Khloe's Post (#2)

Wassup??

    Today I went on a class field trip to a place called 'Til Tops'. There, my classmates and I climbed trees and went on obstacle courses made out of wood high up. We rode zip lines and learned how to properly secure ourselves in harnesses.

    There are four courses, and they are ordered from least high/fast to highest/longest. There are the yellow courses, the green course, the blue course, and the red course. I did not go on the yellow course, but I did go on the green and part of the blue course. Starting off with the green course, at first it was pretty easy, I was scaling it somewhat fast, and it only got a bit difficult when I was going down a zip line and I landed on the ending platform not securing myself enough causing me to go backwards towards the start, I caught myself about a third of the way going backwards. I had to hoist myself forwards directly touching the wire. I had made it back on the platform and started making my way towards the end it was one obstacle away. There was a lot of people at the last two platforms attached to the trees. Once I was on the last obstacle, everyone was yelling "hurry up" or "go faster" like that would actually work! I made it off faster than most people I saw making my self esteem too high for what I was about to do.

    I walked over to the meeting area with my friends to get a little snack before heading over to blue course. It was now around lunch time, and so we now had 50 minutes to complete the blue course. This one was only supposed to take about an hour to complete. When I tell you I was the third in line it took me ten minutes before I could start because some people were chickening out because it was too scary. I laughed to myself thinking that it couldn't be that hard... it was that hard. The first two challenges were a breeze, but it was only when I got to the challenge that people were scared of, I got hesitant. I stepped across the first step of this towards the ground ladder. It was very wobbly. Of course because of the safety procedures, I was attached to a wire that JUST HAD to be right in my face! If I leaned out of the way, left or right, then it would throw me off balance and I would fall 16 meters down (56 feet). I was half way through going about as slow as a frickin' tortoise! I leaned ever so slightly and I fell. Thankfully, my knee caught on one of the wooden planks and I hoisted myself back up. I continued and I started to talk to myself convincing myself it was ok. I almost fell one more time because of how much my legs were shaking. I don't know if you know, but most twelve year old children are not used to falling 56 feet! I thought I was going to be ok on the next one, but when I made it onto the fourth platform, my heart sank out of exhaustion because it was a singular wire that I had to walk on, and of course the safety wire. I almost fell off of that one too! Can you believe it!? 

    Now when I get my hopes up there isn't a zip line that leads to a ladder so I can STOP... no, there were more wooden planks except this time they had railings, so that was ok. Except the blue course gradually gets higher as you escalate. It was decently hard to climb up the plank because it was like an 85 degree angle, and the planks depart at some point so when you couldn't reach the last one you had to do a portal split. Ok NowWw I arrived at the zip line, but my only concern was that I couldn't see the other side so... When it was my turn to go on the zip line I was a little frightened but then I remembered how FUN...and EXCITING they were so I just dropped down. It was like I was fricken' lightning McQueen on that thing! I was zooming! I ran into the tree trunk, BUT there was a pad there to dampen the impact. My English teacher helped my go down the tall ladder and get back to the meeting area, and I was so relieved to touch the ground again. After I had finished the fifth of the blue course, it felt like my intestines were inside out! Anddd I got a core work out so that's a plus! I walked down a path faster than everyone else cause it was right in front of the ladder so... I drank a ton of water and the class walked 20 minutes to the train station, and of course we took up all of the seats! Then we waited for the bus stop and rode the jam packed bus back to school. As we were going to the classroom, or the bus stop at the school, I realized my bus was the one people were boarding right now, so I ran as fast as I could with a loose backpack on, and eventually got through the doors and back to my house.

It was a crazy and fun experience to go on and I can't believe I though that it would be boring because it was exactly the opposite!