[pct-l] Recording/blogging gear

Mon Jan 23 18:40:35 CST 2017

I blogged during my 2015 PCT through-hike using my iPhone 5c. I carried a battery backup which allowed me to have a fully-charged phone for up to 8 days.

My blog was hosted on Blogger. I started out using the app, BlogPress, but found that it crashed too often, and almost lost five days worth of blogs when it refused to open the files. BlogTouch Pro is easy to use and has never crashed on me. I would write my blog in my Notes application, and then copy it to the BlogTouch Pro app where I would add my pictures. I saved the blog as a "local" file. The local file is resident on my phone.

When I had adequate phone service, I would upload the blog. One lesson I learned is that when I create a new blog and have no phone service, I must select the "Offline" function, start the new blog, and then select "options" and check the post status of "Offline". If I left the option set as "Public", when I was finished writing the blog I would often lose my blog because the phone couldn't connect to service. Fortunately, because I always wrote my blog in my "Notes" app, I could just re-paste the information.

Another lesson I learned was that I needed a fairly strong phone signal to successfully upload a blog with several pictures. On several occasions, the blog would fail to upload if I had a weak phone signal. Another nice feature is that the app let me read comments on older blogs, and easily let me update existing blogs when I had phone service.

I highly suggest to follow Jay’s suggestion and do a dry run. Take pictures and create your blog while the phone is in airplane mode. It will familiarize you with the software and ensure that you can hit the ground running after you start your hike.

I made a review of my phone and several useful software programs on my blog here:

http://bobofwashington.blogspot.com/2015/09/pct-thru-hike-gear-review-smartphone.html

From: Jay Bruins<mailto:jbruins at gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2017 4:05 PM
To: pct l<mailto:pct-l at backcountry.net>
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Recording/blogging gear

My suggestion: do a dry run. Put your device in airplane mode for a weekend. (You are doing a gear shakedown, right?) Write in your blog entry, pick out your photos, and save them. Do the same thing Sunday even if you’re already home. Come Monday morning, try to upload them. If it doesn’t go smoothly, try some new software: you’ll be doing this for 5 months straight.

I tried to use Word Press in 2015. The iOS app lost it’s mind if you tried to prepare an entry offline. Image attachment sometimes worked (and never offline.) The only positive thing I can say: it’s free. (I’m surprised to hear differently. Perhaps my tolerance for bad software design is lower than others.)

Before I gave up the blog, I was in the habit of writing the entry in Notes with manually entered meta data at the top (e.g. location, date, etc) then forcibly copying this all into the app in town. Then there was the lovely task of going through my camera roll to find the right images to upload. This made stops in town much slower.

After spending so much time writing down my thoughts, to have to spend almost as much time wrestling with the software when all I wanted to do was stuff my face with a burger, hit the grocery store, and leave town, it just wasn’t worth it and I stopped blogging.

I hope you’re more successful,
Armstrong

PS Not useful for blogging, but I did have more success with Day One for a personal journal of sorts.
PPS vlogging likely requires way more time (editing) than using Word Press. You may just be more tolerant of pain than I am.

> On Jan 23, 2017, at 3:42 PM, Kelly Baraga <kellyhikes2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Sabrina
>
> I wasn’t too crazy about blogging and all that, but my family and friends really wanted to hear about my travels so I caved. I wasn’t all too savvy on blogging but was turned onto a free site wordpress.com <http://wordpress.com/> which was super easy to use with my iPhone 5 . i loved the fact that 90% of my picture taking was from my phone and it was super easy to upload my photos from my phone onto the blog. I did everything from my phone, no laptop or tablet.  I did set up my account before hitting the trail and practiced a few entries before my kickoff date, April 10, 2015. This way I was familiar before I ventured out and was quite happy with the the ability to get my story out. A friend of mine prompted me to blog, if not for me, for my grandkids. Yes, I am probably a bit older than you, or not, but looking back on it, I am so glad I did. I love to read my blog from time to time and it truly transports me back to the trail. There are many templates out there, I just found this one to be the easiest for a first-timer like myself. Happy Trails.
>
> GG
> kellyhikesforgod.wordpress.com <http://kellyhikesforgod.wordpress.com/> (if you want to check it out)
>
>
>> On Jan 23, 2017, at 3:30 PM, Sabrina Harrison <troopharrison at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hey everybody. I am planning on blogging and vlogging while on trail. I would appreciate recommendations from those who have done the same on what devices worked well. I will have an anker 13K mah and an iPhone.
>> Thank you,
>> Sabrina
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
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