Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Treetop Madness

Well, the new TreeTop to Tree Top course is opening at the museum this week--and the staff got to guinea pig it first.

Oh. My.

I knew there would be zip lines, and maybe some bridges from platform to platform, but I didn't realize it would be an Honest-to-Goodness obstacle course.  Bob was shooting pictures from below, which really doesn't capture it.  IF (and that's a mighty big IF) I ever go again, I'll put a camera on a lanyard and get the treetop view.

So what you have is a harness, two caribiner clips on safety cords, and a pulley.  There is an overhead safety cord along the entire course and around each platform--so at each stage you clip yourself to it (hence the two clips--you move one, and then the other, so you're never without a clip in place.

So up the ladder, onto a platform, and see what awaits.  On this one, there is a sliding platform so that you "surf" to the next one.

I do have to point out that the various bridges that you cross are on cables, so they're not exactly sturdy.  Mostly the opposite--they're hanging on cables or cords so you're stepping from wobbly swing to wobbly swing.

Here's an action shot so you get the idea--nothing solid and stable here.

When I first heard about this course, I knew there would be zip lines, and I thought that would be the challenge.  Turns out that they're the easy part--you just clip on your pulley, sit down in your harness, and go for a ride.  It's all the other stuff that will get to you.

This is my favorite shot.  There is a certain nobility in my expression as I contemplate my next move, and the harness makes my butt look good.

The course is divided into three parts.  Each part goes higher and gets more challenging as you go along.  Being as I didn't know if I would ever get up here again, I did the whole thing.  It took about 1 1/2 hours.  I think the workout made up for missing my Zumba class tonight.



Yep--walking on a log.  Later on I'll look back on this with nostalgia.
Bob wasn't in an area to get the two really evil obstacles.  One was a series of pieces of 4x4 lumber (that's 4 inches by 4 inches)--hanging on end.  So you had this "bridge" of 4 inch square very wobbly steps.  Even more evil were the stirrups on cords--get one foot in each on and you're doing the splits in mid air.

Or this set of cable loops.  Like the log--later on this will look good to me.  Because at one platform I looked over and saw that the zip line to the next was coming off the base of the platform (instead of the usual shoulder level) and the other end was higher.  I thought it might be that you just went hand-over-hand and dragged yourself over.  Then I realized that you were supposed to walk over the half-inch cable (Bob says I exaggerate--he thinks the cables are 5/8")


And of course there are zip lines--many of them.  They're easy.  And fun.  So I close with a couple of last shots--one to give an idea of how high up I was, and the final one of zipping off into the forest. 

Will I do this again.  Not sure.  Maybe?  Maybe if someone else wants to go and needs to me hold his/her hand??  Definitely not the nighttime course!!  Gotta draw the line somewhere.



2 comments:

  1. Is there a minimum age? Dane did a rope course up by Holland. He loved it. I bet he'd like to check out the one there, also.

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  2. There's a minimum height (54") He could easily do the first one (there are three courses) and probably the second.

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