Zip Line Dream, 11/25/15
I was on a weekend outing walking around with some visiting friends and relatives. We were in a hilly neighborhood with lots of trees on the fringe of a large city, possibly Los Angeles. We encountered an acquaintance of mine who was carrying some kind of climbing gear and he said that he was in transit to a place several miles away to do some kind of recreational activity. He quickly explained that there was a huge network of zip lines which people had strung from tree to tree throughout the area in the suburban greenbelts and that one could cover a lot of ground fairly quickly by stringing together a series of climbs and zips, sometimes with short walks between. The lines were arranged so that coming back along the same route was easily accomplished. Not quick enough to use for commuting but a fun way to get around. People would routinely travel the network to explore and get some exercise, perhaps converge on a point to have lunch with friends and so forth. It was all managed cooperatively and voluntarily. Then he was scaling a nearby tree, hooking in to a line, a zipping off.
We followed the trail down into a park-like vale and enjoyed the views and got separated a bit. I realized that my companions had headed up out of the bowl by another trail and I hurried to catch up to them, scrambling up a steep hillside, pulling myself forward/up using sturdy brush where available. Focusing on handholds and foot placement I found myself a hundred feet or so up a tree. There were a number of others nearby including a guy who was assisting people hooking in to the zip line strung from the tree. I said "Oops" and contemplated climbing back down; no big deal but I'd be climbing down through a stream of people climbing up. The guide said "Don't worry, man." And yelled down that he needed 'carriers' for a couple of 'climbers'. I then noticed another guy who was nearby who also lacked any of the requisite gear. Shortly a very fit young lady in her late 20's was there and they were handing me a harness, clipping it to her rig, getting us ready to zip down the line. I mentioned that if I had my rock climbing harness I could just rappel down but they were non-plussed. She was pretty quiet, whether shy or taciturn or introverted or just bored rescuing another middle-aged dude was a mystery; seemed to have a German accent.
We had a quick a zip down the line, not especially thrilling, and I saw that we were at a major node of the network with many people zipping in and climbing different trees to zip off in various directions. There was even a decent sized shack that was a station of sorts with a separate lounge for the guides. My brother was there, having somehow gotten word that I'd be arriving by zip line. I thanked the girl and asked what people typically paid for the assistance she'd provided and she mumbled "Twenty to sixty dollars." She didn't really seem to care about being compensated. I looked in my wallet and found, to my surprise, that I only had Euros. I offered her a fifty and she made a face so I said I knew I had some dollars stashed in my pack and started rummaging around.
I found some folded twenties but when I looked up from my pack she was gone. Apparently she'd gone into the guides' lounge. I put a couple of twenties into an empty Altoids tin along with a business card from the hang gliding school at home. She was very attractive but my main motivation was to give something back to a similar spirit. My brother had meanwhile done a nice sketch on a small scrap of paper of the station, trees, people, and zip lines. I wrote a note on the drawing thanking the girl and saying she should try a tandem flight some time. Writing the note was difficult - my pen kept skipping and there wasn't much clear space to write in. Peeked in the door of the lounge and there was no sign of her. Didn't want to leave cash just laying around. Mike said he knew people who knew her and we ought to get going to rejoin the others. I left some tandem hang gliding brochures on the table in the station.
Back at the parking lot we ran into her again and I handed her the drawing and the Altoids tin saying "That's not mints."