Grab AT GLORY
THE GUIDE
THE GUIDE
and find adventure among the trees By SARA POKORNY spokorny@timesleader.com
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You need to watch your step as you make your way through unstable swing bridges in the TreeTop Adventure courses at Camelback.
IF YOU GO Camelback Mountain Adventures, 1 Camelback Road, Tannersville. 629-1661. www.cbkmountainadventures.com. Open seven days a week through Labor Day, then open weekends through November as weather permits Attractions: • Tree Top Adventure Course 9 years old and up: $49 Explorer course for ages 6 to 10: $29. • 4,000-foot Zip Flyer 8 years old and up: $29 • Mountain Coaster Driver: $14/single ride. Minimum 9 years old (to ride alone) and 52 inches tall Rider: $10/single ride. Minimum 3 years old and 36 inches tall. Must be driven by a guest at least 16 years of age. • Twin 1000-foot Ziplines Minimum weight 60 pounds; maximum weight 250 pounds: $15/ single ride or $20/two rides.
first are given a ground-level runthrough of what to expect and how to tackle certain obstacles properly. After that they are set free on a route of their choice, which ranges in difficulty among the Oak, Big Pocono, Pharaoh, Asp and Cliffhanger courses. Climbers are securely clipped into a safety cable throughout the entire course, so a slip means falling only as far as your cable is long. Obstacles include various ziplines, a climbing wall, barrels to conquer, swinging bridges and another of McAllister’s favorites, a “skateboard-like” apparatus on which you stand to coast down a hill. The TreeTop courses seem to call to those looking to get physical, but Camelback has other experiences that involve a little less action yet provide the same thrill. See GLORY, Page 4
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AIMEE DILGER/THE TIMES LEADER
ill Hill couldn’t help looking down as he put one foot in front of the other along a thin, taut cable suspended above the ground, clinging to another cord above his head. He inched his way from one side to the other, all the while thinking about Nik Wallenda, the tightrope walker who successfully trekked across Niagara Falls earlier this year. “I can’t imagine how he must have felt doing that, because I know I was getting a major adrenaline rush just being up in the trees, nowhere near as high as he was,” the 51-year-old Pittsgrove, N.J., resident said of his time working through the Treetop Adventure Course at CBK Mountain Adventures. “It was an absolute thrill.” As the summer winds down, many might still be seeking that last great adventure – the one that gets the heart racing, the blood pumping and might even deliver a hefty dose of coldblooded fear. CBK Mountain Adventures, in Tannersville, is one of the newest spots on the regional scene to offer daredevils their grab at glory. The Pocono Mountains operation associated with Camelback Mountain Resort has several opportunities for thrill-seekers, the biggest of which is a set of TreeTop Adventure courses. “It’s really challenging,” Vicki McAllister, 18, who took on the course with Hill, said. “One of the best parts was getting on the rope swing and swinging into a cargo net. Oh, and then there’s this pogo-stick-looking thing. And the zipline, of course.” It might be hard for anyone to nail down a favorite obstacle among any of the five courses Camelback offers. Participants