Day Hiker Packs Enough Food for Everest Expedition on 2-Mile Loop

Weekend hiker Brenda Colton arrived at the Lakewood Nature Loop trailhead on Sunday with a 40-pound pack containing enough food to sustain a four-person Himalayan expedition, despite the trail being 2.1 miles long with a paved parking lot at both ends. 'You never know what can happen out there,' Colton said, adjusting a pack from which two baguettes and a camp stove protruded. 'I read that you should always carry more food than you think you need. So I brought more.' Colton's provisions included seven sandwiches (three varieties), two liters of soup in Thermoses, a bag of trail mix the size of a throw pillow, four apples, a wheel of brie, crackers, a portable camp stove with two fuel canisters, freeze-dried beef stroganoff ('in case of emergency'), and a birthday cake her sister had given her that she 'didn't want to leave in the car.' 'The trail takes forty-five minutes,' said park ranger Steve Macklin. 'There's a sandwich shop at the trailhead. You can see it from most points on the loop.' Colton completed the hike in an hour and twenty minutes, pausing four times to eat. She consumed two sandwiches, a portion of brie, most of the trail mix, and a slice of cake at what she identified as 'the summit,' which Macklin clarified was 'a slight incline.' 'I feel prepared,' Colton said, repacking her still-enormous provisions. 'Some people might say I over-packed. Those people have never been caught on a nature loop without cake.' She has already begun packing for next weekend's hike, a 1.5-mile trail around a reservoir. Her current list includes a ham.