Hi everyone, today is Sunday, July1. It has been a full three weeks and this is the first chance I have had to blog.   I have hiked through New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and now I am in Manchester Vermont. I ended up having 3 zero days with the Greenberg's in New Jersey; the third day was to avoid a big rain storm. I'm glad I did because everyone on the trail was talking about how miserable they were hiking in the storm.  I really like New Jersey, the views were terrific ( I could see New York City from 50 miles away). There are a lot of bears in New Jersey, and I had one sniffing around my tent one morning at 5:00 just as I was ready to get up and get going.  So I just laid in my tent quietly for 30 minutes until he was done sniffing around and walked off into the woods. The weather through all these states has been very hot an muggy.  Many days have been in the 80's and some days in the 90's.  Even with the heat and the increased difficulty of the terrain, I have been averaging 22 miles per day through this section.  New York was very difficult for me.  I was not expecting the many steep rock scrambles and the heat and humidity.  Plus, I have found that I was still not eating enough food to keep me energized.  When I got to Greenwood Lake NY, I had run out of gas after 6 miles and was wondering how I was going to keep going.  I hiked another 4 miles to a road and walked 2 more miles into town and sat for 2 hours and ate as much food as I could, and brought a HUGE sub back on the trail with me for supper - it did the trick.  The day after father's day I was tired and discouraged and ended up taking a zero day after 4 miles of hiking and washed my cloths (all soaked with days of sweat), and more food and rested.  This ended up being a big boost.  Prior to this day I hadn't seen any of the hikers that I had been hiking with all along.  And, the people that were hiking in this little bubble of hikers were a bit rough. I eventually connected with hikers I had been hiking with in North Carolina and Virginia.  We had been separated because we all took extended zero days because of various reasons, but mostly because people jumped off the trail to nurse injuries.  Meeting up with these other hikers like "mouse", "Spock", and "the Dutchman" gave me a book psychological boost.  We have been hiking together through Connecticut, Massachusetts, and now Vermont.  When I got to Kent, Connecticut, I got off the trail to resupply after 10 miles of hiking and planned on getting back on the trail for another 10 miles.  It was 98 degrees and 100% humidity that day, and the hottest day I experienced on the Trail.  "Spock" and "Glasses" came off the trail for a break to avoid the heat.  We all had lunch, went shopping at the IGA, and washed all of our sweat soaked cloths at the laundry before we got back on the trail. "spock" and I decided that we could just stay in town and get a hotel room ("glasses" needed to get back on the trail).  So the two of us got a room at a cool bed and breakfast that caters to hikers.  We ended up staying two nights so we could slack pack the next 16 miles section.  Boy, am I glad that we did, because we finished our 16 miles and called the Inn for a ride back to the Inn, and while we were waiting to be picked up a enormous thunderstorm came rolling in.  We took shelter under a wooden covered bridge in West Cornwall Connecticut.  We sat and watched the lightning strike the mountain that we would have been on if we were still on the trail and not slack packing.  Trees were blown down all over the place.  The next couple of days on the trail we were running into hikers who were caught in the storm and they had some wild stories of dodging trees that were falling around them and lightning strikes all around them. When we got to Great Barrington, Massachusetts my brother Dave, his wife Cathy,. and daughter Carly came out to see us and hiked in onto the trail to meet us.  They took us into Great Barrington and we had a great time at lunch, eating ice cream, and telling stories of the trail.  We neroed in Great Barrington and slack packed 8 miles the next day. We had a break in the weather and a couple of cool days in Massachusetts.  When we hit Dalton, Mass, we stayed at a hiker hostel that has become my favorite place on the trail.  "Spock", "The Dutchman" and I were transported to North Adams, by Tom (the owner of the hostel) and we slack packed the 23 miles over Mount Greylock (the highest mountain in Mass) back to Dalton.  This was fun because we ran into other hikers that were a day ahead of us, and hikers we hadn't seen since Virginia.  When we were getting back on the trail in North Adams, Mass to continue our trek north into Vermont, we met our first southbound thruhiker.  We talked with him for awhile and gave him trail info going south and obtained trail info going north. We met two more southbound thruhikers the two following days. Today, I arrived in Manchester, Vermont with "mouse" and "the Dutchman" ("spock" is a day behind because the heat is slowing him down, but he'll catch up and we will be together by next weekend). We are staying at this fantastic hostel in Manchester and we have resupplied and will be making a 5 day trek to Norwich starting tomorrow, July 2.  We will spend Wednesday night at Killington and will be in Norwich, Vt by Friday afternoon if all goes according to plan.  I will take a couple of Zero days in Norwich and prepare for the most difficult section of the trail - New Hampshire and the White Mountains.  I hope to have internet time in Norwich next Sunday and time to update you on my trek and post updated pictures.