Georgia Traveler; 607

This week, Georgia Traveler blazes your trail for outdoor adventures. Zip from tree to tree to an eventual 100-foot adrenaline-inducing freefall. Enjoy island life at Georgia's largest lake, cruise the tracks and high-octane race cars. We show you where you can soar a thousand feet above ground, journey to the depths of the sea to catch a trophy fish, glide the ice in a winter wonderland, slide down snowy mountains, it's all part of Georgia Traveler's outdoor adventures for you to explore. Let's head to Weitzberg to Zip Line and Rock Climb at historic Banning Mills.

If you are ready for an adrenaline-charging adventure, look no further than historic Banning Mills in Weitzberg, a high-speed Zip Line excursion that begins in the tree tops. Or catch a glimpse of a person seemingly flying through the air. That's because this B&B also boasts the largest continuous Zip Line canopy tour in the world. Reaching speeds over 60 miles per hour across the tree tops and over rushing water and rolling hills, historic Banning Mills offers more than just a high adrenaline Zip Line induced rush. It's an escape from the conventional vacation in a picture-perfect setting. It started as a bed breakfast mostly and it has morphed into an adventure site. The tower sets about 302 feet above the creek itself.

The tower platform is 102 feet off the ground and 122 to the pinnacle at the top. When you turn around you've got a really nice panoramic view of the entire Snake Creek gorge. Then you're coming out over the gorge and you're really starting to pick up speed and you're going through the gorge. You'll be doing anywhere from 55 to 70 miles an hour down through there and you've got to watch the wind. You've got gale force winds starting to affect the way you travel. So after the screaming eagle, I was inspired with a feeling of invincibility. So it was off-determinator corner and extreme rope course challenge that had to be more exhausting than running a marathon. In fact, you go to the terminator quarter, you get a brave heart, but the bridges have no rail. Very challenging. Very challenging for me and some of our rock climbers, they just wears them out. Yeah. From there, it's off to Sky Trek Bridge. It is over 600 feet long over the creek and getting up to 170 feet high at points. Right smack in the middle of the Sky Trek Bridge over 150 feet high right here.

Records are made to be broken and for this one, no mountain is too high to climb or in this case, a rock wall. We built it to make a really fine, high climbing wall. Then we found out what the record was and we were very close. Why aren't we stopping at 120 feet? So we just went on up and tried to get as close to 140 feet as we could. Any strategy, any plan of attack you recommend? Try to squat instead of pull up. Use your legs more than your arms. Okay. I'll do that. Using every ounce of strength and courage I could muster the 75 foot wall was defeated fairly. Yeah. That was hard. And I left the 140 foot path to the more experienced climbers. So after the wall climb was over, curiosity got the best of me. In this odd mechanical contraption, 100 feet up the tower caught my eye. It's actually 100 foot even, 10 stories.

You fall free for about 80 feet and then it smoothly sets you on your feet. All right. Thank David for fixing to do this thing. So we'll see. Free fall. All right. My hands are still sore from the rock wall. Well, you don't have views? I just fall. Yeah. I can fall. Yeah, I can just fall. Hold on to your arms so you can see it. Yeah. If I have way down here, go say God. I go up 100 feet and then Patrick, you're going to help me from there? Yes, sir. What do you do? I'm just going to throw you off. Daddy. All right. Let's do it. Let's go. Holy cow. I don't know. Three. Two. One. Oh, my god. Look at that feeder shaking. Woo! All right. All right.

All right. Here's next. I don't know if I opened my eyes. I have no idea. Adventure seekers have variety in the woods of historic banning mills and ever expanding array of thrills amongst a beautiful West Georgia scenic backdrop. Let's grab our boat keys and set our clocks to island time at the Lake Lanier Islands Resort and Spa. Just 45 minutes north of Atlanta, there's an array of awesome outdoor adventures at Lake Lanier Islands Resort, Georgia's most visited Lakeside Resort destination. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and on one of the most beautiful lakes in the state of Georgia, it's less than an hour from Atlanta, but you'll feel like you're worlds away from water skiing, waverunners, wakeboards, and boat rides to course rides and even a world-class golf course. So it's fair to say that it could take an entire week to enjoy all of the outdoor adventures Lake Lanier Islands Resort has to offer.

