Tubing and Ziplining

August 6, 7 2021

Maddison and I

My neice Maddison is 15. When I asked her what she wanted for Christmas she said experiences. Hell yea! I love those myself. I decided to get her The Gorge Ziplines in Saluda NC. It’s one of the best ones around. It is in the Green River Gorge near Saluda NC. When we finally got out schedules together I had a whole weekend planned. We would go to the Green River and go tubing then the next day Zipline.

One the way There was one waterfall I needed to complete the Saluda area. It was in Tryon NC.

Then we headed to the Green River Tubing company. We hopped a bus and he took us back up the road and dropped us off. The float would be 3 miles to the tubing or we could go past and do 6 miles.

We put our tubes in. The Green River is clear and not very deep. Very rocky. We had a blast. It would spin us in circles at times and sometimes we would just sail along. These tubes don’t have bottoms in them so when its rock time you have to lift your butt or hit a rock! There were plenty of people out there but it never felt over crowded. It was a gorgeous day!

We stopped at the 3 mile mark. He had a lunch trailer there and a beach. We let them know we wanted to do the next 3 miles so they would pick us up at the end. This time we tied ourselves together. Then we had the slingshot effect! I guess because I’m heavier Maddison got stuck on everything and I would go past then she would slingshot past me. We laughed so hard! This was a great tubing experience! I will go again.

I was missing 1 other waterfall near Saluda. It was roadside so we went to look for it. Lisa and I were on the wrong road but here it is! It’s called Waterfall on Pearson Road.

We checked into the hotel and went to dinner. Took her to a Thai place and she had her first bowl of Pho. She loved it. time for a good night sleep and zipline in the morning.

The gorge Ziplines is has 11 lines, 2 rappers snd a bridge walk. They also have some of the fastest and longest lines around. Madison has zipped many times and I’ve done it a few. We had a group of 8 and Maddison was the only non adult. The guides were great. I was not prepared for how fast some of the lines went. They were high too! I was a bit of a chicken with each line.

Some of these lines were so fast. The breaking was so hard. It was not like the Whitewater Center in Charlotte. We had to hold on above us and this would steer us. If we got sideways we would have to turn it back to center so when we hit the break we would be facing forward. This made me kind of nervous when I got sideways. The breaking was hard. We slammed into it and sometimes it let go and we would roll back and have to reach up and grab the line to stop us.

One of the women in our group let go when she hit the brake. She rolled back and couldn’t pull her self up to grab the line. Our guide jumped into action and climbed out to pull her back. She was pretty upset. She wanted to stop but we were at a platform where she would have to repel down. She decided to zip to one more platform with a ladder down. I was ready to go with her.

Madison loved every minute of it. She was like a pro. Me, I swear I need to chill out. I couldn’t wait for it to end. Some lines were nice and slow and that was my speed. We were also super high in the mountains. I really would highly recommend either of these two things in the Green River Gorge. Now I just have to figure out what she is getting this Christmas!