ArborTrek Canopy Adventures - Zip Line Canopy Tours in Vermont New York and Pennsylvania

October and early November, after the leaves have fallen and before the snow claims us, is known as the “stick season” in Vermont, a quiet month of pleasures much subtler than autumn’s leafy spectacle. It was a good year for apples, and many of them still hang like ornaments from bare-branched trees, bright red orbs against a quiet palette of browns and greys. White birches push against a curtain of white sky, but unfortunately (for avid skiers and snowboarders), that’s about the only thing white around here these days. “Unseasonably warm” is one way of saying “pain and misery” as far as many snow enthusiasts are concerned. Beat those global warming blues during your Thanksgiving Holiday with an awesome environmentally friendly adventure: Zip Lining! When you’re out on the canopy tour, keep your ears pricked for that tell-tale honking of Canadian geese, especially at zip 5 when, at 75 feet in the air, the view suddenly opens up and before you, in all their (brown, muddy) glory, are the infamous slopes at Smugg’s: Madonna, Sterling, and Morse. It’s not too soon to make reservations for your Thanksgiving holiday, as we’re bound to book up with a quickness!

I knew it would come. Folks kept saying, “Oh well, I guess this year is just not one for brilliant color…”, but I knew better; felt the trembling pounce in the leaves. Tardy as it was, let it be known that the splendor is here, everyone! All I can say is you’d better hustle. Get yourselves on over here, because there is pretty much NOTHING better in the whole history of the world than the thrill of flying headlong through such radiant flame-orange and saturated yellow leaves. Fantastic doesn’t even begin to describe it. Amazing is paltry description. You will be stunned and deliciously overwhelmed. Do try and book ahead, as spaces are limited in this absolutely ultimate autumnal experience.

Oh, and if you missed Columbus Day Weekend, you might have just missed the three nicest days in Vermont in all of history. Brilliant colors, 75-80 degrees, and light fluffy clouds.

What comes to mind when I think of this years’ lingering, drawn out journey from summer to fall is a cat that is poised for an ambush. You know how they stick their rear ends into the air and quietly shift their weight from foot to foot, gathering up pounce inside their legs and just waiting for that perfect, auspicious moment to strike? The trees have been hinting at a foliage change for weeks, insinuating grandeur and shifting in barely noticeable increments from green to golden-green to green-ochre and aaaaalmost yellow, undertones of orange. You can feel their readiness to suddenly BURST into brilliance, and all this anticipation only heightens one’s zipping experience! Oh the suspense

And suddenly the summer-vacationers packed up their bags, cleaned out their rooms, loaded squealing children into cars, and set off, teary eyed, down the mountain. Left in the wake of their jubilant summertime commotion, the air is oddly still and the streets seem to echo. We’ll miss you summer folks, farewell till winter vacation rolls around! The zip lining demographic now seems to be consisted of: young couples taking advantage of the sudden drop in prices at local lodging venues, older couples making their way in RVs across the United States, and Girl Scout Troops. It is the recipe for zip lining perfection if you happen to be the type of person who fancies warm weather but detests large crowds! We’ve got tours going out seven days a week, so call to book your spot.

Yes, that’s right. Vermont is open for business!

Vermont, as many are unaware, has a few extra seasons in its calendar year. Along with winter/spring/summer/fall, there is mud season (after the snow melts), at which point blackfly season carries us into spring when, come summer, dearfly season tacks onto blackfly season, which then compounds with mosquito season. For all you poor earth-bound humans, the inescapable presence of these biting, bothersome pests could be the bane of your vacation in Vermont’s otherwise perfect summer clime. But wait! Fear not! ArborTrek offers an alternative to simply suffering through another family outing in the woods! You’ll be pleased to find out that those infuriating little beasts just don’t have the wherewithal to FIND us up in the treetops. For some reason, mosquitos, blackflies and deerflies just do not inhabit the forest canopy. It’s brilliant. It’s amazing. Come fly with us!

And thanks to everyone who made suggestions for a collective noun for zippers! Among the best were…..

• A hum of zippers
• A folly of zippers
• A quivering of zippers
• An exuberance of zippers
• A swiftness of zippers
• A flight of zippers

(p.s. the collective noun for mosquitos is “scourge”. Perfect, no?)

After being pummeled for a month straight with unreasonably insistent rains, the weather patterns seem to be, finally, a bit saner. July has arrived like the poster child of Vermont summers, with cool, foggy mornings and perfect afternoons. I think people maaaay have noticed, as not only the forest is abuzz with critters busy making house, but it’s also abuzz with the endless sound of zipping. From eight-year-olds on family vacation to eighty-eight-year-olds crossing it off their bucket list, it is apparent that the hordes have arrived to zip. It feels like the Mecca of fun here at ArborTrek, so come on, pilgrims!

