Dan's Papers -December 4, 2009 - The Zip Line Canopy Tour, It May Be for You

Sometimes you just need to get out into the woods and ride along a zip line. This may sound like a crazy thought, but we as people need to have that big rush every once in a while to remind us that we are alive.

Last week, Kathy Rae, our sales director here at Dan's, made a huge fuss about a zip lining trip that she went on with three of her sisters and her Mom. Kathy has been known to talk people into doing these kinds of things, (this writer was talked into going sky diving with her) but this time it was her Mother's idea for her 75th birthday, and she beamed when discussing zip lining.

Kathy headed to Massachusetts to experience the best in zip lining adventure by visting a placed known as Zoar Outdoor.

According to Zoar's website, since 1989, Zoar Outdoor has offered the best in New England white water rafting trips, kayaking clinics, zip line canopy tours, canoeing instruction, rock climbing classes and bike rentals for adventurers of all abilities, from beginners to experts. Based in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, Zoar Outdoor river trips, zip line canopy tours and instructional clinics are three hours from New York City.

Their newest program - Deerfield Valley Canopy Tours - is the first zip line adventure in Massachusetts and offers zip lines, sky bridges and rappels as you descend from their ridge down to their base on a tour of the forest canopy. You experience spectacular ridgetop views of the Berkshires as you feel the exhilaration of zipping through the trees.

"It was awesome," says Kathy, "The instructors were awesome too."

The instructors she was referring to, Katie and Luke, were the tour guides for her zip lining adventure.

The three-hour-long zip line canopy tour leads adventurers on an aerial trek through the woods by means of nine zip lines, two sky bridges and three rappels suspended in the trees in the northern Berkshires, and connected through platforms that sit high above the forest floor.

You may not know this, but zip line canopy tours originated 20 years ago in Central and South America as an exciting and unusual way to experience the forest canopy. Deerfield Valley Canopy Tours is the first canopy tour in southern New England and in MA.

So what's it like? Well, besides being, "Awesome," as Kathy says, the tour is a three-hour adventure. After you of course sign your life away with waivers and learn the basic technique on what to do, the adventure begins.

A 10-minute 4x4 ride brings you half a mile and 500 feet vertically uphill to the start of the course where a short hike leads to the first take-off platform. The first zip is slow and short to give you a chance to get acclimated to flying through the trees. The second zip leads to a spectacular view of the Deerfield River Valley and the northern Berkshires as you perch over the edge of the ridge. Of course, as you travel down the course, the zips get longer and faster.

The lower course consists of sky bridges and longer zips that culminate your adventure in the trees. When you are down with the zip, a downhill hike leads back to the base.

If you do end up doing this, don't forget to bring a camera. you are not going to want to miss photography opportunities like this!

If zip lining seems like something that you'd be interested in, you can call 1-800-532-7483. They are located at 7 Main Street in Charlemont, Massachusetts. It just might be the getaway that you have been looking for.

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