Notebook!

[WapitiTalk1]

As one of the older hunters on WT, I'd like to remind you folks to pack a small notebook and pen in your gear bag for your hunts, whether backcountry or base camp. Try to make 10 minutes of time each evening once you return to capture what happened that day. Once your time in the elk woods is done that year, review those notes, rewrite them, so you can reference them from more than just memory down the road. It's something that pays dividends in many ways.

[CurlyTail]

That is a great tip! I can see how keeping a journal could be very helpful. I just have never been very good at taking the time. This would be an easy thing to add next season.

[Swede]

Great idea Rory. Notes on things you learn, including spots you find are great to have written down. As a tree stand hunter, you can usually find some time to reflect on each day of hunting, in the early afternoon when things are quiet. Sit quietly in your stand and write down some thoughts, while you survey the area for an elk. It is always good to plan for an elk to show up when you least expect one. Be able to set your journal and pencil in your pack quietly with one motion. Have the pack wide open, so you just need to take a glance at it.
I write a magazine article about my hunt, for Oregon Bowhunters each year. For the reader, it can add to the experience, to be brought into the picture you draw with words. Little details help. Women are usually better at this than us guys, but how you feel, and things like the cold, or dry, or mud, or dust, or the sun in your eyes, or the squirrels chasing each other, and gathering cones can help with the picture. Driving down a primitive dusty road, hearing the noise of your truck, as it bounces over the stones, are soon forgotten, but they make the hunt special. If you are trying to describe your hunt, what is the terrain and vegetation like? Even if you are writing only for yourself, a good word picture will bring back a smile later on when you read it. This I have noticed too: if I write it down, even if it just stays in a journal, I remember it better. When I rewrite things, it is interesting how I remember things to include that I left out in the first writing.

[twinkieman]

I agree Rory, and I have been practicing this for years. Its amazing the patterns that show after years of doing it. I include thye weather, temp wind etc., time of day, date, and anything else I can think to add at the time.

[Lark Bunting]

I use the notepad app on my phone. I also do selfie-videos to show my kids. They get a kick out of me all camo'd up, over reacting to some situation I just encountered. I get a kick out of them laughing at me on video.