If I may be so bold as to offer one piece of advice for first-time zip-liners, it would be this: you really do need to thrust your legs straight out in front of you. Pretend you're a kid on a swing set. My wife had trouble with that. It didn't end well.

The fact is there are few opportunities in life more thrilling than to skim down an aerial death slide, trees whipping past your face at Endor-bike-chase velocities, only to land on a tree branch three stories off the ground. That's where the tightrope crossing begins, but guess what? You're already tuckered from the rock wall that got you up into this mess in the first place.

For decades, Northwest Trek was a peaceful, idyllic place, justly adored for its in-your-face encounters with a rich parade of animal and plant life. Make no mistake: there are still moments when it feels as if Bambi and Thumper might be frolicking right around the next turn. But even as the park continues to entertain and educate families about Pacific Northwest biospheres, it also runs thrill-seekers and fitness buffs through their paces. I can speak to the exhausting charms of its Adventure Course, having completed that by the skin of my teeth a few years ago. (Actually, it wasn't my teeth, as I found an unconventional method of traversing the tightrope. I'll do you the favor of sparing you that gruesome visual.) Shortly thereafter, Trek added its Sensation Course, which makes my achievement look like a slow game of hopscotch.

Imagine you're on a tiny platform, surrounded by lush fir trees three stories off the ground. A gaggle of adventurers piles up behind you as you question your sanity. The only way to go forward is to execute a "Jane swing," a near-suicidal maneuver that requires you to clutch a rope, leap off your platform into empty atmosphere, execute a 40-foot aerial arc like freaking George of the Jungle, grab a net, then claw your way hand over hand to relative safety. Except that only takes you to the slackened tightrope (even harder than the obstacle I crossed on my keister - sorry, I promised not to say that), followed by something called a Tyrolean zip line. Apparently, that means the line won't carry you all the way across the gap, so you'll have to pull yourself up the rest of the way. My biceps are crying already. And did I mention that at one point you'll be zip-lining from a point 80 feet off the ground? Amazingly, I was unable to find any evidence that completing this course earns you a S.H.I.E.L.D. superhero call sign.

And yes, there are hundreds of adorable animals. The walking tour alone introduces park perambulators to a lynx, a red fox, beavers, otters, raptors, badgers, wolverines, and Ursus arctos horribilis, the quarter-ton American grizzly (oh, my!). Then there's the tram tour, which follows a verdant track through 435 acres of free-range magnificence. Look sharp, and you'll probably meet the park's new moose calves, each of which weigh as much as a full-grown male grizzly. Both were rescue animals, orphaned but nursed to health by park experts.

It's sunny and warm out in Eatonville, so you may want to hold off till September. That's when the Roosevelt elk are in "rut," so their bugling can be heard throughout the park.

You know ... like your screams on that Sensation Course zip line. Enjoy!

NORTHWEST TREK, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9:30-5 p.m. weekends, 11610 Trek Drive E., Eatonville, $8.25-$19.75, NWTrek.org, 360.832.6117