Notebook of Info About Your Area

[The Stig]

Does anybody keep a notebook in their car to write down information about their emergency routes?

For example, if you notice a particular bridge might be a chokepoint, or a particular gas station is open all night, that might be worth to include in a notebook or journal about your area. If you find a "secret" backroad or rarely used State Route, that would be worth noting. Even simple things like "beware of dangerous curve on XYZ road" would be worth noting.

I'm thinking this could be kept for primarily any emergency routes you have, but also the area in general.

If you do this, do you have any pointers for us?

This was something that I'm sure is not creative in anyway, but I thought of on my drive back down from Birmingham this afternoon.

[bacpacker]

I've kept a notebook in all our vehicles for quite some time. Not so much as making route notes, althought they will be used for that now. Thanks.
We've used them for noting areas we were looking for property, maintenance records for the vehicles, and various things like that.
I have been spending time on my travels to and from work, or on travels for various other things. I look for areas that might be good locations to hide out on a GH travel. Maybe gardens to grab a snack on a GH trip. Maybe supplies to be salvaged.

[ladyhk13]

We keep what dh calls "Wheel Books" (Naval term) in each vehicle which has our 'to do' list and anything else we need to remember so that would be another good thing to add.

[LUNCHBOX]

I don't actually keep a notebook. I do pay attention to route conversations with numerous officers in regards to points of interest. Don't forget about high water areas, known black ice sections, an area with heavy power lines or overhanging weak looking trees that could shut you down. A highly used intersection with no power to its light will back up traffic fast.

[GunnerMax]

a notebook will be made in the next couple months for me.

[TEOTWAWKI13]

Good concept. I should get one going.

[mitunnelrat]

Not yet, but its been on my to-do list. I have several reconnaissance forms saved in pdf format for something just like this. They'll be making it into a notebook sooner or later.

[mitunnelrat]

http://madbaronet.com/form_pdfs/DA1248_road_recon.pdf
FM 5-170 Appendix D Engineer Recon (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/5-170/appd.htm)
http://madbaronet.com/form_pdfs/DA1249_bridge_recon.pdf
Figure 2-7. Sample Tunnel Reconnaissance Report, Front (http://armyengineer.tpub.com/en5622/en56220034.htm)

These are the kinds of things I'm talking about. I could get really detailed and obsessive on routes if I wanted to.

[apssbc]

Great Idea I will be fitting my truck and the Gf's vehicle with a couple note books. MTR I leave it to you to pull our the uber organized forms ;) I like those alot, I may try to add them and shrink them to a smaller note pad type size.

[mitunnelrat]

Some of the boxes are small on a few of the forms. I'll see what can happen with that though.

Otherwise, I really need to get the manuals associated with them. It'll make life much easier filling them out properly.

[realist]

Stig you are right about bridges being choke points. It is for that reason that I have scouted out all our bridges. We have floods in out areas that in some cases will swamp the end of a bridge. I have to assume that if there is a bridge Murphy's Law says it will be compromised. I figure that I know all about them however mama doesn't so I really like your area about putting together a book. Since I live in a very mountainous area with steep cliffs it would not take much to close them off or have a landslide during heavy rains. We always have to have an alternate route.

[GunnerMax]

Dont forget to make sure you have a compass!

[wingnutx]

Not a notebook, but I have made lots of notes and overlays in my GPS (BackCountry Navigator for Android, which is GREAT).

Water sources, land boundaries, poorly marked turns, etc... This all goes onto the USGS topo maps I have on there.

That's mostly for my woodland acreage.

For the city (primary residence) I have scouted the area with Google Earth and made note of all kinds of things. Water, dry canals, full canals, misc routes, and then put the into my GPS. It's amazing what you can see on there.

I need a good large city map to plot some of them on. I do keep a pretty decent AZ road atlas in the car.

[msomnipotent]

Good idea. We don't have many bridges or rivers to worry about here, but the trains can be a nightmare. We also have a lot of traffic with no good way of getting around it. The subdivision streets are purposely designed to discourage through traffic, so I really should make some notes of what streets to take to avoid busy intersections.

[mollypup]

I really need to learn where the sources of water are in my area. I know we have some but I just gotta figure out the closest and easiest way to get to them.