A Reporter and Her Child Navigate a Minnesota Rite of Passage: A Ropes Course

Ziplining is fun when the sun is out, but when a 10 year old is plunging into darkness, it can be quite rattling.

My daughter started the ropes course at Wolf Ridge with ease, but was fully panicked by the time she got to the finale, a zipline. Christa Lawler/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS

By Christa Lawler From Star Tribune

FINLAND, MINN.—My 10-year-old daughter was stuck on a tower 30 feet in the air, crying and shaking. She had already conquered a series of ropes course obstacles, growing shakier and weepier with each skootch across thin wires and tiptoe over rounded logs.