks, it’s the photos that instantly draw me in. You need to watch the videos; the photos simply are.

Navigation: FarOut is used by over 90% of AT hikers and has been my trusted companion since the PCT (when it was still Guthook). But not just to find my way. FarOut is an essential reference tool. Place names, miles traveled, borders crossed, and featured commentary, both informative and irreverent, are essential to documenting my travels. Every night when I write my entries, I reference FarOut to get the city names, distances, and feel of the correct trail.

Entertainment: On that long stretch of road that was Route 66 outside Grants, New Mexico, Springsteen’s version of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” was on repeat. What I hear earns its place on the blog.

Blogs: I’m adding Lite Writer (16.5 MB) to my phone to write my posts. It requires minimal memory, low power, is easy to use and does not need the Internet. The pro version ($1.49/month) removes ads.

For dictation I’m using Letterly (76.5 MB), an AI-powered speech-to-text app designed to convert verbal word salads into structured text. Great for expressing thoughts on the fly, but I’m nervous about AI-generated text, even if it’s based on my own words. AI-polished route notes are fine for capturing raw words, but posts? I write them myself.

My workflow

night diary

This will be the bread and butter of my publications. It contains my thoughts and my state of mind, the people I meet and the details of the journey. My journal helps me know myself and stay grounded.

talking to myself

I talk to myself on the way. Sometimes words come out of my mouth that are worth remembering. I want to be intentional about using my voice because it captures images, ideas, and experiences in the moment, before they evaporate. My diary can’t do that. Letterly will turn my trail musings into text when I have internet in town. Find me drinking coffee or drinking a beer, writing down the words spoken that had weight.

Review of photos in the city.

The Trek posts need good photos. Photos not only tell a story, they also shape it. They can touch, remember a moment and suggest a direction. In previous posts, I started writing, imagined the narrative arc, and flipped through photos to find the images to support it. But sometimes my photographs take the story to a place I didn’t expect. And that’s a good thing.

Post in the city

I read my journal entries and review my Letterly notes. My weekly post will be taking shape in my head before I even check into my motel room, find a quiet spot at McDonald’s, or find a comfortable coffee shop. I write the raw version in Lite Writer, aiming for 500 words, maybe 800 if big things happened, 200-300 if I’m banged up. I review, edit, and then paste into WordPress on The Trek admin site. There I upload photos, write titles and review the preview to see how the publication will look. I click on the post categories, add tags, take a deep breath, and… hit Publish.

Made.

Why is it important

Why blog?

Is it about ego, about trumpeting one’s own achievements and audacity? Show the world that you matter? Or is it about connecting with people and sharing one’s story? About earning a place among the trash of hikers who do these crazy things and proving that you belong with them?

Yes. All that. And something else.

Blogging is about bearing witness. Bearing witness is not just documentation: here is what happened, here is the mileage, here is the weather. It’s personal. He says: I was present for this. I lived it. Being a witness also carries responsibility. You saw something, you experienced something, you felt something and now you owe an honest account. This is not about self-expression or self-promotion. It is closer to testimony.

So. There is an obligation. Bloggers owe the truth to their readers.

What about me? I’ll be honest.

Journaling, Vermont AT, 2024. Do not sleep until the day’s entry is over.

I am 67 years old and have an artificial hip and knee. I feel the weight of age in my muscles and bones and know that the best days are behind me. I set out to walk to the Triple Crown and almost achieved my goal of completing it when I was 65 years old. Then my dad died in the spring of that year, and my unacknowledged grief stopped me when I tried to change my posture that summer. Joint replacements followed, postponing follow-up attempts. The clock runs on my other knee and will need to be replaced. Eventually. But right now, this year, there is a window. It may be the last one.

And still. And still. I don’t know if I have what it takes to finish.

So, I’m blogging this hike. I have to do it.

Because.

Because I need to prove that I still matter, that I can do one last hard thing. That I still belong to the tribe. And this too: as a way of saying goodbye to this dream that I have been carrying for eight years. A farewell. Something for which I am very grateful.

Does this make sense?

It does it to me.