We've got three different areas here at Lanier World. We've got sunset co, we've got big beach, and we've got family fun park. Family fun park is great because a family can come and enjoy the wave pool, it's actually Georgia's largest wave pool. And the kids can create their own aquatic adventures at the land lover's lagoon carnivore. And there is a very unique experience that they offer to summer campers at the stables. Kids don't only have a chance to ride the ponies, they get to paint them too. The ponies are a horde that we paint and you think it's spa day, all the attempts when they get. The kids just get in here with these non-toxic paints and they're not harm the ponies at all. What's so fun about it is that at the end we get to go down to lakes when the ponies and kind of wash off the paint and have a little fun there too. As you can see, the kids have a blast treating these lucky ponies to a day at the spa, and the ponies reward them with a horseback plunge back into the lake. So after a full day on the beach and playing in the water, you may have worked up an appetite.

You can fill up a Gianni's Italian bistro or even at the beach side restaurant located in sunset cove. It is a family-friendly area, but our adult crowd really loves to go over there and just be able to relax on the water, sit on the beach, get entertainment every day of the week down there. If boating is your idea of an outdoor adventure, here at the Marina, you can pick out your boat, grab a map, and go explore. Each island offers something different, so you decide whether to explore by foot or by boat. Now it may take some time, but you will be rewarded with beautiful views and scenes offered throughout the 1,500 acres of land that are surrounded by the breathtaking Lake Sydney Linear. After spending the day on the lake, there is no better way to kick back than enjoying a movie next to the wave pool. And if the kids aren't quite ready to call it a day, there's plenty for them to do late into the night.

So no matter when you visit, Lake Linear Islands Resort offers outdoor fun any time of year. It's time for you to get behind the wheel of a high-octane race car at Rhoda Atlanta and Braselton. Rain, shine, or even snow, there's a high-octane adventure in Braselton where you can ride, drive, and even drift. Welcome to the Skip Barber Racing School at Rhoda Atlanta. If you want to get your hands on a steering wheel and come out and experience Rhoda Atlanta, the racing school is the way to do it. Some group comes to go racing, and this is their start, and they're going to eventually be whether it's just to be a gentleman or woman racer in an amateur ranks or to become professional. And the other is for entertainment. There's a number of people that come out without any real aspirations to be the next form of a one-star, but to have an experience that none of their friends have, and to be

able to really get behind the wheel of a race car and do something that very few people have done in a way that have been on a track of this sort of esteem history, like a CMO or a few others. Of course, no one takes the track at Skip Barber Road at Atlanta without first taking its safety course. One of the most important things in high-performance driving is looking ahead, seeing a clear picture of what's going on, being aware, and not just looking where you're about to go. Look much further ahead, and in racing, you'll be much better off. This cage that surrounds me offers roll-over protection and impact protection. There's a six-point harness inside these cars that keep you planted in your seat so you can do a better job driving, number one, and two, they're there for keeping you safe at impact or roll-over.

Oh, God. Sorry. They'll loosen up as we drive. Oh, thank you. They're tighter than safer. Okay, I'm working on it. Some of the biggest names in racing have cruised us to a half-mile track, including actor Paul Newman, Maro and Dreddy, Roger Penske, and Danica Patrick. But it's time to change gears and cars for our next lesson. Here is how the Skip Barber Driving School works. Different level classes match the skill of the driver. They offer one and two-day classes to tackle the basics of handling a race car. And there's advanced car control classes where the drift comes into play. Drifting and sliding and snow seem simple, but the experts will tell you drifting is actually easier in pleasant weather. So if speeding and spinning in brazzles and sounds like your cup of tea for an outdoor adventure, look no further than the Skip Barber Racing School at Road Atlanta for the ride of your life. Now we braid the skies and show you what it feels like to leap from a plane 14,000 feet

above Thomaston. Jumping from an airplane tops most outdoor adventures. Skydive Atlanta, a venue 26 years in the making, sees its share of novice skydivers, like me, looking for adventure. We caught up with Trey Holiday at Skydive to find out what to expect. There were a few tips to keep in mind to make the most of my experience. Remember to breathe. That's a good point. That's a big one. And just have fun. Smile, breathe, and just relax. Our instructors are very well trained. Most of our guys have thousands of Skydive. They actually had folks that came out with regenerations. With my jump imminent, I headed back inside to handle two technicalities, the first of these being my consent waiver. There was no turning back now. See, you're not doing it anyway. So if you do that sense of security, at that point you can relax a little bit. A little bit.

