I went ziplining!

Ziplining in Cour D’Alene, Idaho, was something that I have been wanting to do for years. 

My grandparents moved to Spokane, Washington, a few years ago and whenever I visit them, I always want to go visit the Cour D’Alene lake and walk around. It is one of, if not my top, favorite locations to visit in the Pacific Northwest. Whenever we visit the lake, we walk through a little mall downtown and in the mall is a shop where you can buy tickets to go ziplining.

Every year I visited, I always asked to go ziplining but this was the first year that I didn’t ask.

I’ve been shot down for the past few years and so this time I merely acknowledged that the ziplining shop was there. To my surprise, my grandpa walked right up to the front desk and asked, “What available times do you have for Friday?” (It was Wednesday.) He reserved a time for the two of us to go ziplining in the afternoon with the hopes that the typical Pacific Northwestern rain showers would clear up before then.

Fast forward to Friday and my ziplining experience.

When we arrived at the shop, my grandpa and I checked in, and signed our waivers (basically, we signed our lives away saying that it was okay if we died and our families wouldn’t sue the ziplining company. What a great way to start our ziplining experience!). Then the tour guides began harnessing everybody up. Everyone had to put on this strappy harness (which was quite unflattering). Our group had 9 people ziplining plus a few guides.

We all hopped into a van and rode about 30 minutes from town into the mountains and the woods. After the van ride, we rode ATV’s (so much fun!) to the top of the mountain, and walked a little bit to arrive to our final destination: our first zipline!

They start everyone out short and slow to make sure that everyone in the group is okay with the thrill and won’t be chickening out. Luckily, no one in our group had to be lowered to the ground and rescued by another employee. This was my grandpa’s first ever ziplining experience and he took it all like a champ! I’m so proud of him!

In total, there were seven ziplines, with the longest being 3/4 of a mile, and two “skybridges.”

It was a little chilly that day, hence our rain jackets and pants, but luckily it didn’t rain and it wasn’t too windy. It turned out to be the perfect day for ziplining!

 

Tip for people with long hair: I french braided my hair for this adventure. You have to wear a helmet and your hair is being whipped around by the wind, so I found french braiding my hair handled this adventure very well.

 

Stairway to nowhere in the middle of the woods

 

 

At two points in our ziplining experience we had to get off of the ziplining platform and get back down to the ground. This was honestly the scariest part of the entire experience. The guides hooked our harness to a device that would lower us to the ground — but we had to jump blindly off the platform first. Basically, we would jump off the platform and the device would catch our fall and lower us down in the same way that a seat belt catches your body when it locks during a car accident. We had to jump out far enough so that we wouldn’t smack our bodies against the platform, and we jumped feet first so it was basically a blind leap of faith that the device would catch our falls. Of course, everyone was fine but those leaps were quite exhilarating.

Overall, it was such an amazing experience! Feeling the wind zip through your hair, soaring through the trees, being completely encompassed in nature high up in the tree canopies. I’ve always dreamed of flying like a bird and I think that this will be the closest experience I’ll ever have. It is something I will cherish forever.

If you’ve never been ziplining before and you’re an adrenaline junkie not afraid of heights, I highly recommend it! You won’t regret it!

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Thank you for reading! Have you ever traveled to Cour D’Alene, Idaho, or been ziplining? Let me know in the comments below and like this post if you want more like it!

Xoxo’s

Emmalee

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