Rite in the Rain No. 373L3 — Worth Keeping in Your Bag?
The Rite in the Rain Side Spiral Notebook No. 373L3 is a weatherproof field notebook built for outdoor conditions — exactly the kind of thing you want when you're logging finds on a muddy riverbank.
I know. A notebook. Bear with me.
I spent probably two years just mentally cataloging what I pulled out of the water — a bike chain here, a karabiner there, that one time I pulled up what was definitely a meat cleaver and didn't want to think too hard about it. None of it written down. All of it forgotten. Then I started actually logging my finds and realized I'd been leaving data on the table the whole time.
This is the notebook I use. It writes in the rain. It writes when your hands are wet. It doesn't turn into papier-mâché when you drop it in the shallows for half a second — and if you're honest with yourself, you know that's going to happen eventually.
I opened this expecting a notebook. It's a notebook. But the paper is — okay, hear me out — genuinely weird to touch for the first five seconds. It's got this slight waxy, almost plastic feel to it, which makes sense because it's basically synthetic paper designed to shed water instead of absorbing it. First impression was honestly a little odd. Then I wrote on it with a damp thumb resting on the page and nothing smeared, and I stopped thinking about it.
I started bringing it to a spot I hit pretty regularly on the Monongahela — a stretch under an old railroad bridge where I've pulled up some genuinely strange stuff. Spike nails, old bolts, a horseshoe that looked like it had been sitting down there since the Eisenhower administration. The thing is, I used to just remember what I pulled. Now I write it down, location, depth estimate, pull force, what conditions were like. It sounds like overkill. It's not. I went back to a spot three months later because my notes said I'd only done half the stretch before my rope tangled, and I pulled up two more solid pieces I'd have never gone back for otherwise.
The notebook made that happen. Kind of annoying to admit but there it is.
Writing in actual rain — not heavy, just that grey drizzle that won't quit — works fine. The ink doesn't bleed. The page doesn't go limp. I use a standard ballpoint and it works, though Rite in the Rain will tell you to use their pens and they're not wrong that it writes better. I don't always have one on me and it's still fine. Pencil works great on it too, which I only discovered by accident when I grabbed whatever was in my bag.
The spiral binding is on the side, which I actually prefer for field use — you can fold it back flat and write one-handed, which matters when your other hand is holding a rope or a find or trying to keep your phone dry. Small thing. Useful thing.
The cover is tan and utilitarian. It's not going to impress anyone. That's fine.
If I had a complaint — and I'm reaching here — it's that $27 feels like a lot for a notebook until you've soaked a regular notebook through once and lost everything in it. After that it stops feeling expensive. If you're brand new to this and you're not sure whether you're going to keep doing it, buy a Ziploc bag and a regular notebook first. But if you're past the phase where you're wondering if this is a you thing, this is worth having.
I've got two. One in my main bag, one in the car. The one in my car has been there through two winters and it's fine. Still writes. Still waterproof. Slightly dinged up on the corner from where it slides around back there, but the pages are fine.
$26.87 • Amazon
