The Appalachian Range: Top and Above

 

Gatlinburg, Tennessee: After a long haul of COVID-19 imposed restrictions, we finally hit the road and headed for the Great Smoky Mountains. As we reached the small town of Gatlinburg, we were welcomed by heavy rains. Uh oh! Gullu’s big eyes drooped wondering if the vacation was over before it even started, but a convincing smile from Mamma and Dadda assured her that the best adventure just started! We put on our sandals, pulled out our umbrellas, and out we went to explore the city of Gatlinburg.

Ripley’s

As kids, we read books on Ripley’s Believe it or Not, but today we were at the doorstep of the museum, gawking at the artifacts Robert Ripley collected through his lifetime and the stories he brought back – Kamala the wolf girl from India, shrunken heads from the Amazon tribes, the Unicorn man from China etc. In Robert Ripley’s own words – Believe it or not!

Not just Ripley’s, the Parkway is queued up with many attractions. The Skylift park, Anakeesta, arcades, candy stores, local coffee shops, and eateries. The little town of Gatlinburg reminded me of the M.G. Marg in Gangtok, Sikkim. As late as 9 pm, people were outside, eateries were open, streets well lit, live country music had people swaying, and all this with a lot of kids around! The happy faces and smiles exchanged added to the wonderful energy this town exuded.

While most of the time we were on foot waddling through this small old town and when the feet didn’t touch the ground, they were up in the air – top and above!

Treetop Sky Bridge

Anakeesta means the place of high ground in the Cherokee language. Now to reach the 600 ft high top, we can either choose the Ridge Rambler- a bus ride to the top, a Gondola – closed-door cabin ride, or the open Chairlift ride. No points for guessing, we went with the open Chairlift ride! The chair lifted us up the mountain and we saw the dainty city of Gatlinburg passing below with cars on the main road whizzing past under our feet. The Vista gardens and the Treetop village play area had our eight-year-old in happy feet. But, our wow moment came when we started to walk through Anakeesta’s Treetop Sky Bridge. This treetop suspended bridge is the longest tree-based bridge in North America and was spectacular! 

At 50-60 ft high, on a suspension bridge, amidst the deep-dark woods, there was a sort of reverence I felt and a quote from John Muir (Father of the National Parks) made more sense than ever – “And into the forest, I go to lose my mind and find my soul.”

Helicopter Ride

Day 2, just when Mamma and Gullu were thinking about what next to do, Dadda had a surprise for us at Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. After a 47-minute drive, we reached the base to see a giant (motorized) dragonfly settling down to the ground. In the next few minutes, we were buckled in behind Tommy the pilot, and Gullu the co-pilot. Ready to take off in a helicopter! Up in the air, we strode past Pigeon Forge and Sevierville and were headed to the ridges in the Appalachian Mountain range and saw the Great Smoky Mountains (a sub-range to the Appalachians). Trekking through the woods is a feeling but getting a bird’s eye view of the vast expanse of nature, makes us feel minuscule as humans living in our concrete jungle!

The Zipline

And here is my reason for coming to the Smoky – the Zipline! We drove and reached the base at Climb Works. Now, I was thinking it to be around a 50ft zipline from one tree to the other, but as the instructors geared us up in the harness and safety equipment, it felt that we were in for something big!  

After gearing up, the three of us hopped onto an ATV (All-Terrain Vehicle) and went splashing uphill through the muddy trails. The trails were strewed with Black Eyed Susans, only to learn that this favorite of mine is the native wildflower in East Tennessee and the butterflies I saw were less than a fraction of the 130 butterfly species found in the area! True as they say, there is more than what meets the eye.

A Piece of History

So, as we waited for our group to assemble I read through the plaques on the sides that gave a lens into the history of the area. The Smoky Mountains and East Tennessee area were once inhabited by the native tribes of Cherokee. It was one of the earliest civilized matriarchal native Indian tribes governed by a council with equal rights for women (something we struggle for even today!). But as the European settlers came in, the United States felt threatened, and in an effort to consolidate more land, the Congress passed the ‘Removal of Indian Act’ in 1830 forcefully moving the Cherokees (with other smaller tribes) from their nation to the west of the Mississippi River. This tragic displacement is referred to as the Trail of Tears.

Back to the Zipline

“Attention!” called Melby (our instructor) and the history student in me was brought back to the base of the Zipline adventure and we started to ascend the wooden steps leading us on a platform for our first zipline. Here we saw the starting point of the zipline course but couldn’t locate the endpoint to disembark. It was then that Melby helped us see a platform on the other side which was around the size of a lime seed from where we stood because the first zipline was just 1600 ft long and around 200-300 ft high! This was an overdose of adventure for a beginner.

Harness straps. Check. Hands on the handles. Check. Butterflies in the stomach. Double check! 1-2-3, Zip away! Zooom we went past on the duel zipline, zipping over the forests below, and in less than 30 seconds we made it to the other platform alive! Here at this tree top as we looked around we saw nothing but forests and the different peaks of the Appalachian range in North Carolina and Tennessee. What a sight! We stood there in silence, soaking in the serenity.

“The woods invite me into themselves so that I might be drawn out of myself.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough (Author)

While the forests acted as a balm on our souls, our eight-year-old was our sparkling inspiration. Fearless and enjoying every second of the ziplining without complaining about the heat, the heavy metal harness she carried along, scrapped ankle or insect bites. She happily and eagerly hopped on from each tree platform to the suspension bridge and zipped across the 5 lines!

 

We didn’t trek, we dint hike, but our rendezvous with the mountains was from the top and above!

What more can I say, just that it was one tree-mendous experience!