Tucked away in the woods of Storrs here in Connecticut, is a little park. It’s call, somewhat unimaginatively, The Adventure Park. I mean, aren’t they all?
What sets this one apart is that some mad genius devised a way for people to safely traverse through the trees of a forest like a bunch of monkeys, or maybe squirrels, or any other woodland creature that calls the trees their home. Essentially, they’ve created a bunch of “trails” through the trees, where a participant’s sole goal is to make it from one tree platform to the next along a trail.
Did I mention the lowest trail is 15 feet in the air?
Did I also mention my rather strong aversion to heights?
There are any number of ways to get from one platform to the next on these trails. The how depends on the trail’s difficulty rating. For instance, the easiest trail, which is also the lowest, had things like swings that we had to walk across, an 6 inch log to walk across, wires with hoops to pass through, and on and on. The easiest ways to get from one platform to the next is using the zip lines- those are also the most fun way to do it. The harder trails had things like, tightropes.
The adventure starts with getting outfitted in a climbing harness. Then, it’s on to the safety course, where the wonderful tweezle is introduced. The safety harness has two clips, one of which is always attached to the safety lines that are run throughout the course. Manipulation of these two safety clips is the key to being able to navigate the courses. First, one clip is always locked, the other is not. The one that is unlocked is used to latch on to the next safety line. On that line is a tweezle, which is a locking/unlocking device for the clips. Once the clip is put onto the line, the tweezle is used to lock that clip to the line. Locking the one clip simultaneously unlocks the other clip, which can than be removed from the previous safety line. Then, it is attached to the safety line with the other clip and the climber can move on to the next section of the course. In this way, a climber is always attached to a safety line until the end of the course. Or they decide they’ve had enough of navigating flimsy pathways high in the air and ask the staff to rescue them.
So here’s how all this work in practice. Start on a platform and locate the safety loop wrapped around the tree. Clip onto the loop with the unlocked clip, tweezle to lock it, then attach the other clip to the safety loop. Then, work around to the “path” to the next platform. Take the unlocked clip, unhook it from the safety loop and attach it to the safety line for the path, tweezle to lock it, then unhook the other clip from the loop and hook it to the safety line. Take a deep breath, say a prayer, work across to the next platform, and start the cycle again. Keep doing this until the end of the trail, then kiss the sweet ground and glory in it’s solidity.
There are 5 color coded courses, increasing in difficulty and height. As I mentioned earlier, the yellow course is about 15 feet off the ground and the easiest. There are 2 green courses that are about 20 feet in the air. Next, there is a blue course which is about the same height, but more challenging in passing from one platform to the next. Finally, there is the “black oak” course. It starts with a twenty foot climb up a “ladder” where the “rungs” are six-inch wide bars. The stringers for this “ladder” are some kind of wire. Supposedly, this course is 25 feet in the air. I had no interest in further discovery there.
So we finished our safety course and then got to work on the yellow course. It took us about 20 minutes, with me leading the way, followed by the boy and the lass and finally the Wife. With the kids sandwiched between us, we figured that was the best way to make sure they were tweezling properly. The obstacles were more challenging for me than the kids because most of the things I had to squat down to pass through, the kids could more easily just bend down a bit, or even pass through without any problem.
Having completed the beginner course, the Wife decided to stay below and watch. Leaving me, the height averse one, to work through one of the green courses with the kids. So we started on our next adventure, which was pretty straight forward until we reached a fairly unassuming looking series of wooden slatted tunnels. The slats ran the length of the tunnel and were attached to 3 metal rings. There were three of these tunnels between the tree platforms.
After looking it over, I decided to just crawl through them- they were way to narrow for me to simply squat down or bend over to pass through. The Wife called up from below that I should go through feet first. When I got to the end of the first tunnel, I realized she was right.
The first unobvious thing was the tunnels were a bit slippery. By itself, that’s not a big deal. But couple with the other unobvious fact that the tunnels were not LEVEL, and I found myself sliding down towards the open end of the tunnel. Which brings me to the third unobvious thing about this particular obstacle- I had to pass from one tunnel to the next over a gap that was about 18 inches wide and 20 feet in the air. This meant that I basically had to reach across open space and then drag myself across that space to get to the next tunnel. Then, I had to do it again to get to another tunnel, and a final time to get onto the next platform.
I’d hoped that was the worst of it. Alas, it was not meant to be.
After passing across a couple more relatively simple platforms, we came to a tightrope. Literally. Twenty feet in the air and we had to walk across 1/2″ piece of wire. Uphill no less. The only thing we had to help with balance was a 4-foot long board suspended above the tightrope. The board is suspended from another line with a roller, so we could work across the tightrope while holding onto it. Halfway across, the tightrope started shaking uncontrollably. It occurred to me that, if I slipped, the safety system would catch me, but I’d roll back down to the platform I’d just left- meaning I’d have to start all over again at this obstacle. I completed that obstacle on the first try, but I was relieved to get to that little 5-foot square platform on the other side and tweezle onto the safety of the tree.
In the end, the lass out did us all. My nerves were shot after completing that second course, I was done. The lass wanted to continue on to the next course. But that was it.
That had been enough adventure for one morning.