Zippidy Do Dah

ZIP DAY

If zip lining wasn't on my bucket list, it should have been!What an adrenaline rush! What a physical challenge! What an extremely crazy thing to do at 70+

Thanks to my friend Tami, I did a Kauai zip line adventure and survived! After we got outfitted in our harness, cable clamps and hard hats, we piled into a van to drive us up to our start point. There were thirteen in our group, plus two zip guides. When we were getting acquainted while we waited for our first “bunny slope” zip ride, two of the women stated that they wanted to celebrate their 60th birthdays by doing something daring and adventurous and they chose zip lining as their Birthday Adventure.
I thought, sure, why not? The zip line does all the work. It’s not like scuba diving or parasailing where you could drown. Or like sky diving or hang gliding where you could crash and die. There are so many adventurous ways to die, but zip lining does not seem like one of them. At least not to me. That was before I started thinking about the embarrassment of getting stranded mid zip if you don’t have enough momentum to reach the platform. In that case they zip you a rope and you have to drag yourself in to the platform. Oh, great! With my upper body strength? That could take a while. Of course if you get going too fast you can slam into the platform and get some dandy bruises or even broken bones to show for your day on the zip lines. Neither of those things happened to me or to anyone in our group.
We all made our take offs and landings on the platforms. Maybe we weren’t as graceful and casual about it as our guides, but we finished the course with our dignity more or less intact. It wasn’t the zipping that daunted me. It was the “mild to moderate” hiking between zip line platforms that had me thinking about how embarrassing it would be to have to be hauled off the mountain if I had a stroke or heart attack. As I huffed and puffed up the rugged terrain, I questioned my own sanity. Then after I got to the platform and caught my breath (both from the exertion and the fantastic view) I was ready to go again. The thrill of zipping was worth the agony of climbing.
We walked through high meadows liberally dotted with cow patties. The adventure took place at Princeville Ranch, a working cattle ranch. Other adventure options included horseback riding and swimming along with the zip line. Tami and I thought the swim sounded pretty good about half way through our zipping, but one of our guides reminded us that this was a cattle ranch and all the water from the meadows runs down the hillsides and into the creeks, steams and swimming holes. Oh, yeah. Not such pure swim water.
My friend Tami and I did nine zip lines and walked across a fairly thrilling suspension bridge which spanned a creek and a waterfall. The final zip line was called King Kong and was a worthy finale. We climbed up a ramp to a 26 ft high tower and then zip lined side by side for 1200 feet. It was an exhilarating finish to an exciting afternoon. By the time we hiked back to the van, I was exhausted but that feeling passed and the giddy sense and accomplishment remained.
Am I glad I did it? Absolutely! Would I do it again? Sure, but maybe I need to train a bit for the hiking parts.



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