Zip-Zip-Zipping Along

Adventure Company Offering Zip Line Fun Near Boone, N.C.

BOONE, N.C. – You’ve dreamed of flying ever since your mother put those Superman sheets on your bed. Now you can do it while you’re awake – but much more in the flight mode of Spider-Man – at Scream Time Zipline, a new high-flying outdoor adventure company in the high country near Boone, N.C.
You won’t get spandex or a cape for your flight. The company insists on harnesses and helmets, much like rock-climbing gear. And you won’t sail high over a major metropolitan, crime-infested area. Your flight path will cover scenic terrain, a panorama of fields and forests, barns and fences.
Only the livestock will look up at you and marvel at what sort of extraterrestrial being soars high overhead, through sun and sky and, on one of the zip lines, straight into the tallest treetops.
The adventure begins in Boone Action Honda’s parking lot on Highway 421 just north of Boone. A Swiss Army transport vehicle known as a Pinzgauer collects maybe about a dozen or so brave souls and drives them to Scream Time.
Here the tension mounts as harnesses and helmets are distributed, and safety lectures are very firmly and emphatically delivered. No reaching up to touch the zip line. No acrobatics that might spill you out of the harness. And please sign a release form prepared and reviewed by lawyers.
Loaded back into the Pinzgauer, one little girl shouts she wants to go first. Another is very near tears and pleading for a reprieve. The open-sided vehicle climbs up a steep, forested incline, and when it clears the trees parks high atop a summit with a view that goes on forever.
A guide clamps your harness to a long, thick, steel cable at the beginning of your ride, and another guide standing on top of another hill operates a line that puts on the brakes and catches you.
The first four lines are relatively short (starting at 460 feet in length), serving as a practice warm-up for the two intermediate lines (up to 800 feet). Then, for the particularly fearless, there’s the Super Zip, at 2,000 feet in length.
At the end of the first four flights, every person in the group will agree that the first one – that initial leap of faith where you ran and threw yourself off the precipice – was the scariest one. Even the kid who was getting ready to cry will tell you that. After that, everyone in the group is an action figure, ready for anything.
And everyone will compare notes as to how to steer the darn thing. Not that anyone wants to head off in another direction, but it seems most people prefer facing forward as opposed to riding sideways or backwards.
Scream Time Zipline is the creation of owner Monie McCoury, an Atlanta native. The zip line idea came to him straight out of the clouds. He suggested it to his wife Darcey and simultaneously confessed he knew nothing at all about it. “But surely if you’re flying above the ground, that has got to be an incredible experience.”
That was five years ago. He bought 50 beautiful acres and then waited for his builder to arrive.
“It took me two years to get them out here,” he said. “That’s how busy they were. But I only wanted one company to come out here and build it, and that’s Experience Based Learning (EBL). They do this the best, they come with all the certifications, the training, the history and the insurance. Everything to make them a successful company.”
The Rockford, Ill.-based company also specializes in building ropes courses and in corporate team building.
Scream Time opened in January 2008, and EBL has inspected and scrutinized the zip lines continuously throughout its brief operation. Business has been amazing for a first-year effort, and McCoury has had some very positive feedback.
“We’ve had people who have been to zip lines in Canada, Belize, Hawaii, Jamaica, Alaska, and we are just getting kudos. This is really a flagship course,” he said.
Of course, McCoury will continue to push the envelope.
“We’ve got Zorbe coming, which is a huge hamster ball that a human gets in and rolls end over end,” he said. “And there’s also the Water Zorbe where you pour in water and you don’t go end over end but you sit down inside of it and you hydroplane as the ball rolls.”
Also in the planning phase are bigger and faster zip lines. The existing Super Zip can take a flyer up to speeds of 50 mph, but soon that will be just another practice run.
“Our goal is to create some of the world’s fastest that should reach speeds of close to 100 mph,” he said. “You come in head first. Those are on the drawing boards. We’ve got a lot of future plans.”

IF YOU GO
Reservations are required. A 2.5-hour tour of the first six zip lines costs $89. The Super Zip is offered at $29 when combined with the six-line purchase or sold separately at $47. Call (828) 898-5404 or visit www.screamtimezipline.com.

LOIS CAROL WHEATLEY is a freelance writer. Contact her at features@bristolnews.com.