Affordable Fun With My Crazy Sister

My sister Miranda recently visited from Florida for a few weeks, bringing with her all the lovable, crazy fun that she is. Miranda is like a life-sized Loony Tunes character with no verbal filter. She's a hilarious companion to have on any journey, and while she was here we took a few.

For one excursion we decided to go hiking, but, being the former Belyea girls that we are, no simple hike would suffice. The Belyeas go big or we don't go at all. So we decided to conquer Mt. Washington, the highest peak in the Northeastern United States, a whopping 6,288 feet. I had made the trek with a group of girls last summer, and it took us about 5-to-6 hours to get up and another 4 or so to get down, so I was expecting the same.

Miranda and I started our trip early, arriving at the bottom of the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail at about 6:15am. We arrived at the top of Mt. Washington at about 9:45am. If you add that up it comes to 3.5 hours, which was a lot faster than I thought we could do—and pretty good if you consider that neither of us have done any hiking this year. Ahh, to be young :P

Along the way we stopped for pictures in front of waterfalls and the Lakes of the Clouds. It is a beautiful hike, and the day we chose could not have been better. From the top of Mt. Washington we could see mountain peaks as far as the eye could see!

For the trip down the mountain we chose to go the Jewell trail, but I have no idea why; it's the longest trail on the mountain and it is war on the knees!

Overall, the trip cost us only the gas money to get there and the $3 parking fee. It would've cost $36 for the two of us to drive up, or $136 to ride the train. I had ridden in our family van up the mountain before, and have even taken the train, but that's when I had free tickets from working at Clark's Trading Post. I recommend seeing Mt. Washington all three ways, if it's financially possible, but for this penny pinching hiker, the quality time spent with my sister, who I don't get to see very often, and the amazing views from the top made this excursion totally worth it!

Keep pinchin' :-)