Date: 2008-05-28
From: YMCA Campground

To: Bald Knob
Miles today: 13.7
Weather: light rain

Today I met up with Marley! I had seen his name on the register of the hostel when I went to check it out but he wasn't there then. I had asked the lady at the church to tell Marley that I had come to see him, and apparently she had written "Maestro is at the YMCA campground" on a board there. I had just woken up and figured I'd play a song, and just when I got started I heard some feet on the grass outside and a voice saying "I know that ukelele!" We got breakfast at the diner and then headed to the outfitter. I knew my package was only supposed to arrive today at the earliest, and that the mail wouldn't be delivered until much later (it was only 9:30), but I figured I had nothing else to do and may as well hang out there. We got a ride without even asking for it (someone saw us walking - Waynesboro is VERY friendly and it's VERY easy to get rides here) - and guess what? My package arrived YESTERDAY. Well, I guess I needed to take the time off anyway because of my toe. Now I have the right pack. Awesome. Fits me and feels great. Time to head out. I've never had trail fever like this before. Waynesboro, luckily, is full of people willing to shuttle you around - they actually have a list of them. I called one that supposedly did long distance shuttling (what I needed) and said that we needed one person to just go back to the trail immediately (Marley) and one person who needed to go to the post office (to send back the pack I'm exchanging), go to the Y campgronud, and then get dropped off 60 miles away on the trail. I get all my errands done, say goodbye to Marley, and head out. One thing I didn't know is that the Blue Ridge Parkway goes right into Waynesboro. If I had known that I would have just easily hitched up it. My shuttler was nice but it was $60 to get to where I needed to go and that hurts a bit during a time when I was hoping to not spend much.I feel so much better on the trail. I'm breaking in the new pack and so far it feels great, a pleasure to wear all day. Thanks to Brian at ULA for making such an awesome product, the Catalyst. The toe is also almost pain free, though at times I can feel how tender the part of the toe is that's not covered by a nail.Got on the trail, felt great, saw Orangedust and Greenwood at the shelter ("We're just slow!"), saw Peanut Butter again! Can't believe it. Apparently he does 3 or 4 dayhikes per week. He's a friend to hikers for sure, and was actually aghast that I had been charged for the shuttle.Well, this was bound to happen sometime, and I was actually wondering when it was going to happen. I am camped alone on the top of a mountain, far from anyone else. It's dark now. Slightly disconcerting but not really. I'm a little worried because I cooked right here and hear some animals walking around, hopefully I didn't attract anything. There's actually a lot of deer here. You would think this would happen more frequently on the AT but it doesn't actually work out like that. The problem is that it was getting late adn the next shelter was 0.6 miles away from the trail and I didn't want to waste 1.2 miles, so I just found a nice spot on top of Bald Knob and setup. Camping is actually allowed anywhere along the AT as long as it doesn't explicitly say otherwise somewhere (very, very seldomly). I tried to find a spot where I wouldn't be compressing the vegetation - one area where hammocks excel since they are more or less completely "leave no trace," hanging suspended above the ground.Tomorrow I cross the 800 mile point - psyched.