Finally, the courage to fly: Ziplining in Maui

One of the platforms at Piholo Ranch. In the end the
suspended bridge up to the platform was
scarier than ziplining itself.

“1, 2, 3 …”

I stood there – or rather hung there in my harness – with no intention of letting go and flying. I had just watched three other couples fly down the zipline, but somehow my feet wouldn’t leave the platform.

“OK, let’s try again,” the 20-something leader said. “1, 2, 3 …”

Nope. At this point I was shaking. I comfort myself that I was not the only one terrified. One of the girls who went before us was scared, and she’d gone skydiving before. Not even tandem. Said it was nothing – and yet she was scared of ziplining. Made me feel better and worse at the same time.

I was up on that ziplining platform at Piholo Ranch in Maui because my husband badly wanted to zipline while we were in Hawaii. I had always wanted to zipline, as well, per my 40 by 40 goals, thinking it was a good way to face my fear of heights and my fear of falling without having to skydive or bungee jump. Because I would be tethered to a cable via a harness, I felt it was the activity that was the least likely to go awry.

40 by 40: Nos. 6-10

It's harder than I thought it would be to come up with 40 things to do before I'm 40. But without further ado ... here are the next five.

No. 6: Write (and publish) a book.
Given I work for a business publisher, business will probably the theme. It will definitely be nonfiction.

No. 7: Visit every state in the U.S.
I've got a good start already. I've been to 29 states. I have plans to visit Hawaii in October for work (followed by a lot of play).

Outside of Hawaii, the other states I most want to visit: Alaska, for obvious reasons; Montana because that's where Glacier National Park is; and the New England states.

Colorado is my favorite state. But Florida is definitely in my top 5. We go there every year. Here are some shots from the last time we visited:

No. 8: Go ziplining
I'm terrified of heights. But for some reason ziplining does not scare me like skydiving scares me. And while I'd love to go ziplining in Costa Rica, I also found a place that does it in Colorado, a little closer to home. Soaring Tree Top Adventure in Durango calls itself the "largest, longest and safest zip line course in the world." And you can only get there on a train. Apparently there is a ziplining company in Salida, as well. I would consider this a big step for me on the "overcoming fear" front.

No. 9: Read every book on Time's 100 Best Novels list.
I was going to go with the BBC list, but this list intrigued me more as all the books were published from 1923 on. And I've read very few of them. I reserve the right to revert back to the BBC list, as I've read many more of those and while it feels like I have a lot of time left before I turn 40, the next 7.5 years will probably go by pretty quickly.

No. 10: Compete in a mountain biking time trial competition.
I have absolutely no idea what this entails. But mountain biking is the first fitness activity I've done in my adult life that I truly enjoy, so I figure competing in the sport would also be fun. I'll update my blog when I learn more or find someone that knows more about mountain bike races.

Some views from the trail:

Crested Butte

Fruita

Boulder

Next up: Nos. 11-15.