FORT BENNING, Ga., (July 9, 2014) -- For Soldiers and Family members looking for an adrenaline rush, look no further than Historic Banning Mills, located in Whitesburg, Georgia.
Banning Mills is just under 100 miles from Fort Benning, and can be reached in about an hour and 45 minute drive.
The site is home to the world's longest zip line course, as recognized by Guinness World Records.
And, indeed, there are enough zip lines and treetop obstacles called sky bridges that it could take up two full days to see and do it all. Banning Mills offers such a two-day package for $468 per person, which includes up to 100 different zip lines and 72 sky bridges, as well as lunch both days.
But, if you don't have two days to spare or are looking for a more affordable option, Banning Mills also offers shorter zip line excursions.
The zip line tours start with the Forest/Woodland Course, which can be completed in 90 minutes to two hours and features nine zip lines, a sky bridge and a tower for $49 per person.
The next tour, the Flight Pattern, includes eight more sky bridges and three additional zip lines, as well as the Forest/Woodland Course for $79 per person.
There are numerous other options, but on a recent visit, I opted for the Extreme Tour, which included the Forest/Woodland Course, the Flight Pattern, the 1,500-foot Big Daddy zip lines, the 900-foot Swoop that zooms alongside Snake Creek, sky bridges traveling over a gorge at heights of more than 100 feet, the 600-foot Sky Trek bridge, the 900-foot Predator zip line and, my personal favorite, the roughly half-mile Screaming Eagle zip line, which starts on a tower roughly 30 stories tall.
The Extreme Tour took roughly five hours to complete, and I can confirm that it's quite exhausting.
For the Forest/Woodland Course, all guests must weigh a minimum of 50 pounds and a maximum of 250 pounds for women and 285 pounds for men. On all other tours, guests must be at least 10 years old and weigh at least 90 pounds.
Outdoor Recreation is sponsoring a trip to Banning Mills July 12.
For more information, call 706-545-7978. For more information on Banning Mills, visit www.historicbanningmills.com.
Banning Mills zip line tours
Forest/Woodland Course: 9 zip lines, one sky bridge and one tower. 1 1/2 to 2 hours. $49 per person.
Flight Pattern Tour: Includes the Forest/Woodland Course, plus three additional zip lines and up to eight additional sky bridges. 2 to 3 hours. $79 per person.
Flight Pattern Plus: Includes Flight Pattern Tour plus two high speed zip lines, with the "Big Daddy," more than 1,500 feet in length. 3 1/2 to 4 hours. $99 per person.
Extreme Tour: Includes the Forest/Woodland Course, the Flight Pattern Tour, the "Big Daddy," a sky bridge more than 600 feet long and 180 feet high, a 900-foot zip line and the "Screaming Eagle" zip line that is roughly a half-mile in length.
All-Day Adrenaline Rush: Up to 60 zip lines, 42 sky bridges, the Terminator Corner, the Ridge Runner and the 3,400-foot Flight of the Falcon zip line. Up to 8 hours. Lunch is included. $249 per person.
For more tour and pricing options, visit www.historicbanningmills.com.
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