NAU Challenge Course

I had to pay off my NAU card the other day on the North side of campus. (Don't even get me started on the fact that they do not accept Visa cards.) Driving around campus is nearly impossible and if, by chance, you make it to the other side without running into closed roads due to construction, you surely cannot find a place to park. Therefore, I rode my roommates bike. I love the weather here and I love that by the time I even get up our massive hill in our complex, my legs feel like they have done 100 squats and my lungs wonder what ever happen to oxygen.

Anyway, that is all beside the point. On my bike ride home, I passed by the NAU challenge course. What is it? Well, it's just that - a physical challenge course. They happened to be letting NAU students use it for free that day (typically it is only for students who register for the class). The guy told me they had a zip-line and my interest was sufficiently peaked. I rode home as fast as I could, dropped my backpack, changed into grungies, and grabbed my roommate. We ran back to check this thing out.

Whoa was I unprepared for what I was about to do. After signing our lives away, I stepped into a harness and strapped on a helmet and walked down to meet this "challenge." (Don't worry mom, I am still alive!) My roommate happens to be a daredevil and lives for adrenaline. I like the adrenaline too, but I was not expecting this! It was a blast though!!

Our first event was climbing up a totem pole. At the top, you had to stand up with both feet and then jump off. Of course you have someone belaying you, but really you just jump. They call it the leap of faith. The climbing part wasn't hard. Even standing up was quite easy (the people in front of me all fell before standing all the way up). Not even the height bothered me, but let me tell you, it took faith to leap off that thing onto nothing! My heart was racing!!

Next was the catwalk. No, it was not a runway! It was this...

the guy on the left is walking across the catwalk and the guy on the right is almost to the top of "the leap of faith." - this is the actual course we were on but we didn't get any pictures of ourselves! :(

I was not too afraid of walking across it, but once I got up there and the wind was blowing, I thought for sure I was going to fall right off. It took me a loooong time to get across. This is the only way you can get to the zip-line so I had to finish!! It was interesting to me - for those who wanted to ride the zip-line, but were afraid of heights, they blindfolded them and sent them across. Why? Because walking across it really isn't hard - it's the height that makes the task difficult. I was shocked to see this take place. It made me think about how focusing on our fears can make us loose sight of the final goal! It totally applies to the gospel - fear and faith cannot co-exist!

Once you make it across, you have to stand on the triangular platform while you wait for your turn. You are harnessed in up there but there is nothing to hold on to. It was nerve-racking. Once it was finally my turn for the zip-line, I got up there and realized, I have to jump off that platform! If you have ever been repelling, it is similar to that - the worst part is leaning over the getting started. But in this case, you lean over and then go FLYING 150 yards! Finally I just jumped backwards and did it! It was a BLAST!! I loved it! I even flipped myself upside-down on it!

We had the opportunity to try some slack-lining things and a partner slack-line challenge too before it closed. The point of the partner challenge was to build trust. It was cool how they applied all the events to life's lessons. It was SO much fun! I never came across things like this at ASU - one of the many reasons why I love it up here - there are so many free things to do up here!!