Did you know that in addition to their ubiquitous water bottles, Nalgene also makes notebooks? Neither did I, but apparently they do! And the notebooks are waterproof, in case you spill the contents of your Nalgene bottle on them.

Waterproof notekeeping in the field.

Keep records in wet or harsh environments. Spunbonded polyethylene PolyPaper has exceptional strength and resistance to moisture and chemicals. Unaffected by fresh or salt water, it far exceeds the performance of conventional papers, even those with special coatings.

All pages are printed with a green 1/4″ grid. Pocket Data Book fits easily into packs or pockets. White plastic spiral binder can’t rust. Cover provides a firm writing surface. Pocket Notepad fits in a shirt pocket yet provides permanent records in wet and harsh environments. Rugged cover has rounded corners to prevent bending. Field Notebook has a durable yet flexible cover and spiral binding. Pages are printed on both sides and numbered from 1 through 96, plus title and table of contents pages. Each page has space for dates and signatures. PolyPaper Plastic Paper won’t rip, stretch or shrink. Write on it with almost any kind of pen or marker. Use it for labels on dry chemical or biological samples stored in formalin. No. 94887 can be used in photocopies or laser printers. No. 94888 can be written on with pencil.

I found the listing here, at the Ben Meadows Company, though the info is a bit confusing: what size are the notebooks? And how many do you get for for $63.20? I thought it had to be one multi-pack of notebooks, not just a single notebook! But I emailed the company and the nice people there confirmed that yes, that was the price for one notebook and that they were not going to be selling them any more because they were too expensive, due to the rising cost of the materials used to manufacture them.  That still didn’t answer the question of size, though. I did find other retailer listings that offered a 9 x 11 1/4″ notebook  for $89.93, and an 8 1/2 x 11″ notebook for $96.20, as well as what seem to be some hardcover lab notebooks of unspecified sizes for $36.10-60.70. Finally, I found this listing for the Pocket Data book–not very pocketable at 4 1/2 x 8″, and costing $288.44 for 12. But no one seems to list the small spiral bound notebook shown in the picture.

Oh well– if you really want a waterproof notebook, stick to Rite in the Rain!