(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)
I tend to overthink what stationery I bring when I travel, but it's something I enjoy thinking about. My final adventure of the summer took place this past weekend--my first camping trip! A friend and I went tent camping for three days on the shores of Lake Superior, hiking the lakeshore and north woods all day and cooking over a fire. It was amazing! But what stationery do you bring to the great outdoors?
My carry needed to be pretty minimal. There are already way too many things to pack for a camping trip, and priority space was given to gear that would prevent freezing or starving. It would also need to be stationery that could handle some potentially rough conditions.
Pens were the easiest to choose. My Spoke Roady, which goes with me everywhere, was a given as my practical pen. For a fountain pen, I chose the Gravitas Quark, which I'm currently test-driving for review. Both fit nicely in the wee Galen Leather zip case, which I'm also testing out. And, because I brought my Plotter Mini 5, the Kaweco Liliput that lives in the pen loop also came along. I had two spare small international ink cartridges in my toiletries bag, just in case of an inspiration emergency (both the ink that was already in the Kaweco, so no wilderness pen cleaning would be required).
Paper was trickier. I had a bit of paper in my Plotter, yes, but I don't find that size good for creative writing, just for jotting notes. It was possible that I'd have quite a bit of down time, so I wanted to be prepared to work on one of my writing projects. I have three short stories, two novellas, and one novel in progress. And I'll admit, my notebook situation is a bit out of control at the moment. Normally I have one notebook that all my short fiction goes into, but juggling multiple deadlines, plus the fact that my main short story notebook only has a few pages left (so I had to start a new one for a new story), means that I actually have four story notebooks in progress, plus two for the novel. I figured I'd work on a short story this trip, but the one that's due the soonest is in progress in a very fancy/fussy notebook with Cosmo Air Light paper. CAL paper doesn't like it if you breathe on it wrong. I love it, but I wouldn't consider it outdoorsy. But I remembered I had a small Paperblanks notebook that I'd taken on a previous trip. I'd started a novella in that notebook that I've since set aside. I decided that it was small enough, but substantial enough, and also durable enough, to be my trip notebook for the woods.
So how did my choices fare on their camping trip? Well. Let's just say I don't think I ever even unzipped that pocket of my backpack. That's right. I didn't touch a single piece of stationery for the entire trip. I didn't write a word. I didn't even so much as sign a receipt. No regrets! I was too busy frolicking.
What I did do: spent a collective 17 hours on three different beaches; hiked several trails; cooked 7 meals over campfires that I started myself; ate lots of s'mores, saw the northern lights (!), and collected a handful of beautiful Lake Superior agates. I'm bruised, sunburned, mosquito-bitten, exhausted, and totally happy. And behind on my writing. Worth it. You've gotta live to have something to write about.
(Note: Some photos are courtesy of my camping buddy, Kat Rohrmeier.)
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