The BIG Adventure

I don't actually have a 'bucket list' - mainly because I hate the phrase,  However, I do have things that I've always wanted to do.  Liek travel to India.  This month, I have done two of those mch-dreamed of things.  I have visited Newfoundland and Labrador.  And two days ago, I was zip-lining.

Ever since the Olympics here in Vancouver, I've had a bee in my bonnet about zip-lining.  I'd thought about it before without much hope.  But then it seemed like it could really happen.  There was a zip-line installed right down-town in Vancouver.  Anyone could do it.  It wasn't threatening at all.  But, I wasn't prepared to wait out the long lines so that opportunity went by.

But, some of the family were planning a trip to Whistler.  Did we want to join them and maybe try out the zip-lines up there?  Are you kidding me?!!!  We jumped at the chance.  Here are oldest ad youngest members of our little group.  All decked out in harness, helmet and great clanking pulley thing that made climbing stairs impossible unless you held it in your hand. 

We began at village level with a 'bunny line'.  If it wasn't going to work, the guides wanted to know before they got us up in the trees. 

First line up in the old-growth forest - showing our great form right from the get-go.

This is how the lines appeared to us as we looked down on Fitzsimmons Creek.  We were about to criss-cross  the valley on these very lines.

This is how those of who weighed less than the required weight travelled on the longer lines.  I can't believe that those pulleys wouldn't have made up the extra pounds!

We zipped along five lines with each one being longer than the last.  And with each line our confidence grew.   No photos of this but the last line was a free-style.  All but two of us managed to hang upside down as they crossed. over the creek.

We're ready to go and do it again and step up the action.  I'd like to try ten lines and see some different scenery.  The killer part isn't the zipping.  It's all the stairs you have to climb.  Trail steps as well as actual staircases up to the jumping platforms.  The longest was 77 stairs.

Zipping is such fun.  For some, it was hard to take that step off into nothing.  I thought it would be scary but it wasn't at all.  With all the gear on, I felt very safe.  They opened the gate; I stepped off and wahoo!  I was flying.  That's as close as I'll ever get.  Next week, I'll post a photo of me in the air.  I couldn't take pix of myself so you'll have to wait for that.  And take my word for it.  I DID IT!!!!