All right, now come. Free Skydive, the team prepped me for the big leap space. Yeah, it's a little loose now, but it's going to get nice to see my man. Okay. Are you going to be able to do a little loose pull-thong for me to be able to walk to the corner? As a precautionary measure, I had to proceed on to the tandem instruction to become acquainted with my rig. I'll go over a few things. The first thing I'm going to do over, I'm going to go over the equipment that we're going to be using. I'll go over the equipment that you guys will be wearing, and then I'll talk about what to expect from the time you have that equipment on, until the time we get that equipment off. All right. I was preoccupied with listening for the most important part, our parachutes. Every 180 days where this parachute's used or not, it has to be taken out fairly expected by an FAA certified rigor. They'll go over it, then they repack it. Once it's done repack here, she puts her seal on this. Without this little red seal here, we legally cannot jump this parachute. We've got the goggles on the doors open. It's time for us to jump. After letting all the instructions sink in, I stepped into my jumpsuit and realized it was go time.

So the most three important things on the skydive, number one, have fun at the time of your life. Smallest big as you can, if you don't smile, the wind does crazy things to your face, all right? Third, remember that arc. Ready, set, go, arch arch arch. Okay. All right. Sounds good. Sounds good. Let's go do it. As I exited the hanger to view the plane, the nerves were kicking in. But Dave, my tandem instructor, took me under his wing as we prepared to board. My plane mates ranged an age from 18 to 72. I felt a unique bond with a small plane full of fellow jumpers. One more. Wait a minute. You said four. I big woohoo. One, two, three. Woohoo! It's on. It's hard to get up there. There. There you go. As our plane accelerated into the deep blue horizon, the gravity of the matter began to sink in. All right. How you feeling? Pretty nice just right now. Yeah. It was here. Yeah, I'm pretty scared.

What do you think? Well, I don't know why we just did jump from a thousand feet and sink high enough for me. I don't know why we have to go another 13,000. Diving from 14,000 feet. That speeds up to 125 miles per hour to the view is breathtaking. How high do you think we are right now? Right now we're about 700 feet. A peaceful calm overtook me as I floated back to the earth in true butterfly form. There's grain. Feed up, feed up, feed up. Feed up. Oh. You're weird. What do you think? That was crazy. Pretty cool, huh? It was a beautiful view. The free fall was a little disorienting.

But it was awesome. All right. Give me a high five. You're a shot over. Yeah. I got right there. Stayed your life. I love you, Dad. Skydiving. It's one of those defining moments I will never forget. This is an adventure anyone can enjoy. To come on Georgia Traveler Outdoor Adventures, a high seas fishing excursion aboard Miss Judy 2, ice skating outdoors in downtown Atlanta, and a winter wonderland that brings Arctic excitement to Georgia. Georgia Traveler Outdoor Adventures will be back in 30 seconds. Welcome back to Georgia Traveler Outdoor Adventures.

We're off to the Savannah coast for a deep sea fishing adventure you'll never forget. The coastal town of Savannah has its share of outdoor adventures, from gliding segues along historic cobblestone streets to a slow ride quadrucicle that tours the town in the tension grabbing fashion, but it's the high seas where our outdoor excursion begins, angling for trophy fish in the deep blue Atlantic Ocean. Journey into the deep with the maiden of the Atlantic Ocean, Miss Judy Helmi. It is my life. There's nothing like fishing. She spends so much time at sea that being on land makes her seasick. She charts and navigates these waters every day and knows where and when the fish are going to bite.

I'm almost 40 years old and I know where they're going to be because I can track them. So aboard Miss Judy 2 with our knowledgeable captain feeling completely at ease and why not. She's been at it since the mid 60s. Part of this fishing experience with Judy are the stories you'll hear along the way, often conceived from a life lesson from dad, but always fascinating. This is a female. This is a female. Now tell me, there is an obvious difference between females and males, but sea bass it's a little different. My father always told me that they all started its female, now they can change back and forth. I mean this is born a female. And this fish will turn into a male later on in life. Our excursion was on a warm winter day, so these gender shifting sea bass and sheep said, also known as Convig Fish, were the game of the day and man did we ever hit the mother load. It's me, a big one. There we go.

