Stacey S.
Yelp
A little under 2 and a half hours away, the Tallahassee museum is one of the newest places in Florida to get a zip line course called Tree to Tree Adventures. Adam and I were recently invited to come check out their zip line course which actually opened back around Memorial Day.
We're both huge fans of zip lining. Last year for my birthday, we went to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm to check out their zip line & obstacle course. Sadly, I don't have any pictures because they wouldn't allow us to bring our cameras. 6 months later we went zip lining near Helen, Georgia over the New Years holiday. I've also had the opportunity to go zip lining when I was on an Alaskan Cruise in one of only a few temperate rain forests in the world (which was awesome!).
We headed to the Tallahassee Museum on a Sunday to celebrate Adam's birthday weekend. We made good timing having left Jacksonville around 10 a.m. and made it to Tallahassee around 12:15. Adam's mom, who lives fairly close to the Tallahassee Museum, met up with us there too.
We entered the first building to get our wrist bands. We signed up for the "whole package" which includes their shorter course, Canopy Crossing, and their longer course, Soaring Cypress. The prices are really, REALLY affordable. Soaring Cypress actually includes the Canopy Crossing course, and was only $40 per person. I would say this is normally around $80 at other zip line places. We also bought a can of bug spray ($7) at their gift shop which ended up being a really good thing. I am extremely attractive and tasty to all mosquitos, so I definitely needed the added mosquito defense.
The Tallahassee Museum is more than your ordinary zip line because it also is a very extensive obstacle course which one sees as soon as they walk onto the campus.
First thing we did was walk to the "Harness House" to sign our wavers and get our gear. We were each outfitted with a harness and a pair of gloves.
Posted proudly right next to the Harness House are their course licenses, which is always comforting to see right off the bat!
There is a minimum height requirement to enter their zip line courses. They also have a kids course for those that aren't quite tall (or brave) enough. I was eyeing the kids course, TREEmendous Adventure, because it looked like a lot of fun though I was actually too tall for their height maximum.
We only waited about 5 minutes for another group to get checked in, and then got started with a quick instructional session that lasted another 5 minutes.
When you zip line, you have two large carabineer clips each on their own rope that is connected to your harness. When on the zip line course, you are harnessed to the red rope at all times with these two carabineers. The red rope is called "your lifeline" for a reason. If you need to disconnect from one red wire to connect to another red wire, you disconnect one carabineer from the old red wire and connect it to the new red wire. Then you disconnect your second carabineer from the old red wire and connect it to the new red wire. That way, you're connected to the red wire at all times. Very important!
For the last part of our instructional session, we took this little zip line for a test spin to get our bearings.
Earlier I mentioned how you're always connected to the red wire, The Lifeline. This is true for ladders as well. They have a seatbelt apparatus that you clip into for when you go up or down a ladder. The seatbelt will slowly retract as you climb higher, but if you were to slip and fall or jump off, it'll catch you mid-air. I did not feel the need to test this myself...
Some obstacles took longer than others. I really like that you can show up and start the course whenever you wanted. The Tallahassee museum doesn't require reservations. We always seem to be running late (OK, I'm always late It's a self guided tour. This means you're welcome to proceed through the course as fast as you're comfortable doing.
I am pleased to say I survived the Tree to Tree Adventures at the Tallahassee Museum. It was a great zip line experience. I honestly had a better time than I expected to (especially since the LAST obstacle/zip line course I did was pretty frustrating). If you're heading to Tallahassee, I highly recommend checking out the Tallahassee Museum if you have extra time OR head there just for the day if it's within a day trip for you!