TreeUmph! is an Outdoor Zipline Adventure and Obstacle Course. It is an obstacle course that you do in the trees. So, first you have a climbing harness on with a contraption for the zipline and two carabiner clips attached to separate lengths of rope (rock climbing rope grade). You must tether yourself to the safety wires at all times up on the course, but all obstacles can be done with your ability to balance and use your weight wisely.
First, we have us ladies, all geared up and ready to rock and roll! We all had to go through a practice obstacle course with an instructor so they can show us how to be safe and to trust the ropes and gear attached to us.
Behind me in this course, you can see some of the obstacles. There were a total of 6 obstacles for adults; they got progressively harder and higher. The course behind me had a tube that you had to crawl through.
All of the courses were in the trees, you had the ladder to climb up, the landing, the bridge and the zipline. I have pics of all of these elements.
Alex and I are on a landing, having just completed a bridge. The bridges are the spans that connect the landings. Each one is slightly different.
This is a bridge. This bridge were logs suspended only by ropes hanging from wire ropes. I am tethered to the safety wire rope above my head. You accomplish bridges by either holding onto the ropes attached to the logs, the wire rope they are attached to, or the wire rope you are attached to. There is some upper body strength required for some of the obstacles. Look how high up I am!!
Vince was the cameraman; he took this picture from the ground. I am holding onto the wire rope that I am attached to. There is nothing else to hold onto to.
Like I said, the obstacles got progressively more challenging. This bridge was a series of ropes hung like a U or jump-rope like and you stepped onto the rope loop only, to get across. Weeee!!!
Here is Alex doing a zipline. We had a special attachment for the ziplines. This was so much fun!
There was even a Tarzan moment, where you attach yourself to a swinging rope and literally swing and grab onto the rope netting. Once you are on the net, you climb over to the landing.
Another bridge where you are stepping on the end of the log, where the log will move on you, not to mention that they are suspended by more rope. Did I mention that rope is very flexible? This section was the optional section. It was Course 4 that gave you a choice to continue with Course 4 or start Course 5. You cannot start Course 5 from the ground. Right away, Course 5 was monkey bars on ropes...ugh! Alex and Gen continued with Course 4 and Vince and I did Course 5. Course 5 took the longest and is the most challenging. I did complete it, but it was not easy.
This bridge was Course 4, where once you were done with Course 5, Course 4 picks right back up in the trees. This one had a wire rope to walk on, with rings that you had to go through. I was very tired, almost exhausted at this point and straddled that damn ring! There was no fancy moves to get through that!
There was a final zipline that was 650 feet long and starts 60 feet off the ground. Not everyone make it completely across, ending just shy of the landing. You would just grab the wire rope and use the hand-over-hand method to reach the landing. Vince made it and I came up just shy.
After all of that, which was about 4 hours of straight obstacling, we ate lunch at a restaurant called the Linger Lodge. If you did not know it existed, you never will find it; you will never stumble upon it. It was located within a housing community, in a trailer park/camp site area. Yes, we drove through a very nicely established, maturely landscaped community and then heading into a campground-like place with trailers. First thing, there is the Linger Lodge attached to a bait shop and complete with a laundry facility in the back near the ladies room. Interesting!
We sat out by the back screened in patio overlooking the Braden River. There is a side story that the owner got his leg bitten or bitten-off by an alligator.
This is supposedly the alligator that bit the leg. He is stuffed and on the wall of the restaurant. Along with others...
Behind the bar they had animals not naturally seen in nature, ha, like the jackolope.
In addition to fish and lots of animal skulls. Vince tried one of the more exotic items on the menu, alligator chowder. We all had a bite...it wasn't bad! It had a cajun flavor.
Our day was filled with lots of excitement. Unfortunately, TreeUmph! is only located in Bradenton, FL. But I do believe there are other adventure courses similar to TreeUmph! around the states, somewhere. I'm excited to know that this is only a 1 hour drive and we can have a half day of some serious climbing! I will definitely be back!
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