Geronimo: So much for evolution - Stokes businessman finds way to get folks back to the treetops

By Scott Sexton
Winston-Salem Journal

WESTFIELD - Tonya Silver stepped gingerly toward the edge of the wooden platform with more than a hint of trepidation showing on her face.

If she was just out for a day hike in the woods in the Saura Mountains, the 25-foot-deep ravine below her feet would merely have been an obstacle to walk around.

But Silver wasn’t out to see the birds or look for signs of the coming autumn.

With a white plastic climber’s helmet attached to her head, a rappelling harness wound around her waist and thighs, and thick work gloves pulled onto her hands, she was quietly psyching herself up to jump off the platform and zoom across the ravine while clipped to a thick metal cable-and-pulley system that would skate her safely to the other side.