Kindle Once Again - this time for Walk, Hike, Saunter

-
Image
 Last time I did this was Dec 2017. At the moment, memory of how to do it is pretty foggy, but luckily I have my earlier blog posts on this to refresh my memory so printing them out to review. (look for Kindle label in this blog to find).  This book is a little easier than the others - text and inline photos, a table of contents, but no index. Susan has promised it will be out in two and a half weeks, so will try to do that. My immediate issue is that I remember that I have to make some changes to the Indesign file before putting out the epub file that I will update for Kindle, but don't remember quite what they were. Pausing to read my prior posts, and to review Kindle code for Healing Miles . From my 2012 notes I saw that to get reliable chapter breaks, each chapter had to be a separate xhtml file. The default of Indesign is to put out one big xhtml file, but it will break on a style, so I need to be sure the current Indesign document (for Walk, Hike, Saunter ) has an appro...
Post a Comment

Long Distance Walk Planning

-

I'm just finishing up a planning effort, both polishing up our GR 653 Arles to Toulouse info based on completing that trip, and doing the initial Toulouse to Puenta la Reina planning.

In all cases, the key document is the spreadsheet in the bottom center of the image. Normally I will use a Google Documents spreadsheet, as I share the info with others. I gather the appropriate guidebooks, and from them build the spreadsheet with names of the stops, and distances between points. To this I add the elevation for each point. Sometimes this is in the guidebooks, other times I have to pull it off of a topo map, or my topo software, or worst case, zooming google maps in terrain mode. I add cumulative distances to my spreadsheet, and with the distances and elevation can do an elevation profile chart with Google charts. Its a little easier to chart if I clone my original spreadsheet, and delete all but the elevations and cumulative distance. An aside, we've been getting some unattributed taking of blog content so inserting © 2009 backpack45.com

Once the spreadsheet is done I can estimate the number of days and we can schedule the trip, buy supplies, book reservations, etc.

Some examples:

A PCT Spreadsheet

A GR653 Arles to Toulouse Spreadsheet

Comments

  1. SilOctober 15, 2008 at 11:37 AM

    http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pPFto0EzOaDsxzFnUiiYXWw&hl=en

    ReplyDelete
  2. Philip WernerAugust 26, 2010 at 5:53 AM

    I'm planning a 150 mile section of the AT now in Maine. I'm actually trying to plan less on this hike than I normally do, by just figuring out how much food/distance I'll cover between resupplies, how to get to town on resupply days, shuttles to and from the end points, and water sources.

    In the past, I've gone crazy with food planning. This time, I'm going to wing it a little more and do eyeball calorie calculations rather than write everything up in a spreadsheet.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 11, 2011 at 11:25 AM

    I agree with Philip. If you over-plan you take the sponteneaity out of the trip, which I would assume is part of the reason you want to hike. The point is to take a break from work, not bring work to the trail. Just plan enough for safety reasons and let the rest be an adventure...

    ReplyDelete
  4. TimecheckJanuary 11, 2011 at 12:45 PM

    I've spreadsheeted food, and it was a useful exercise to do once, but after that I could do it on autopilot.

    I do think that one distinction of long distance hiking over recreational backpacking is that the long distance hiking is an exercise in planning, particularly for section hikers. If you have to go 500 miles, and be back at the job in five weeks, detailed planning is essential. There will be plenty of adventure on the trail, but you had better make your mileage and know where your resupply points are.

    If you are a thru-hiker you may be between jobs, but you still have climate constraints on reaching your destination, and again, it takes planning skills to finish. If I saw "thru-hiked the PCT" on a resume, that would be a big plus - someone who can plan a large task and get it done.

    ReplyDelete
  5. SilJanuary 11, 2011 at 9:16 PM

    I planned every day of my hike on the Via Francigena from Switerland to Rome after reading other people's accounts of getting hopelessly lost, having to double back-track and hiking 30km, 40km 50km as a result, having nowhere to sleep at the end of the day. That's great for a sole male (with a tent) but when it is 5 middle-aged women who are hiking, I say "book a room in advance". At least you know there is a bed at the end of a long, hot, rambling day!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kindle Once Again - this time for Walk, Hike, Saunter

-
Image
 Last time I did this was Dec 2017. At the moment, memory of how to do it is pretty foggy, but luckily I have my earlier blog posts on this to refresh my memory so printing them out to review. (look for Kindle label in this blog to find).  This book is a little easier than the others - text and inline photos, a table of contents, but no index. Susan has promised it will be out in two and a half weeks, so will try to do that. My immediate issue is that I remember that I have to make some changes to the Indesign file before putting out the epub file that I will update for Kindle, but don't remember quite what they were. Pausing to read my prior posts, and to review Kindle code for Healing Miles . From my 2012 notes I saw that to get reliable chapter breaks, each chapter had to be a separate xhtml file. The default of Indesign is to put out one big xhtml file, but it will break on a style, so I need to be sure the current Indesign document (for Walk, Hike, Saunter ) has an appro...
Read more

Patagonia - Torres del Paine - Trip Planning Stream of Consciousness

-
Image
Thought it might aid some future trekker if I just list things as we learn them. It is now early Dec 2008, and we have reservations into Santiago, Chile for March, and back home from Buenos Aires. Now we have to fill in the in between. We got the start and end locations from a friend who visited Chile and Argentina last year, though he wasn't trekking Torres del Paine. Some other friends did do the trek about 15 years ago, so we started by borrowing all their old guide books and maps. Since then we got our own Lonely Planet Trekking in Patagonia , and a recent Torres del Paine Trekking Map . Since I'm going to keep updating this post, to keep all the Patagonia info in one spot, and try to keep a change log here: Change log: 12/14/16 *** very important*** all campsites now require advance reservations, for example at this date, all of January is already reserved. See Campsite Reservations post below for more details. 12/2014 *** important *** Any US citizen entering...
Read more

Hot weather hiking affliction: Golfer's Vasculitis

-
Image
This sock had elasticized top Chances are, you hot weather hikers have seen something like this. That's my leg you're looking at, yesterday's view, and not much of a concern to me since I knew what it was. The first encounter was a scare - on Susan's leg while hiking in France, and we had no idea what it was. Just it came on while hiking in very hot weather, and was right under the elasticized band of her sock, warm to the touch and puffy, but not painful. A wider, more brilliant band than you see here on my leg. A few days later, the whole foot started swelling in a major way, all the way from toes to half way up the shin, and extremely painful. That ended up with us going to emergency, where a severe infection was diagnosed, treatable with antibiotics, but we had to cancel the trip and it took two weeks for the swelling to subside. The doctors were unable to determine point of entry for the infection. They did x-rays for hairline fractures - none. Final though...
Read more