And to wrap up my fall 2022 peak foliage tour of New England, I hiked to the top of Bear Mountain, the highest peak in CT.

This hike was a nice reminder not to take things for granted, especially what's in my own backyard. Having grown up and lived in CT pretty much all my life, and after watching a lot of my closest friends leave the state, I too had yearned to leave CT, but there was always something tying me down. Ironically, now that I have the opportunity and ability to live wherever I want to, I think CT will always be home for me even if I do move somewhere else.

I've seen so many beautiful places across the US as well as internationally so it's so easy to forget that CT and New England has its own beauty as well, especially this time of year. It's something I'll have to constantly remind myself since it's easy to take things for granted, especially the beauty in your own backyard. I had forgotten how beautiful the view is at the top of Bear Mountain and it wasn't even a clear sunny day! I was also fortunate to have been able to enjoy the view alone for a solid 10 minutes before more people arrived so it was nice to just be able to take it all in myself.

I like doing the loop counterclockwise so I scramble up the AT section and am rewarded with beautiful views as I'm slowly descending back to the undermountain trail. The scrambling section is no joke as you can hear me out of breath lol and I pushed myself to do that stretch all in one shot so I was pretty proud of myself since there were times where I wanted to take a break.

Now that my fall 2022 peak foliage tour has come to a close and winter is coming, I do plan on doing more winter hiking as one of the many things I learned about myself is that while in the past I would hibernate once autumn is over, this year I'm going to keep hiking since I tend to run hot and actually really enjoy cold weather hiking!