Zip-Lining (Part 1)

By Johanna

Friday was an exciting day for me.  We had a teacher work day, (unfortunate for my dad, who is a high school English teacher) and so my Girl Scout troop went to Terrapin Adventures, where you can zip line, do high ropes courses, and climb a tower.  (We were going to go the previous Saturday, but it was supposed to be rainy, and the trip got canceled.  I had done all my homework early, so I didn't have anything to do that day! ) So this Friday, I was glad that it didn't rain, even though it was kind of cold.  We went to Terrapin in two cars: my troop leader's car and Julianne's mother's car.  When we got there, we ate our lunch, and then got suited up.  They gave you a harness and a helmet.  The straps of my harness that were on my legs kept on loosening!  The helmet was cool because you could tighten or loosen the padding to make it fit better.  We went outside and walked to a ladder.  Our guide told us it was the safest ladder in the world because it had a ladder seatbelt.  It was true.  You got carabineered to a pulley, and it moved up as you did.  When I got to the top of the ladder, I stepped onto a small platform that did not seem stable, because whenever the guide would run across the ropes, it would shake.  I clung tightly to the pole, and the guide ran across.  At that moment, I realized that I was very high up (but not as high as I would be soon).  I had to walk across a rope, only it wasn’t tight.  All I had to hang onto was a rope near my head, so it was still scary, even though I was in a harness.  When I got across, I was hooked onto yet another rope, but this time, I had to jump off and zip line.  Before I jumped, I told the guide, “This is scary!”  When I jumped, it was so cool!  I zoomed down on the rope, just sitting in my harness, grinning and waving for the camera, and then spinning around backwards and then forwards again.  Then, I went passed another ladder and the line started going up.  I willed it to go the farthest that it could go before going back, but then it got stopped by a notch, and I went zooming backward.  A man stopped me at the ladder and un-hooked me from the zip line.  I climbed down, and then ran back to my fellow Girl Scouts, eager to do it again.  I sat on the fence and watched my friend, Kelsey, cross the rope timidly, and then joined in with my friends, encouraging her to jump.  “It will be fun!  Just jump!  You won’t fall!  Jump in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!  Come on!  Jump!”  She needed a lot of encouragement, because she is afraid of heights, even though she won’t admit it.  She finally jumped and went whizzing through the forest.  Even though we didn’t get to do it a second time, I am glad I did it, but I still want to do it again!  Tune in tomorrow (or maybe the next day) to see what happened next!  (Believe me, it is even better!)