Zipping More or Less Through the Trees

By Betsa Marsh

An intredip "zipper" flies at Camp Kern. Betsa Marsh photo

Wrrrrrrrrrrh, whack, wrrrrrrrrrrh whack!

Like a bad Wile E. Coyote cartoon, I step off into the air, wrrrrrrrrrrh past leafy branches and whack into the tree trunk at the end of the line. Not once, but five times—will the new Ozone zipline never end?

It’s serious operator error, to be sure, and no amount of “Do a starfish, do a starfish!”—flinging arms and legs wide–is going to slow me down enough not to whack into these trees. Valiant rope wranglers at aerial platforms along the way, though, do break my momentum and keep this from turning into a blood sport.

Ozone Zipline Adventures opened July 1 at Camp Kern, a YMCA camp in its 99th year. Five steel cables criss-cross the forest above the Little Miami River in Ohio’s Warren County, and the camp may add as many as five more cables in the months to come.

It's just the beginning for this "zipper," leaving the central tower. Betsa Marsh photo

It’s a chance to fly at 30 mph, sometimes 200 feet up. That first step off the tower platform reminds me of my leap of faith when I went cable hang gliding in Tasmania—I just had to channel my inner Peter Pan and trust in the power of steel. And the speed? Like the US Olympic bobsled run in Lake Placid,  going so fast you can’t breathe.

Ozone is a not-for-profit adventure, whose goal is to raise money to support outdoor education programs for Ohio school kids.

“We want to tell the schools that we won’t raise the rates for outdoor programs, ever” said Jeff Merhige, YMCA Camp Kern Executive Director. “And we’d like to reduce them.”

Ozone, from the original name that Carl Kern gave the camp in 1910, will provide educational components along the zipline. Whoosh! Let’s discuss the Indian earthworks at nearby Fort Ancient. Whoosh! Let’s talk physics.

Unlike its cousin to the east, Hocking Hills Canopy Tours, Ozone doesn’t give its “zippers” leather gloves to slow themselves along the cable. Once you gather momentum, your destiny is between you, gravity and that tree straight ahead.

Climbing up the 45-foot central zipline tower for that first lift-off. Betsa Marsh photo