Zipline wows its first visitors

Zipline ‘wows’ its first visitors
Dayton Daily News
By Justin McClelland, Staff Reporter
Updated 7:47 AM Wednesday, July 1, 2009

As Dawn Schroeder prepared to step into nothingness, she had one request.

“I don’t want anyone to think I screamed like a baby,” she announced.

Schroeder, as one of the initial riders of the Ozone Zipline Adventure at Camp Kern Tuesday, June 30, let out an early shriek as she launched off the tower, but gained her composure, pulling her legs into a semi crouch and zipping quickly and effortlessly to the next tower, nearly a hundred feet in the air.

Billed as the largest zipline attraction in the Midwest, the Ozone Zipline Adventure Ride will carry riders on 10,000 feet of zipline 175 feet in the air, over scenic hills and river views around the Little Miami River in Oregonia. The zipline opens to the public on Wednesday, July 1.

Between each line, visitors will be educated about the history of the area as well as the physics that make the zipline possible. The tour includes a 45-foot tall, central zipline tower and will take riders up to 200 feet above the ground, traveling at nearly 30 mph.

“All the natural features really lend themselves to the zipline tour,” said Lori Schaeffer of ERI, which built Ozone, and has built similar ziplines in Hawaii.

Jeff Merhige, executive director of Camp Kern, said that the ride is built to help pay for educational trips to the school.

He said that in a week’s time last year, five different school’s cancelled trips to Camp Kern because of slashed funding in field trip budgets.

“Our number one priority is to make it easier for schools to come,” Merhige said.

Although the ride was originally scheduled as one, three-hour tour, Merhige said that during practice runs, the zipline organizers realized that a tour of all 10 lines would take more than six hours. As a result, the tour will be split in two halves, with an option for an all day trip becoming available later this summer. The tour will cost $75 per person.

The zipline was also scheduled to travel across the river into Fort Ancient State Park, but that route has been pushed back due to what Merhige attributed to as slow downs of various state government departments. Merhige was non-committal about whether the zipline would cross the river someday, saying only that the issue “would be revisited in the fall.”

Schroeder, a member of the Waynesville Chamber of Commerce, said she believed the zipline would be another attraction to bring tourists to the area.

County Commissioners Dave Young and Pat South were given the honor of being the first riders of the zipline.

“We take being Ohio’s largest playground very seriously,” Young said. “People have the choice to sit around or do something. The zipline is a great opportunity to do something right here in Warren County.”

South gushed over the ride when she was finished, claiming it was even better than a roller coaster.

“It was just fabulous,” South said. “I would recommend it to anyone.”