After @flowerbaby and I went hiking this past Sunday, we met my brother Chez (@doctorlockdown) and my mother Stephany (@steph-lynn) for our first time zip lining.

Well it was most of our first times, my mom went zip lining in Tennessee with a bunch of her girl friends a few weeks ago. It was that experience that gave her the idea for all of us to go together in West Virginia.

Check out this video showing some of what we experienced:

Tree Tops Canopy Tour

We arrived to the Adventures on the Gorge facility early, so we were waiting around for a little under an hour before our instructors were ready. This is the same company that I went white water rafting with.

There are three different zip line options at Adventures on the Gorge. Timber Trek Aerial Adventures, Tree Tops Zip Line Canopy Tour, and Gravity Zip Lines.

^{We chose Tree Tops because it was more affordable than Gravity and more exciting that Timber Trek. It was a balanced choice.}

We had to wait because our two instructors were still out zip lining with another group that was a scheduled before us. The instructor duo does three trips a day normally, that makes up their 8 hour work day. Despite it being an outdoorsy job in nature, it is still tiresome and stressful. Sometimes they get customers that are not very good at listening to instructions. Often times it’s even worse than that, the group could be a bunch of drunken idiots.

My group of four were all competent and excellent zip liners almost immediately. However we were paired up with another group of four and two of them were women drunk off of Captain Morgan. One was 70 years old and the other was the mom and wife to the two guys in the group. Luckily we still had a great time and didn’t let a couple of drunks mess the day up.

Before we even departed the meet up spot, I got stung by a bee. It was the first time I had been stung in over 10 years. It immediately started itching and stinging. The last time I had been stung, I had never even been tattooed before. Now that I’m covered in tattoos, this pain of a bee sting was so small compared to a tattoo gun. Nonetheless, it was a really annoying feeling. At least I’m not allergic to them, I forgot about it by the time we started zip lining.

Let’s get started!

After we got all of our gear and safety equipment, we headed off on a brief hike to the beginning of the Tree Top Canopy tour. The tour was organized in a giant Hemlock tree preserve, during the fall this place was absolutely stunning. Our first stop was a small zip line to practice the basics on. Upon arriving at the beginning of the zip line tour, the two groups of four and two instructors (10 people total) began learning the process of what we would be doing that day. It was very simple stuff and pretty much anyone could do it easily.

There were two lines that we would be working with, one was on top of the other. The top line we were attached to and would be using our left hand to adjust which direction we were facing. The bottom line would be used only for when we were breaking so that we could slow down at the end. We had gloves on, so it didn’t hurt when applying the break.

My group immediately understood what to do, but the two drunk ladies struggled to figure out what was going on. This is despite the fact that they both had been zip lining previously (supposedly).

After we finally got everyone ready to go, it was off to the first real zip line. I was the first person to go and the only person in our group to not be on film throughout the day. I was in charge of the only camera, so that explains that. We did get some photographs of me at least. I was having a blast right away and noticed that everyone else with me was enjoying theirselves too.

There were 10 zip lines total, and they were all different. Some were short/long, fast/slow, but all had amazing views of the forest. There was also a few bridges and a couple of small hikes throughout the endeavor. We needed the trip with rappelling out of a giant hemlock tree. I’m definitely glad I got to do this with my people. Luckily my brother Chez was in town and able to go.