So if a group of geese is called a gaggle, a group of dolphins is a pod, a number of larks is an exaltation, multiple bears make a sleuth, owls together form a parliament, and a group of crows, unfortunately, is deemed to be a murder…. (The list goes on and on, I happen to have a minor obsession with collective nouns), then WHAT, pray tell, might a group (horde, crowd) of zippers be??? The best suggestion for a collective noun for zippers wins a free water bottle!

Oh yeah, and the turkeys have arrived! They travel together, and a group of turkeys strutting across the road en masse is called a rafter.

The sweet smell of summer is in the air… and I mean sweet. To celebrate the event, we have been giving out free t-shirts on our Facebook page and deodorant to our staff. T-shirts and shorts are now appropriate for the tour, but stay away from those new five-finger-toe shoes; they don’t provide adequate protection for your feet, and quite frankly, they freak me out. Over the past few weeks, we have been visited by the most unwelcome of neighbors. Her name is Non-Stop, Torrential Rain, and she has over stayed her welcome by four to five weeks. While she’s left our forests green and our rivers high, it’s time to give a little room to Mr. Sun. In the meantime, guests have been enjoying the tour and learned several important lessons; most importantly, “zipping in the rain rocks!” Why? You ask. I’ll let our customer explain. Over the past few weeks, our customers have helped us compile the following Top 10 Reasons to Zip Line in the Rain:

• Warp Speed Effect.
• The colors become exaggeratedly vibrant in the rain- especially those bright green mosses and lichens.
• No chance of getting thirsty.
• Avoid the hordes of fair-weather-zippers arriving en masse on sunny days.
• You’ve finally got a chance to give your fancy new rain gear a run for its money.
• That free coffee/cocoa waiting back at the Welcome Center NEVER tasted so good.
• You can pee your pants (or sweat profusely) and no one will be the wiser!
• Zipping through a veil of fog gives the experience an added sense of mystery.
• You earn an extra Tough Stripe/ Rain Merit Badge for zipping in the rain (plus your wet-dog photos make you look SUPER hardy).
• Warp Speed Effect.

It took its time getting here this year, but Spring has finally arrived at ArborTrek Canopy Adventures at Smugglers' Notch and there's no better time to go zip lining.  The canopy tour survived days of persistent high winds and record-setting rains this April and is ready for the summer.  The entire valley is a brilliant green now.  The trees are all budding out, wild flowers are popping up their colorful heads, and once open views and vistas are being replaced by dense green foilage. 

"It is the dynamic nature of the forest that the course traverses through that really sets this tour apart from the competition.  The transformation that takes place to the course each season is amazing.  It is almost as if there are four different courses here," says Smith, zip line canopy tour designer and President of ArborTrek Canopy Adventures. 

Smith explains that over the next few weeks, the course will become greener and it will feel faster and more intimate.  While there will still be breath-taking views of the surrounding mountains at some places on the course, the focus will be much more on the area of the forest where guests are situated and not on the distance views.  "In the winter, platforms are visible at the end of most of the cables when you are clipped in.  This will not be true in a few weeks.  The canopy will become more dense and guests will feel as if they are flying through organic tubes cut in to the canopy.  Guests will just need to trust us that there is an end to the cable, because the end will not be visible for much of the traverse.  The dense canopy also highlights the babbling brook which the course follows.  In the winter, the brook can be all but lost at times.  Not now.  It's really moving. "

Want to see how the course evolves from one season to the next?  View photos from tours on our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/arbortrek/

What a beautiful day for zipping!  The snow is falling (well... dumping) on us at an unbelievable rate, and all those snowflakes make for an unforgettable day on the lines; most of our guides say days like this are their favorite times to zip.  It’s certainly a good day to strap on some goggles, grab a camera, and hit the zip line.  We are just putting the finishing touches on the course, getting a platform finalized at the bottom of our longest and sixth zip, and tweaking the tension on some of the cables to get the perfect speed.

We are now posting photos from our tours on our facebook site. 

All those brave souls who made it their New Year’s Resolution to push their comfort zone a little bit and came out on a zip line canopy tour this morning can check it off the list!  (And the others who would like to follow suit should come and meet us!)  We ran a very excited and happy group through the course first thing this morning and have many more on the way for the weekend.  Happy New Year and best wishes to all of our friends and clients!