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
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Couple or partner hiking safety issues

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There is one serious hiking issue that is unique to two people hiking together. This is the accidental passing. You think the other person is ahead when he/she is really behind. Your attempts to catch up only worsen the problem. I have seen this happen once to another couple in Europe, and on the isolated environs of the PCT it is much more serious.

We are serious about safety and attempt to be prepared for any weather that might come up. However, our gear is split. The two of us together have everything we need,  but neither carries enough to get through a night on their own without problems. About all we each have is a space blanket and a sleeping bag.

Consequently, we are quite careful not to get accidentally separated. If the person ahead is out of sight of the other, and has to go off the trail, they either leave their poles or their backpack on the trail, so they can't be accidentally passed. Believe me, in my hiking head-down mode, I can miss something two feet off the trail.

In the case were there is a substantial amount of time that one person is hiking ahead, say I have to take a long bathroom break, or stop to get water for a dry camp, then we use a trail mark convention. The person going ahead makes a special mark on the trail about every five minutes or so, and immediately  after passing any sort of trail junction, signed or unsigned. For example a trail mark could be three parallel lines, with the line in the middle being longer at the bottom, and that indicates direction, like the shaft of an arrow.

This is great for the person trying to catch up. They know they are going the right direction when they see mark A. One more thing we do is when the follower sees a mark, they cross it off, like in B, so if the person ahead ever has to go back looking for the behind person, they will know if that person has been on the trail or not. We do this, but so far, never needed it.

In addition, we set some rules on how far to walk ahead, and how long to wait there, before starting back.You need to be careful not to get separated when it might be too dark to get back together in case of a problem.

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