Government regulations placed sea bass on the catch and release list for this day, so sheep's head were the catch of the day. Now we're talking. See the team? My hand grab a crab, suck it in, spit it out, get all the meat out, spit it out before you can even know he's on there. And my father's told me, you've got to set the hook before he bites the hook. And I used to be used to always come on the way back down. You got to know. Yeah. Probably going to eat an egg. Yeah, he's pulling. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, oh yeah. Oh, it's a nice one right over the tooth. Oh no, no, no. He took off. OK, OK, the good news about it is, I have no memory, so we can catch him again. All right, all right. And that we did, not the same fish, but bigger than the one that got away. Oh, of course. You're doing a great job. You just keep doing what you're doing.

Revenge, got him. This one's a big one. You got a lot of them on and you didn't give them any slack and thus you caught this. Oh, and that right there is a lot of food. Georgia has a serious sheet tag. That's serious, but I'm talking about it. And just when we had stocked up enough fish to feed a small village, the big reel began to spin. That's OK, that's OK. A trophy redfish, my friends. Oh, OK. I'm getting bigger. So what do you do when you catch a trophy tag? I got a taggy. It's not easy. It's not easy, 41 total. What's your fish's number? 4, 2, 2, 0, 4. Angler remarks. Let's see. Caught the biggest, baddest fish in the sea. Love it. It's an epic sea adventure and the game's always changing with the seasons. Judy knows when the fish are biting and whether it's a day for deep sea or insure fishing. Oliver co-captains are trained by this master caster to put on your sea legs and get ready

for the catch of a lifetime. We now journey to Atlanta, Centennial Olympic Park, where you can put on some skates and enjoy this winter wonderland. Atlanta's probably not the first place you think of when it comes to winter sports, but we have a great place for us. It's a frosty fine. Centennial Olympic Park's ice skating room. This outdoor activity is a great place for families, couples and people of all ages. The music will warm you and the festive atmosphere will help you quickly forget the spills you might take. On the ice, I guarantee you'll feel like a kid again. The novice or expert, if you have an adventurous spirit to hit the ice, this winter playground

is the perfect place to either grab a partner or step off the ice for a hot chocolate and watch others grace the rink. The ice skating rink is open from November to January, but the park hosts activities year-round like concerts, fireworks, festivals, marathons and more. As an outdoor venue for thousands, the Olympic Skate Georgians a moment to shine. But forever to enjoy the mini adventures at Centennial Olympic Park. Fantastic! It's off to Snow Mountain at Stone Mountain Park, where you can slide the hills and enjoy the snow. Now it's time for the coolest or at least the coldest outdoor activity in Atlanta. From late November through late February, Stone Mountain Park offers visitors an Arctic

treat known as Snow Mountain. Snow Mountain is a very unique attraction here in Atlanta. It's the first snow park actually in the state of Georgia. Snow at Mountain is only open a couple of months out of the year, I'm honestly for the weather. It related issues. Issues aside, homemade snow makes for tons of fun. Snow Mountain has transformed the famous laser show Lawn into a snow lovers paradise. The cool thing about Snow Mountain is how we actually create snow mountain. We borrow water from our own lake, Stone Mountain Lake, and we bring it to a filtration unit where we filter it through our filtration unit and bring it to potable standards, much like a swimming pool. From our filtration unit, it goes into our snow making machine, which freezes it and creates the snow. And then we blow the snow onto the field. Here visitors can enjoy a variety of activities that celebrate everything snow-tasting, without the driving hazards. The biggest attraction at Snow Mountain is tubing.

So many families and so many kids here in the Atlanta area have never actually seen six inches of snow and water, so they get to do some lots of tubing. There are also play areas known as the Snow Zones. Zone 1 is for the Arctic Architects. You can use the tools provided to build your favorite version of Frosty, the Snow Man, including the carrots for the noses, or get a little more high tech and build an eagle out of snow blocks. Kids like Brendan and Clayton here are going for the Deluxe version. Next, there's the Snowball throwing zone where you can take on family and friends in an epic confrontation. And since you have to be 42 inches to ride the tubes, there's a zone known as the Little Angels area, where toddlers have their own tubing adventure. That's a little smaller, but no less adventurous. So whether you're making snow angels, building igloos for just enjoying smores by the fire,

Stone Mountain is packed with peak entertainment. It's a little Arctic escape for Georgians who may not see snow on a regular basis, so pack your snow boots and mittens and head on over to Stone Mountain Park. Until next time, Pleasant Journey. Well, Georgia Travelers produced in partnership with the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

This is a GPB original production.