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

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 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 appropriat

The Daily Bag - Newest wrinkle in our Pacific Crest Trail resupply plan

We are in our annual throes of packing and shipping off resupply food for our PCT hike. This is something I put off and put off, finally having a spending frenzy, getting all the materials, and sorting it out by days for each segment. I wrote about the resupply process last year.

In the past we have always had a breakfast bag with all the breakfasts for the segment, a lunch bag, and a supper bag. We have three UrSacks (bear bags of bulletproof and hopefully bearproof material), labeled B L and D. For a normal 6 or 7 day segment, we can get all our food in those three bags.


However, there is a lot of counting and measuring involved. Invariably we find some day or some segment where I have miscounted. Either I have been carrying more food than needed, or we end up going on lean rations for some segment. Usually one of each. So, we have stolen the daily bag concept from Ken and Marcia Powers. This year I have a bag for each day with everything for that day. It is much easier to  manage, since every bag is basically the same. The old way there would be an 8 day bag, a 5 day, etc so easy to  miscount. These are special odorproof bags, so even if I can't get them all into the UrSacks, we shouldn't have a problem with bears or rodents.

A typical daily bag might have for two people, 2 foil poptart packages, 2 snack bars, 2 packages of those little peanut butter or cheese cracker sandwiches, one electrolyte packet, one freeze dried dinner, two 1/2 ounce snack ziplocks of gorp (raisins, nuts, m&ms),4 packets of instant oatmeal (two each), two tea bags, two one ounce freeze dried packets of fruit (eaten as is), 1 oz jerky, dried milk (enough for 1 cup), instant coffee for one serving, vitamins glucosamine omega-3 occuvite. There are also spare Steripen batteries.

Our back bedroom is a scene of confusion. I can't completely package everything here. To get everything into our packs, we have to repackage the freeze dried meals and the jerky into ziplocks. The original packaging is just too bulky. Things such as jerky and freeze dried meals will spoil if left open for a week or two, so, we ship off the original packages, with ziplocks for repackaging when we pick up the resupply box. I print out maps for the trip, and they go in the resupply box along with the appropriate guide book pages, to avoid carrying them before needed.


Once everything is packed, then the first box has got to get off. Since they have the metal propane fuel containers, they have to go by ground transport only, and the post office has special labeling requirements. Frequently, the postal clerk has never heard of shipping fuel, and there is a big flurry of consultation with other clerks and supervisors, so I carry a reference to the postal regulations when I do my mailings.

Anyhow, I have great hopes that the daily bag will prevent any stressful surprises on the trail.

Comments

  1. Ralph's too modest--we have never really been on very lean portions. This is a huge undertaking and it's amazing how well he manages it, but I do think the Powers' system of daily bags makes a lot of sense.

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  2. Ralph, all this time you've made nice comments on my blog, and I didn't even know YOU have one! Nice work. Why don't you post up some links on Facebook? This is good stuff! Thanks for your note on my Integraton piece. It was an interesting day.

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  3. I've moved to the one bag a day system as well. Much easier to keep track of in the ursack. Keep up the writing!

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