Soaring Treetops Adventure

Train station at Rockwood, Colorado, starting point for our zipline adventure.
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Rockwood was our embarking point for this all day adventure, starting with a short trip on the Durango-Silverton steam-powered train.  As we approached the private railstop that is the only entrance to Soaring Treetops, we were treated to a staff member (aka "Sky Ranger") sliding upside down along a cable suspended between two trees.  "Oh, my God," I thought, "what have I gotten myself into?"

To see what I had, in fact, gotten myself into, take a look at the (short) Soaring Treetops video:  http://www.soaringcolorado.com/

Best Fun for Everyone

Ready to zip!!
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Our 22 co-adventurers this day ranged in age from 6 to 80, and came from all over: a couple of twenty-somethings from Québec, a family from Wales, a three-generation family of 8 from British Columbia and Alberta, an engaging young boy from California who kept his parents on their toes, and many others old and young.

Within an hour of our arrival, we were all harnessed and trained and ready to fly.  The introductory lecture made us aware of the many safety features of both the harnesses and the tree platforms, and allayed most of the initial fears I had harbored.  The design of the harnesses allowed the hands to be free, and many in the group waved their arms and spun around for fun as they glided along the cables.  The first little training "jump," along a short 20- or 30-yard cable between two trees, convinced me that I could really "do" this.  I never hung upside down, though many of the younger tour members did just that.

"Aspen Alley" 400-foot zip.
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The course comprises two parts: a first group of canopy lines that took us through and over trees in an old ponderosa pine forest and through a stand of aspens, and the after-lunch, river-crossing spans.  The afternoon spans culminated in the mother of them all, a 1400-foot span that starts high and drops low in a long diagonal line over the Animas River. All together, there are 22 spans that generally increase in length from the first training span to Big Mama at the end of the day.

Fellow adventurer zips across the Animas River.
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Lunch on a large tree platform punctuated the day, and gave us some time to anticipate the afternoon spans across the river.  Had you asked me a month ago if I could ever hang in a harness from a cable that crossed a river, I would have denied even contemplating such a feat.  But the doing of the thing was quite an amazing feeling.

Would I do it again?  You bet!