Defining Moments: Thoughts of a Catholic EM Wannabe: Antiochian Village, Part I

Finally, as promised, the long-delayed review of the day at the ropes course! Antiochian Village is a wonderful place that reminds me a great deal of the Benedictine abbey at Still River. It has the same sense of peace about it, but it also inspires a certain awe.

At the start of the day, we did some nice team-building activities to get everyone warmed up. Of these, the favorite had to be what the experienced counselors call "Turning Over a New Leaf." This involves standing on a tarp that's been folded to the size of maybe 12 square feet (3x4). We had to do two things. First, we had to get everyone -- all nine of us -- onto that tarp. That's the easy part. Then, with all of us standing on it, we had to flip the tarp over. Those of us who had been to the course before had tried this on a prior visit, but despite our best efforts, we hadn't managed to figure it out. This time, thanks mostly to Jen, we emerged victorious. However, there aren't any photos of it and the movie is currently too big to upload...I'll work on that.

From there, it was a short walk through the woods to the next element. Except that the short walk had a twist: half of us had to close our eyes and be guided through the woods by a partner. And this wasn't a nice, wide, flat path. It was narrow, rocky, and had plenty of ups and downs. It also had a plank, probably 18 inches wide and 8 or 10 feet long serving as a bridge across a small creek. Needless to say, this was quite a challenge. Unfortunately, we were all a little too focused on making sure no one went for an unplanned swim to take any pictures, so you'll just have to use your imagination here.

The walk through the woods led us to the zipline. Basically, you climb a ladder up to a series of staples (they look kind of like small horseshoes) and up the staples to a platform that's about 30 feet off the ground. From there, you're hooked up to the line itself which runs a couple hundred feet through the forest. Then you take a deep breath and either scoot, walk, or jump off the platform and go on an awesome ride through the trees. The scenery is amazing and the rush is incredible. Getting down requires some assistance: a couple of volunteers haul a ladder over to a wooden platform, unhook you from the line, and run the rope back to the platform for the next crazy, amped-up individual to grab it. Also, someone occasionally needs a little help stopping. If you end up in the position of having to do this, allow me to give you a piece of advice: F = ma. Thus, even if you're trying to stop a relatively small person, you're stopping them cold from probably 10 or 15 mph. It's a little harder than you'd think... Anyway, the pictures...