Jordan Mountain: A Taste of Adventure

Trevor Larey

Ethan Mannon, PhD

English 111

5 September 2017

Jordan Mountain: A Taste of Adventure

The day is warm and the sun crests over the watchful mount snowbird. In view of its watchful eye was a silent town in the midst of the morn'. One of the few places opening early enough to see the sunrise was mount Jordan, a childlike mountain, running and jumping in the dawn of a new day, never faltering to please those who come to bare witness to its childish antics. The families of captivated adrenaline seekers come from states beyond to experience its wonder.

As the expectant, yet nervous, families hunt and search for a place that can match their thirst for a thrill, many find this place called Jordan Mountain. On this mountain is home to a humble place of work, for those daring to conquer this mountain day by day, named Ridgerunner Ziplines. An adventurous worker starts his day by making his way through the quiet morning of a rural town, down a road that bends and turns as a man who partakes in a more than adequate supply of ale. As he nears the end of the drunken pass he is greeted to a refreshing flat of land that has been sheathed by gravel.

As he arrives he feels his tires grumble to the sea of rocks beneath him. He rolls methodically to the stockade of craftily placed stones, which seemed to sprout thick green hair from within its cracks. As he climbs out of his iron carriage he is visually greeted to a wooden building no bigger than that of a simple barn house. Seeming in its nature a to be a cabin nestled against the steep bank of the mountain it calls home. The worker steps onto the rain washed deck, walks past the pillars of trees who have seen their final leaf and comes to a rugged set of doors. He then disengaged the shackles binding the door to one another and jolts the swollen door open, sanding away the frame as the door stands in protest. He turns to the other door and pulls the retired spikes of a locomotive trail from the upper and lower frame of the still sleeping door. He pushes the door out of its rest and placed a wooden bear cub carved by a local in front of the stubborn door in order to keep it ajar. He sees the journal of the day's visitors and he and his colleague, reach for the rugged harnesses from off the wall and lay them down and untangle the adventures out of them from the day before. The harnesses lay there with open arms waiting for the visitors to come to see the mountain and the stories it will tell.

As the visitors arrive they are greeted to the voices of men who are eager to guide them. They step into the cabin home of this business and are instructed to grasp the harness and bring it to their waist where the worker and his calloused hands grip the straps and pull vigorously as to do anything but choke the legs and waist of the anxious visitor. He adds the additional metal gear, giving the wearer a stronger bond with the earth as it weighs them down. They are handed a set of rugged, fibrous gloves fit for a day laborer. Then they are fitted with a thick plastic helmet with a comfortable embrace with the wearer.

Once a visitor has been completely geared in his adventure attire, he is directed to a set of ruby red benches where he will receive the stern and knowledgeable instruction from one of the two guides. They are then directed to the back of the work truck where they are all seated with anxiety. They are then driven halfway up the aforementioned drunken pass until they turn to the foot of the expectant Jordan mount. They are hoisted up the rugged, bumpy spine of Jordan until they reach its bald head.

The passengers climb out of the back of this "Redneck Limousine" and breathe in the thin air, with a simple yet faint aroma of sun dried mulch. They stroll up a small dirt staircase to a platform fit for twenty. They see this bald head the first of many zip lines