The mountain state is home to some of the most beautiful rivers and hills in the country, and come fall time, some say the entire world. There couldn’t be a better place to get a birds-eye view and fly through the sky on one of our many ziplines that you will find across the state.
WOAY stopped by two of West Virginia’s premiere zipline locations, Adventures on the Gorge and Pipestem Adventures Resort to find out what is so special about being on that line.
“It’s as close as you can get to flying out there you know. You’re out there just zooming at speeds of anywhere between 15 ad 25 mph, flying high above the creeks and it never gets old. It’s always an enjoyable experience, it can take your breath away every time you step off those platforms,” Cullen Proctor, assistant aerial manager at AOTG said.
And one of the best parts about ziplining is that to get the full experience, you barely have to do a thing.
“As a guest, all you really have to do is stand, step up, get hooked on, sit down in your harness, and take a ride. Unlike a lot of other things like rock climbing where you have to be fully immersed, you have to go through a whole course before just to figure out all the safety and all of that. We got that all taken care of, you just sit on the zipline and we take care of everything else,” Jacob Baehl, Pipestem Adventures manager said.
As you sit back and soar through the canopy, it is hard not to acknowledge the importance and beauty of your surroundings.
“You’re zipping in an old growth hemlock forest. Some of the trees you’re going to be standing in are over 300 years old. We are actually out there on a conservation project,” Proctor said.
Unfortunately there is a small bug that is causing a big problem for eastern hemlocks. These trees are vital to places like the New River Gorge and even more vital to some of the ziplines this area holds.
“So as a way to preserve the course, we do our part because we are a private company, we can afford to spend that money. Our course alone we’ve got about 4000 hemlocks out there on a 40 acre course and we have ben able to save about 80% of those trees out there,” Proctor said.
And for those of you who are nervous about stepping off a platform, the experts around remind you that you couldn’t be in better hands. Each guide is trained and they are extremely professional and accommodating.
If life seems to be coming in to fast, those in the industry say that getting outside is always a good place to start.
“It’s already been proven to help relive stress just by spending some time out in the forest and this is a good way to spend three hours outside in the forest with experts that know a lot of information that can be presented in a fun way as well as getting to do something that is really really cool,” Proctor said.
