Anticipating Idaho...

 

Around here it is common for vacations to be planned eight to twelve months in advance.  Sometimes I wonder if this reduces our ability to be spontaneous; but it provides ample time to build up the excitement. 


I've been anticipating our trip to the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho for about nine months now, and it's still several weeks away.  Entering into the final stretch, my excitement is growing, and so are the lists of what needs to be taken care of before we catch our plane west.

This week I've checked a few items off the list.  Travel Journal was my favorite check to put down.  I played with paper, ink and some stamps to create a variety of pages to bring with me.

Many of our vacations involve getting away from it all, and this is no exception.  We'll be joining a group and rafting on the Salmon River.  All winter I chanted...  more snow in Idaho, and I'm hoping it was effective in influencing Mother Nature to drop a lot of precipitation in Idaho to boost the water levels in the river.  If the river levels are high enough, then we'll get to visit an extra 25 miles of wilderness and boosting our river miles to nearly 100.  If I wasn't convincing we'll still enjoy the 75 miles that we do get to see for sure!

Part of my goal for this travel journal is to inspire me to reflect on my emotions while communing with nature, along with keeping track of the nuts and bolts of the trip.  Many of my previous travel journals read like notes from a science experiment.  I'd like to keep track of some of that, but I'd also like to spend more time reflecting on the experience.  To remind myself of this goal I selected a variety of quotes to include on the pages as well.

A few details of the Journal -

• I opted to keep the color scheme fairly simple, and used Kraft, brown, blue and white as the primary colors.  I also love this color combination, and it seemed perfect for a river rafting trip.  I picked up a couple of ink misting bottles and played with spritzing them - FELL IN LOVE!!!

• The pages are 5x7.  I chose this size for a couple of reasons:  1)  I can add 4x6 photos with a little room around the edges for some notes.  2)  I used 5x7 pre-made notecards for many of the pages.  I love the heavier paper of the A.C. Moore kraft greeting card bases and envelopes (the white ones aren't nearly as thick, so I used regular cardstock for the white pages of the journal).  The pre-sized, and scored notecards reduced prep time too!  There's also plenty of room for pre-planned quotes and on-site notes.

• Joel's goal on the trip is to see a moose, mine is to see / hear wolves.  So I created a specific page for each of us.  I found silhouettes online, printed them, cut them out with an exacto-knife and used vintage photo distress ink in the cut-out space.  My wolf was a little tricky, since I had to hold onto the pieces for the spaces between the legs.  Can't wait to jot some of my favorite parts of the trip down on my page!

• Most pages are folded 5x7 cards, but there are some single sheets in there as well.  These are watercolor paper.  A box of watercolor pencils and a water brush will accompany me on this trip.  I've never painted riverside with the use of a headlamp - that might just be how it's done this trip.

 

• After travelling through the Grand Canyon last year with this same organization we have some idea of what to expect.  We're anticipating a variety of gourmet meals and a fabulous crew - so I created a couple of pages dedicated to the menu and cast of this adventure.

• Envelopes and a little washi tape were added to hold the ephemera and any post cards I pick up for myself.  (a side bonus for using the note card set)

I've had a blast creating the pages of this journal - now I have to wait just a little longer to fill it all in!

Thanks for staying with me in this extended post!
~Kathy