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Thanks to the tent, the sleeping bag, the warm fleece jacket, the bags of dehydrated food,

even the water bottle seemed to weigh more than it should.

In this moment, you wanted nothing more than to undo the waistband and finally set the

giant backpack down. Take a nice long rest. But he couldn't do that just yet for one very

inconvenient reason. Somewhere back there on the trail, Jake took a wrong turn. And now,

he found himself lost. It wasn't the worst thing to be lost out here. It's one of the reasons

he chose this particular route. He first heard about it in the brochure he picked up last year

at the States Park. This trail promised easy ambles over a gentle landscape. He remembered the

words chuckling to himself. Easy ambles wasn't quite how he'd describe it.

It also said he would see small picturesque towns and rolling hills dabbled with late afternoon

sunlight. There would even be little detours he could take each night, conveniently leading to

some nice warm supper and even a soft bed if he didn't feel like pitching a tent.

Those last parts were true for the most part. He did see picturesque towns quite a few of them

actually and he did manage to find a few cozy little spots to eat. Really, it had been a pretty

comfortable hike so far, he's supposed. Before he left, Jake packed all the essentials.

He got new hiking boots and wore them around so his feet wouldn't hurt on the trail.

It took a while to get used to the high tops which held his ankles snug.

...