I boarded an AT-bound train from Grand Central Station this morning. When I went down the steps onto the platform at the trail I thought “back to reality.” How interesting that was because my life is usually quite the opposite, and leaving the trail is going back to reality. 
I will admit I was a little salty to be leaving NYC and it’s AC and endless hot food…but as soon as I got off the train, I was swarmed by Boy Scouts and other volunteers working on a survey for the ATC and offering trail magic. ”Twas a wonderful welcome back!
I met back up with some hikers I’d seen before my trip and several new ones too. Now that I’ve been on trail for a month, I feel much more at home in the hiking community.
Later in the afternoon, I crossed into my 4th state-Connecticut!
Not even a half mile later, I hit the second trail magic setup of the day! It’s hard to keep having a bad day when there’s endless free hamburgers to eat. Here’s a pic of the trail angels (former thru hikers themselves) who were kind enough to set up for us!
Because of my late start and two hamburgers, I hiked into the night where I got caught in a pretty bad storm. It was definitely scary, but thankfully there was plenty of room in the shelter when I finally arrived (and other hikers who were sympathetic to my situation).