Mommy This &That: TreeTop Junior Adventure: Go Ape

A little over a week ago I had the chance to get outdoors with both the kids and go on a treetop adventure. Last year I had a similar opportunity which you can read about here. Along with the adult adventure, Go Ape has added a course for the kids called TreeTop Junior. It is for kids under the age of 10 and at least 39" tall. Which meant my two were really the perfect age/height to try it out.

You may be thinking because it is a junior course, that it will be way easier than the adult one. You would be partially correct. The course is not as high as the adult course but the obstacles are just as tricky. And as one of my children pointed out, wobbly. My son is 7 and he wasn't nervous but my daughter at 5 did have some nerves.

We started the adventure by listening to our guides talk about safety and harnessing us up. All the guides were great at talking at a pace kids could easily understand and were very encouraging. As we went about the course, they made sure we all felt secure in our gear and offered to tighten if we did not.

We were joined by Sarah and her son from 2 Paws Designs. After harnessing up were were able to go through a training course in order to get a feel for how to hook up to each line and stay the course.

After going through the training course you then get to try the real course. It starts out simple enough but gets progressively harder as you move along. There were boards that swung this way and that and really made you think about your fear of heights...or maybe that was just me? My 5 year old made it to the obstacle just before you get to the end, where the zipline is and froze. But with encouragement from myself and our friends and staff, she made it.

Because of her height, I was not able to get her first zipline but was able to get one of Spencer's trips down. He really got the hang of the course and was able to go through a section several times and zipline several times.

At the end all the children were rewarded with a certificate for their efforts. I was impressed by all the children for being such great sports and braving heights and heat.