I read lots of journals for various reasons, including  research (do I want to go there? ideas for routes and accommodation if I’m planning a trip there), vicarious travel (to places I’ve been or doubt I’d ever go), or just an entertaining read. I like photos and MAPS. 

I’ve always kept a journal on major trips because I wanted to remember (and identify my photos when I got them back from the lab).  I discovered online journals (on that other site) after a nasty ski injury that needed 8 weeks of no loadbearing—which triggered a lot of screen time, though I missed no work. I ended up ordering a custom-sized Co-Motion Pangea and planning my first real tours since before kids. 

I so enjoyed reading other people’s journals and being able to use them for research that I decided to post mine too so others could read them if they wished. One of these days I’ll post our 1992 pre-kids trip, the one that triggered my love of touring in Europe. It was 23 years before we made it back and 2 years away now is painful. 

Hi kelly,

We are new to cycleblaze and working on getting our journals moved. Good to hear adding maps is easy. As weve not explored the site too much yet, is there a help button?

Racpat 

As when dealing with incontinence, my answer is "Depends".  :)

When researching and planning a ride, the blow-by-blow "Went here, did that" style- imparting basic experiences and details- is very useful and much appreciated.  But those details get to be wearisome on a day-after-day basis and certainly when in binge-reading mode I struggle to keep my interest up.

When what I want is some escapism and to ride vicariously through someone else's shared experience I prefer journals that take a small detail from each day and expand on it, where the writer is not necessarily even the main subject.  I find those are much easier to read for pure entertainment, although they don't necessarily tell me much about the actual cycling experience per se.

In either case I seldom pay even the slightest attention to statistical details like total miles ridden in the day, total climbing/descending, and so forth if they are presented as summary data at the end of the post.  On days where high mileage and / or big climbing IS the story of the day, that should be obvious from the day's entry.  Otherwise, it adds little value for me.