Early sunrises are not typically part of my morning routine, however, when donuts and zip-lining are calling to me, I don’t mind an early wake up. Arriving to the SMU Outdoor Adventure rental shop, I realized everyone was feeling the effects of an early morning, but even under the groggy eyes I could feel the anticipation and eagerness for our adventure to take place. Twenty minutes later when we pulled up to the donut shop, I am pretty sure all regrets of losing sleep were gone.
With stomachs full of sprinkles and glaze, we hit the road and let the sleep leave our eyes. The one and a half hour drive was filled with my questionable music taste, and I am pretty sure I gave the foreign students a twisted perception of what Americans listen to.
There was small chit chat, all along the inclined drive to the location, but when the narrow dirt road opened up to a clearing that overlooked several acres of land we were all too eager to stay quiet. The employees were welcoming and seemed just as excited to see us. In no time we were strapped into harness with baggy construction gloves on our hands and bulbous hard hats on our heads. As expected, this was the prime time to have a mini photoshoot. From here everything moved fast, we learned the proper techniques of stopping and next thing we knew we were standing on platforms that swayed thirty feet in the air. Anticipated silence turned into screams as one by one each of us dropped of the platforms to ride the wires between trees. Shockingly enough, our group of college kids were relatively quiet compared to the shrieks of the grown adults following behind us.
As we swung from tree to tree the lines grew longer and faster and soon enough we were voluntarily jumping off the platforms to reach max speed. The true challenge came with line number six when they gave us the option of flipping on the zip line. Some of us dared and some of us didn’t, but regardless, it was nine hundred feet of view over the scenic hills. We thought that was going to be the thrill of the day, until they began to lead us on a small trek up through the woods.
Little did we know, we were on route to fly down a 1500 foot monster. Even the climb to the zip-line was treacherous because they had setup a short ropes course to reach it. We had reached such top speeds flying down that you could feel the heat coming off the line. This was hardly noticeable though considering we were flying over a large valley that had rivers and expanses of wildlife. The scene was so impressive that the true difficulty was remembering to stop yourself.
After the course was over each of us sat down to a hearty lunch. Needless to say, everyone took a post lunch nap on the car ride back. This trip however, was one for the books.
Bela Lacayo- SMU Outdoor Adventure Trip Leader in Training.
