Adventures with Ken

I have a weekend hangover of sorts today after my second adventure with Gazette reader Ken Stambaugh. Last spring he took me on an airplane ride, and over the weekend we did a backpacking trip, which was a first for me.

Ken is an ex-Army helicopter pilot and maintenance supervisor. Earlier this spring he mentioned that he had the itch to relive a part of his military experience by roughing it in the woods, and I signed up to tag along.

We huffed and puffed over a mountain on the Appalachian Trail in Lebanon County, and set up camp Saturday afternoon along Rausch Creek.

We feasted on MREs (not bad) and started a small fire (thankfully Ken had a Zippo lighter) to ward off a battalion of hungry mosquitoes.

Sleeping was spotty for me (my foam cushion didn't provide much cushion), while Ken and his air mattress seemed to get along just fine.

We headed back Sunday morning. Fortunately the return trip was mostly downhill, giving us the breath to solve most of the world's problems along the way.

Ken's a stud and probably had no after effects from the trip. As for me, I'm walking like a robot.
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I forgot my camera in a rush to complete final preparations for the trip. The photo above was borrowed from Google Image Search.