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Tree-Top Walking, Scenic Caves Nature AdventuresBy: Toronto4Kids Scenic Caves Nature Adventures, the popular Blue Mountain/Collingwood area attraction offers a spine-tingling experience: the Eco Adventure Tour. It's an exciting and rare opportunity to walk through their intriguing forest to experience heritage, flora, fauna, geology and native history. But this isn't just your every day walk in the woods… The forest canopy is a lot closer to you than you'd expect -- because you're actually walking above the forest rather than through it! And, there's no terra firma under your feet; you are 16 meters (40 feet) above the ground!
It's the kind of attraction you'd imagine finding in exotic mountainous jungle climbs, but the Eco Adventure Tour is the newest addition to the adventure attractions at Scenic Caves. The adventure begins in a grand log cabin where you and your group are outfitted with all the gear required to take this extraordinary journey, including a helmet and a harness rigged with safety ropes, attached to carabiners -- the clips you'll fasten to the safety cables. After an introduction to the adventure that lies ahead, you hike down and across Scenic Caves' suspension bridge, where you can pause to take in the magnificent view down Blue Mountain to Collingwood and across Georgian Bay; a 10,000-square-km view.
On the canopy walk, a climb up a wooden stairway takes you to the first platform, 4 metres above the forest floor. After clipping your safety lines to the cables, you can take your first steps among the trees via a web of platform decks spun together by cables and airborne walkways, a minuscule 10 inches wide. From this platform, the walkway swoops and climbs, as the ground plunges from 6, then 12 and ultimately 15 metres below. Each step is a daring act, as this footpath sways and dips beneath you. But, there is the opportunity to relax and enjoy the view from a very different perspective. And, you can completely immerse yourself into nature -- the zip lines and treetop bridges were built with conservation in mind, and designed to harmonize with the natural environment of the area.
At the end of the 600-metre journey through the trees, you take your first zip descent from a platform to the ground. Clipped securely to a pulley on the cable, you slide off the platform and soar through the trees to the forest floor. Those who prefer not to zip down can use a stairway back to the ground. You can also explore the ancient caves and crevasses up close, before clipping on to one more zip line -- this one carrying you 380 metres from the cliff top back down to the grounds below (opening in 2005). After an exhilarated journey, you head back to the cabin to share your tales with your fellow adventurers.
If you're interested in the challenge of a treetop walk through the forest, a hike across a suspension bridge and zipping down a 1,200 line all while discovering the secrets of the Niagara escarpment, then this day outing is for you! Reservations must be made in advance by calling 705-446-3515 or you can visit their website at www.sceniccaves.com. Scenic Caves supplies you with the training, helmet and harness; all you need to do is wear running or hiking shoes. It's really one of those rare opportunities -- a unique, hair-raising trek you'll want to experience!  
 
© Toronto4Kids - May 2008. This article was accurate at the time of its publication, and information is subject to change without notice. This article may not be reproduced in part or in its entirety without the expressed written permission from Toronto4Kids. |
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