The first day of Outdoor Pursuits-low and high ropes course

Hey everyone. Sorry I haven't written in a while. I have had a busy week and weekend. Last Thursday I had my first day of outdoor pursuits. It is a class that I get to do several activities at the Conway Center on the Island of Anglesey. The first day there we got a tour of the Conway Center. It used to be the house of the man who owned the island. The man was very rich because all of Conway's supplies are stored in the building that used to be the stables for the horses. The land around the center is also protected because there are ancient burial areas surrounding the property.

We began by doing a tour of the shop and learning where the supplies are and what they are called. We then went to an open area in the grass outside and did certain trust-building activities among the group. There were a total of ten of us in the group. There are only 3 guys and 18 girls in the total Central College group. So in my outdoor pursuits group, there are 9 girls and one guy. It's really funny and our instructor has it easy when it comes to remembering the guy's name. So after our trust building activities, we went to another area filled with wooden walls, boxes with a rope between them, and an interesting obstacle course. We did more trust building activities in this area like getting from one box to the other by swinging from the rope, getting everybody up and over a tall wall, and having everyone finish the obstacle course while bringing a bucket with us. After that we took a lunch break and then we learned how to use our harnesses and tieing off our ropes and putting the clasps on them.


Soon after that we were ready to go to the low ropes course. We all put on the purple waterproof pants and jackets. We all looked pretty stupid but all of us had them on so it wasn't so bad. We also had to wear helmets and wellies (which are rain boots). We went to the low ropes course, picked a partner, and then learned how to actually walk across a wire with just a rope to hang onto 20 feet in the air. We have a rope connected to us in the middle of our harness that had two ends connected to a clasp. While we were climbing we had to ALWAYS have the clasps hooked onto the wire above our heads. This way if we slipped and fell, the ropes caught us and prevented us from falling further. The low ropes course was not bad at all. It was very short and just a training area to have us get used to using our harness and propelling down with a rope to the ground.

I thought the high ropes course was going to be only a little more taller than the low ropes course but I was very wrong. We got to the next course and I looked up and there was the course, about 60-80 feet in the air. We started out going across a log, then ropes that made a big X, then to the cargo net that was super long and slowly going up higher in the air, then we made the leap of faith (a 5 foot gap with nothing in between that we had to jump), then walk across a very long wire with just a rope to hang onto, and to finish the course we got to the ground by going on a zip line. It was a very fun and I did very well for not letting the height scare me.

We had gotten done early so we decided to try out Jacob's Ladder. It was a ladder with 9 thick wooden planks that were about as long as my height if I was lying down. They were connect by each end by a wire and placed in between two trees and was just swinging freely. As the ladder kept going higher, the farther apart the planks were from each other. The 9th one was about 60-80 feet in the air. Three people could go on the ladder at the same time and it was best if three did do it because then each person could help one another getting up on the ladder. Each person is connected to a rope to their harness and the other person on the ground is belaying them. I went on it towards the end and made it up to the 6th plank or level. There was one more person in the whole group that wanted to try it so I decided to go again. This time we made it to the 7th plank. That was one of the scariest things I have ever done. When you are so high up in the air and just swinging freely with nothing to hang onto but the plank that you are sitting or standing onto, it is very freaky. After the Jacob's Ladder we were finished for the day and went back to the shop to put our stuff back. It was a very fun and challenging day but I certainly enjoyed it.