Courtesy Door Co. Visitors Bureau
With all its water and wilderness, Door County offers plentiful opportunities to enjoy the great outdoors. One of the most fun options for adventurous groups is Gravity Trails, a zip-line tour beneath the forest canopy.
The Gravity Trails experience starts at the company outpost in Ellison Bay, where participants are fitted with harnesses, zip clips and helmets. Then it’s a half-mile hike or bike ride into the woods, where the zip course has been constructed.
Once you reach the course, guides give a short safety demonstration and then help members up the 20-foot climbing wall to the first tree platform. From the platform, riders lean back, relax and let gravity do the rest, pulling them along the steel cable to the next platform. This course is ideal for first-time zippers, because all of its lines are 20 feet or less above the ground.
Along the way, a pair of guides assists guests as they launch from and arrive at every platform. In addition to watching out for everyone’s safety, the guides give commentary about the natural area, offer tips on zip technique and use fun call signals like “Zips Ahoy!” and “Led Ziplin” to indicate when it’s safe to launch.
The course began with three different lines that gradually bring participants back to ground level, but Gravity Trails is working on completing a second, intermediate zip course by the end of the year.
The company also offers bike rentals and guided kayaking tours in the Mink River Estuary, one of two protected estuaries on the Great Lakes.
For more Door County articles:
Picture perfect
Spend a day on Washington Island
‘Zips Ahoy!’
WEB EXCLUSIVE! Door County Photo Slideshow
