Zip-a-di-do-da!

We went up to West Virginia for our annual white water rafting adventure again this year. This is the third time that we have rafted on the New and Gauley rivers and it was the BEST trip ever!

http://www.rivermen.com/

We added in a new adventure and if you haven't tried a zipline, you REALLY need to! What a BLAST!

We did two different ziplines; Tree Tops and Gravity.

Tree Tops takes you on ziplines and bridges through the tops of the trees. The area that the course is in is through a Hemlock forest. There is a worm that is sucking the nutrients out of the new needle growth of the trees and killing them. A portion of the fee for this zipline goes towards the preservation and treatment of the Hemlocks. The treatment is a nicotine based liquid that is put at the base of the tree. This suppresses the appetite of the worm so that they quit feeding on the tree and then they die. The guides all joke that the trees will have to go on a nicotine patch when the worm is finally killed off.

The area is just beautiful! The guides give you the history of the place and talk about the plants and animals that live there. Here we are in our lovely zipline gear and crossing one of the hanging bridges.

                                                            Zipping through the trees.

                                                    A nice shot of one of the bridges

As we were walking through the forest listening to one of our guides four of us walked right over this little guy. Duane was the only one that saw him! This snake was trying so hard to blend into his surroundings but he just couln't hide from Duane's eagle eyes!

Here is a clip of Duane zipping on the last of the tree Tops ziplines. The clip is short since he didn't quite know when he was going to have to break with his right hand.

 

The next two clips are from the Bonzia platform. The goal is to yell "BONZIA" as lound as you can to see if anyone else can hear it. Mindy and I "Bonzied!" until we got to the landing platform...well almost. We both ran out of breath about 10-15 feet away from it!

 

At the very last platform we had to rapell down to the ground. I have never rapelled before so I was a bit nervous about this. It all worked out well and they all got a good laugh out of my landing. Everytime I was hooked up to the ziplines I had to stand on my tiptoes so of course when I landed at the bottom of the rapelling line I was on my tiptoes again. It's kinda hard to get unhooked from the rope whilst standing on ones toes!



Later the same day we did the Gravity zipline...."



Adventures on the Gorge is launching a new longer, higher, faster zip-line tour called “Gravity.” This open-air zip-line soars a jaw-dropping 200 feet above the ground at its highest point taking riders on a mile-long tour that zigzags across the ridgeline of a mountain bowl and offers amazing birds-eye views of the legendary Gorge and the changing fall foliage in the valley below.


You'll start from a platform on one of the highest points above the valley launching into two consecutive warm-up zips, each about 500 feet long. Then, the real action kicks-in with the third zip crossing a distance of 1800 feet over the bowl of the mountain. The fourth and fifth heart-stopping zips stretch 1600 and 1300 feet, respectively, reaching heights of about 200 feet above the ground and speeds up to 45-50 miles per hour."

   What a ride!! Beautiful mountain vistas and high speeds!

On one of the Gravity zips I was the last person to go and one of our guides, MJ, asked me if I wanted to go tandem. I kinda hesitated a bit and he said, "We'll go really, really fast if we do." Well, okay! Hook me up! It was pretty sweet!

Right after the video cuts off  MJ puts out his hand with the big glove on it and says "Take off my glove! Take off my glove! It's hot!" So we pulled it off and the top glove that he was wearing and the bottom one was smoking! He said that he figured we were cruisin at at least 60 miles per hour. It was quite the ride!

We will definately be going back again. A new line was being put up while we were there. This new line is 1/2 a mile (or something like that) long and over 300 feet in the air! YeeeeeeeeHawwwwwwww!!!!!

Save your pennies and join us!