Ruby Tuesday_5-8-12- "The Long Walk"

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~go here for more RT2 posts~

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My daughter, Tina, just returned Saturday from a week long backpacking hike in the Great Smokey Mountains... make that a 50 mile, backpacking hike!

This was her first time for doing something like this and I'm extremely proud  of her accomplishments. 

Although it was hard 
(much harder than she expected, she said)
 it was fun and well worth it.
 She saw and experienced things most of us never will...well, at least, not up close or from the vantage point she, and her fellow hikers, did!

What extraordinary beauty there is to be seen in those mountains!

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Today I'll show you  some scenes of Ruby Red from her collection of photos!

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~Lots of wildflowers along those trails~

~the hikers- minus one~  



~This is the other guide~



~a rest stop along the way, on one of those days~

~looking WAAAY down to water from a narrow bridge~

~And again~

 
~ Tina said they crossed over numerous streams on the hike, sometimes having to take off their shoes~
 

~this is someone's energy drink, cooling ~
 

~one of those days, after a rest stop, it was discovered that a snail had hitched a ride on Tina's backpack~
:)   







~ All food had to be kept  way up on poles, so as not to attract bears!~

  
 Tina's tent...

They slept in tents except for the last night when they had reached the top of Newton Bald Ridge- elevation, 5,000 ft. That night they slept in a crude lodge that had no electricity...but they had HOT water in a bucket to wash up and a bed to sleep in!~

(  However...the highest elevation they had reached on the hike was 6,593 ft. )

:)

Tina said, the last day was one of the hardest, though shorter in hours walking, as it was a steep decent, all the way; and , of course, a different trail from the way they came up!

(lol- no red in that day, so I won't post any pics)

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This is Tina after the 6 day hike,
 back at the hotel with the 2 guides.

She drove home the next day...
( about a 9 hour drive!!) 

Way to go, Tina!!


:)




Junie Rose

(Mom)