Go Ape in the Treetops of Williamsburg!

Now that the weather’s finally getting nice, are you looking for fun new things to do outside?  Alternatives to the normal activities;things you may never have thought of?  Let me just put this idea out there:  treetop obstacle course.  Now stick with me...

Go Ape is an award winning company and “the USA’s no. 1 zip line and treetop adventure” (according to their website).  They have treetop courses in numerous locations throughout the East coast, including one in Freedom Park in Williamsburg, VA, less than an hour from Richmond.  What they do is equip participants with harnesses, pulleys, and carabiners (a metal loop with a spring-loaded gate – you’ve probably seen this used most in wall climbing) and then go over a 30 minute safety briefing and training.  Then participants are free to enjoy 2-3 hours of fun and exercise.  Instructors are always on hand and walking around/patrolling, but participants are basically on their own.

They have the Go Ape Treetop Adventure for everyone 10 years old and up and 4’7” and taller.  This is the course we did and it includes rope ladders, 37 crossings, two Tarzan swings (!!!) and five zip lines.  But there is also the Go Ape Treetop Junior, which is for adventurers younger than 10 who are 3’3” and taller and is the first Go Ape course in the U.S. designed and built for youngins that can’t do the normal course yet. How neat!  It utilizes an easy-to-use safety system is made up of 20 obstacles and two zip lines.  Whereas the regular course takes about 2-3 hours, this course takes 1-1.5 hours.

(SAFETY FIRST!)

I don’t know how all of the courses are (obviously; there are a lot) or even if they’re all the same, but the one in Freedom Park was divided up into five obstacle course “stations”.  For each station you’re climbing up a ladder to a platform at the start of the first obstacle, going through the course, and then taking a zip line down to the ground so you can start the next station.

I went with three friends in September last year.  We had the BEST time.  It was challenging yet realistically achievable for everyone.  There are several different paths to take within each station when the course reaches really challenging obstacles.  So you can either challenge yourself and take the hard way, or if you know you’re getting too tired, or have an injury you don’t want to aggravate, or you just straight up don’t want to do so something, there’s an easy alternative way to get to the same place everyone else is going.

(I HATED these things, for example. I should've taken the easy route...but didn't)

Even my friend who was afraid of heights had a blast.  She was nervous to just climb to the top of the first station’s platform, but by the end of that short station, she was swinging on a rope swing into a rope net (I WAS SO EXCITED THEY HAVE “TARZAN” SWINGS!! Can you tell?) and ready to go down the zip line and onto the next station.  She got nervous a few times, sure; but she completed everything and had fun doing it.  She had such a big smile on her face when we were all done.  She really enjoyed it AND got to feel proud of herself.  Hey, we all did (that is, got to feel proud of her as well as ourselves for completing everything).

THERE SHE GOES! No fear!

And when they say (on the website) that they provide fun and exercise, they ain’t kiddin’.  We could tell (to be read:  feel as soon as we got in the car) that we gave our muscles a workout without over exerting ourselves.

We also chose a time of year that allowed for the perfect weather.  I think it was in the upper 60’s and sunny all morning (and our group started at noon).  Obviously if you go in July or August, be prepared to sweat your ass off in that summer heat, even though about 90% of the course is shaded.  However, I would imagine that trying to go when it’s too cold could be very painful on your hands, which are constantly gripping ropes and metal rings and having to manipulate the clips on your harness.

And to round out the reasons of why this experience was so awesome: the staff at Go Ape!  I have to give them a big shout out because, for whatever reason (I really do forget), we were late to our scheduled course.  They want you there 10-15 minutes early since they take you out in a group with other visitors (unless there are 14 people in your group, which is the number of spaces available at each time) to go over how to use the harnesses and rules of the course.  They want to give everyone a chance to get there, but they also want to start on time to keep things running smoothly (naturally, understandable).  We were running about 15 minutes late which would’ve held the group up, and we were worried we weren’t going to get to go at all.  What if the rest of the groups for that day were completely full?  Turns out, the rest of the groups WERE full…but someone very nice at Go Ape managed to squeeze us into the next scheduled time anyway.  And our instructor, “guide”, whatever you wanna call the guy who showed us how to do everything and looked after us at the first station, was super nice and fun.

So we really did have the best time and an overall great day.  It took us about two hours to complete the course and we went to a popular local BBQ place for lunch afterwards since we were starving and needed to sit and relax our muscles.  For $55/person (or $35 for 10-17 yr olds and $25 for the junior adventure) we got exercise, great nature views, a lot of laughs, excitement, and one of us even got over (if only temporarily) a major fear.  I definitely recommend you give this a shot, for so many reasons. 

Find more information about the Freedom Park course at their Go Ape website and schedule your trip as far in advance as you like!  Just don’t wait until the last minute, especially if you have a big group.  Their start times are every 30 minutes, beginning at 8:30 a.m. and ending at 5:00 p.m.  It’s definitely a cool place to hang out (see what I did there? Hang).

I WENT APE AND I FRIGGIN LOVED IT :D