Whirlpool Adventure Course

Some great views today!  Note the whirlpool boat for an idea of height. 

Right - so interesting and highly entertaining learning experience this weekend ;)

Pretty good ego check, tons of fun, and still smiling more than 24h later so deeming it a win all around.

So there've been just a few times in my life where I've realised I have a moderately impactful fear of heights.  But it always seemed somewhat arbitrary to me -- mostly I love heights, but every once in a while I'd find myself in a situation w almost paralysing fear and I couldn't figure out why.   But most things I've read have suggested that this is one of those things that get worse with age, and being the stubborn human I am that means I keep finding things to put myself in situations to challenge that fear.  Well this weekend I figured out the trigger - it's not heights that scare me, it's heights that I could fall from ;).  Walking on the edge of a cliff w no barrier = scared out of my mind and probably reduced to crawling.  Abseiling into a 50m cave = no problem at all.  Crazy-long zipline in Costa Rica?  No problem - quite happily enjoying the view.   Hiking at the top of a volcano?   Terrifying.  But it finally clicked for me this weekend.  Why?

Because I convinced two friends to join me to do the "ropes course" I somehow discovered was in Niagara (I thought I'd seen it, but I don't think I've ever actually been there before so maybe not...).  Anyways - when I looked it up there was a kids course, a classic, and an extreme.   And of course typical me goes "well classic looks like it's still for kids, so extreme is probably better"; fortunately intellectual me chimed in and suggested "do the classic first, and if it's boring, you can go back for extreme".   lol the classic route suggests it takes 90-120 mins to complete.

Some of the course

The website doesn't do a good job of showing what it really is.  I was thinking it would be a similar experience to the Walk in the Clouds in Halliburton or even the zip lining we've done in a few places.  Well.  Let me clear it up for you.  It's not ;-P

First, age range.  While I'm going to admit we were probably the oldest ones participating, the group in front of us were also "real" adults.   Immediately behind us was two kids - plausibly tween-age?   Siblings -- their parents were following along on the ground.   Actual kids had their own area - at the end of our adventure I saw a group of them getting the exact same instructions we'd had, but I have to assume there would be a little more supervision there once they're going.   The only ones we saw on the extreme course were tween-age.  I no longer have any desire to do that one ;)

Okay so we got there and there was a bit of waiting around - the coms at the very start wasn't great.  BUT, I have to say that was 100% made up for by the extreme patience of literally everybody working on the course.  I was super impressed by that.   

So they got us all into harnesses - I want to say maybe about 10 people?   I could be making that up, but a few groups of people.   We went over to a tiny park where we got a lesson about connect into the line system, how to work the zip lines, and how to disconnect.  They run two practice runs at the same time so we got through that really fast.  Well, the others did *eyeroll*.  It took me a ridiculously long time to figure out how to attach to the cable and honestly - while I got better at it, it was a pita about 50% of the time.  Neither of the others w me had any challenges though so I feel like this was the first ego check ;) 

Anyways we all passed the lesson and moved to the actual course.   Waited until it was our turn to go (they space you out cause you can't pass once you're in and no more than 3 people on any platform), hooked in, and then the adventure began.  It started with walking across some boards, then a board with a big gap between the next board, and then right into a single wire?!?!   Little did I know that by the end those would be easy.  lol but the first few wires I shuffled across (ie, never actually lifted my feet) whereas by the end it was a casual stroll and fully okay with turning around mid trip to talk to J who was behind me ;)

This one was trickier than it looked

Anyways - lots of puzzles to solve.  The first half of the course was about 20' in the air.  The one puzzle on that level that made me screech was when I stepped on a log and it dropped!   Turns out it was a bit of a teeter-totter.  Which I loved once I realized I wasn't going to die, but that first step was a little iffy.   Lol I think the other two were pleased to have me go first so they could see what the tricks were to each one ;-P.     

Some examples of challenges early in the adventure;
the first is a single wire, offset from centre; the second is offset boards to walk across

Anyways - each of the challenges the first part was to figure out what the trick was and how to navigate it; the second was to actually do it.  

This was an easy breather one

And I'm pretty sure they tested the course with adults, because any time I started to get tired there'd be a zipline (sit down and take a break) or something comparitively easy.  

 

B on one of the first ziplines for these extra breaks

The one that looked really easy ended up being the hardest physically was a rope net.  Then after that you just jump down ;).  The jump down was a auto-belay type rope so seconds after stepping off the platform you have a slow ride to the ground :).  

I found this one a lot more challenging than I'd expected

At which point, the person on the ground asks if we want to do the 2nd half of the course.  Wait what???  We were hot and tired but...  Okay?  *shrug*.  So up a ladder we go to the 40' course.

Only one person on a ladder at a time

Given the 30-ish degrees and the fact that there was no water at the break point, we were pretty tired and thirsty than expected going into the second half.  This was another ego check 😆   Not quite as fit as I'd like to believe.  Top course was literally the route back, higher.  

Much higher, but good views. 
At the bottom of the pic, you can see some of the first round.

Many of the obstacles were similar, but there were definitely enough new ones to keep it entertaining.   One that was surprisingly fun was a ball hanging on a string that you had to pull over, climb on, and swing across to the other side - Miley Cyrus wrecking-ball style lol.  

Many of these were more challenging for sure,
but having done the others already, they seemed similar

Anyways - the last obstacle of this round was the hardest as well - it was the one on this one that earned an involuntary screech from me but alas I have no pictures ;). Partially cause I was the one taking the pictures and partially cause there wasn't a lot of space to take photos of the two behind me cause we accidentally caught up to the people in front.  But it involved balls that spun when you stepped on them, and single rope loops, and a variety of other things that each on their own was okay but combined like that was brutal.  I, at least, found it to be a challenge, esp when my foot kicked the rope out in front of me, swing style.  It was fun but not exactly under control ;)

The views were pretty awesome

But the whole thing was fun, I would definitely do it again.   And I was pleased that the height actually had no impact whatsoever -- I suspect because evidently my brain decided the safety cables earned their name ;)

Fitness-wise - Next day I felt fine, but next evening my core was screaming at me 😂    Those stabilisation muscles remember their job fairly well but haven't been used in a long time!  So yeah, that was the last ego check ;)

So yeah - it was tons of fun, way better than I expected, and also more of a workout than I expected.  They say their goal is to push you out of your comfort zone, and I'd say they did that at just the right level.