Zipline offers bird's-eye view of the Ozarks

By Dave Woods

New media and marketing manager

(Dave Woods at right poses before zipping with Branson Zipline & Canopy Tours. His story appeared in the Joplin Globe on Friday July 18, 2010, and the photo is courtesy of Dave and the Joplin Globe).

WALNUT SHADE, Mo. — Denna Duyck didn’t know what to expect when she and three of her friends signed up to take a the Branson Zipline Canopy Tour.

“It goes so fast,” the 36-year-old said after her first zip through the tree tops. “I was just glad to get my feet back on the other end. When you get up on the top it looks really high. I was scared I was going to hit the other end, but the guide yelled ‘pick your feet up,’ and it was fine. It was really scary, but fun, too.”

Although a little shaken after her first zip, Anissia Manuleleua, 39, said she enjoyed the experience, too.

“I was spinning around so much I couldn’t hear what the guide was telling me,” she said. “Maybe it was because of my screaming so loud. It was just blind faith that the guide would catch me. I just said to myself, ‘I’m not letting go.’”

Manuleleua said that she will remember the afternoon the longtime friends spent 100 feet off the ground.

“Some of our friends and spouses are like, ‘I can’t believe you are doing that,’” Manuleleua said. “My friends know I’m afraid of heights and they won’t believe I did this.”

Jared Easdon, who guides tours at Branson Zipline, said Duyck and Manuleleua’s reaction is typical of first-time zipline riders.

“It’s probably one of the funnest things people will ever do in their lives,” the 19-year-old said. “It’s easily the biggest adventure some of the people who come here will ever have.”

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.joplinglobe.com/lifestyles/x1617553956/Zipline-offers-birds-eye-view-of-Ozarks