NASHVILLE, Ind. -- The first zip line I rode towered above the spectacle that was Super Bowl Village. During that unseasonably warm week in February, fans flooded the blocked-off streets and cheered as we soared above Capitol Avenue.
The zip line was the "it" attraction in a city buzzing with big-game fever, as evidenced by the 10,429 souls brave enough to give it a try. Al Roker rode it. Jimmy Fallon rode it. Gary Brackett, then still an Indianapolis Colt, rode it, too.
During the madness, as thousands waited for a shot to buy a ticket, Rick Resener walked around and handed out 500 fliers introducing an alternative -- a longer zip line and a much shorter wait -- 60 miles to the south. Give ours a shot, he told them, and you can ride the zip line and be back in Indianapolis before you'll ever get a chance to buy a ticket here.
"Most of them thought I had (Super Bowl Village) zip-line tickets for sale," Resener remembers. "It was like a piranha attack."
Two months later, I took Resener, known by all as Ranger Rick, up on his offer. After arriving at the eXplore Brown County home base (posted speed limit: 5 mph), I met Resener, sporting the kind of graying mustache that I pictured he would have. He was eager to introduce me to "The Screamer," which he proudly noted is the state's longest and fastest zip line.
The eXplore Brown County zip lines were erected last year, and Resener said the Brown County operation has been "busy, busy, busy."
The site offers 500-plus acres of adventure, which includes 60 acres of paintball fields and 30 miles of mountain-biking trails. But the reason many of us were there on that April afternoon was to try one of the nine zip lines, with more than a mile of cable suspended in the air. The shortest is 80 feet. The Screamer spans 1,220 feet, with speeds up to 45 mph.
Boarding the towering platform to ride the signature attraction wasn't particularly fun. (If you rode the zip line at the Super Bowl, climbing those stairs offers a suitable comparison.)
Strapped in and finally about to embark, I asked the 12-year-old in front of me for any words of advice. "Don't look down," Ali Henderson said. And then, suddenly, I was weightless, soaring across the treetops at nearly 40 mph, the wind zipping by as I rocketed down the cable, a quarter of a mile, from one tower to the next. The rush of the ride quickly spread a smile across my face. This, I figured, is about as close as I'll ever come to flying.
A minute later, I was back on the platform, back under gravity's command. My heart was racing. I wanted to go again.
"When you're out here, we like to think you're on vacation," said Chase Buffington, the zip-line manager. "You can forget about the stresses of life."
Buffington, originally from Washington state, has been running zip lines for eight years. He came to Indiana last summer to help construct the first in Brown County.
"I love every single part about this job," he said, after helping the last riders off the final platform. "But the best part is that this is an experience people will talk about for a long time."
On a sunny Friday in April, a pair of families joined us from Taylorsville, Ky., just outside of Louisville. When we were finished, I asked Shane Henderson, Ali's younger brother, about his inaugural zip-line experience.
"Were you ever scared up there?"
"Nope."
I decided to call his bluff. "Not at all?"
"Well, OK, maybe a little." Still, he said, he can't wait to come back and do it all over again. That makes two of us.
Zipping through Indiana
» Eagle Creek Park, 7840 W. 56th St.: Maryland-based Go Ape! Treetop Adventure Co. is constructing five zip lines as part of a 39-piece obstacle course in the trees of Eagle Creek Park.
Sign up for the adventure course -- which will take you about two or three hours -- and you'll experience it all: the five zip lines, two Tarzan swings, a series of rope ladders, bridges, swings and trapezes all amid the wooded treetops.
Go Ape! hopes to be open to the public by "late spring," according to owner Dan D'Agostino. Information: goape.com/sites/eagle-creek-park.
» Holler Hoppin' Zip Lines, 1292 Ind. 135 S., Nashville: Offers five lines totaling 1,100 feet in length. The night-hops tour offers an after-dark trek lasting about an hour. Information: www.teameffectinc.com/holler-hoppin-zip-lines.html or (812) 988-0085.
» Dagaz Acres, 12444 Antioch Road, Rising Sun: About 95 miles southeast of Indianapolis, this attraction boasts seven dual zip lines covering 23 acres, three canopy zips and two bridges. Information: (812) 594-2727 or www.dagazacres.com.
» SpringHill Camp, 2221 W. Ind. 258, Seymour: This six-line zip line is 800 feet long and is erected 40 feet off the ground. Information: (812) 497-0008 or www.springhillcamps.com/in.
Contact Star reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134 and follow him on Twitter @zkeefer.
