The world’s longest zip-line adventure

In the Port of Icy Straits, a novel touristic feature became popularized a few years ago in the form of a motorized Zip-line. Rising to the height of 1500 feet above sea level, it boasts being the longest zip-line in the entire world. To get to the highest point, participants have to take a 45 minute bus ride up to the mountain top. The drive through the rustic wilderness offers little more to be desired in way of photo options and video. At select places of interest, the driver stopped the bus for us to take our fill of pictures. Finally, we reached the top. The friends that accompanied me on this adventure included Laura, a singer/dancer from the production cast, and Joe, the piano/bandmaster from the show band. After gazing down from the mountain peak, the machine operators informed us that the distance from top to bottom actually exceeds the height of the empire state building. To put it mildly, we all felt a bit uneasy about the fact that the town below looked nearly imperceptible, not to mention the realization that we were about to ride the longest zip-line in the entire world.

After getting strapped in to the harness, we each had to put both feet on the “door” which would soon open, sending us down the mountain side at about 60 mph. At this moment I said aloud, “You know we must be pretty bored with our lives to resort to these measures for the purpose of amusement.” The operator started counting down from ten. “Ten, nine, eight,” and then the door opened before reaching seven! We all screamed, and the next 90 seconds were absolutely astounding. Laura and I basically kept the same pace (lightening speed), but Joe’s zip-line lingered behind at a slower rate. After getting nearly halfway down the mountain, I stopped yelling in excitement and instead admired the beautiful Alaskan landscape. When getting close to the town, we started recognizing friends watching and waving to us from the safety of picnic benches and town sidewalks. What an epic moment.