Ever heard of a Mega Tower? Ever think of how high it must for when someone standing on the top way high in the air? Think it is 80 feet tall or 100 feet tall. Nope, the tower isn’t even 150 feet. This tower is so tall, that a 5 foot scout is 1/12th the size. If math is not your strongest subject in school, the climbing tower equals 60 feet.

Hi there stranger, my name is Hank. I am here to talk about this climbing tower. It’s located near Birchwood, Wisconsin. On a land called Tomahawk. It’s 60 feet tall, about 15 feet wide at the base of each side, and at the top it’s about five feet wide on each side. It has a pretty green metal top on it to keep the Liquid Sun off you. Liquid Sun is what we call rain. On the very top, is a weather vane that looks like a rooster. The tower is made from wood poles and slats. The North side is always damp or wet all day, every day. The East, South, and West sides are always dry except when it rains. They’re always dry, because the sun dries it during the sunny days. Every week the tower gets at least 100 scouts climbing and rappelling.
When climbing, you use plastic hand holds. Each color hand hold is set for a certain trek. They are green, red, and blue. Each trek is harder than another or easier then the next. Once you start a trek and don’t like it, you can always change it. Sometimes, people start a trek and don’t like it and they try to change, but then they get stuck and it gets even harder to move up, down, left, or right on the tower without falling. If you can’t possibly move, then they just call to their belayer “falling.” And he/she replies “fall on.” This is to give a belayer the heads up that the climber is planning on letting go, of the tower, to retry getting up. It seems weird to say that before you fall, but it is a safety measure to make sure your belayer isn’t sleeping on the post.
When I was belaying for a scout he got to the very top, but he wasn’t going to climb over the edge on the top. Also he didn’t want to go up or come down. He decided to take a rest where he was. Since you can’t hear anything well on top of the tower, from the ground, I started to chant for him. After about a minute of chanting, some of his scout friends started chanting with me. Then after about three more minutes, he got enough courage to climb the last three feet. When he stood on the top, he looked over the edge and at the top of his lungs yelled, “I DID IT! I MADE IT TO THE TOP OF A MEGA TOWER!” I will never forget the expression on his face for a long time. His face was full of pride, courage, and self-accomplishment. And his eyes were so bright with joy, which a Coleman lantern couldn’t beat in lumens.
Every so often, there was a scout didn’t want to get to the top but the scouting spirit kept pushing their limits. Some would follow the spirit up, but others would push it away; climb down and go over to the pick-nick tables, and wallow in sadness. I remember when it was my first time climbing that tower. It was a nice day out, in the field, by the tower. I could feel the warmth of the sun on my back as I walked up to the tower. The smell of the buffalo farm, the freshly cut grass with the morning dew still on the blades, and the brand new golden yellow wood chips laid there no more than a few days. I walked to the tower and touched its cold, damp, wood planks, and thought “I am going to go all the way up, and I will have no fear.” Tim, Carl, Martin, Eli, and I started to put on our black harnesses, with the blue handle, and red gear loops. We put one leg in, like a pair of pants, then the other. We put on the red helmets, hooked the black strap under our chin, and we thought we were ready. The councilor came over and pulled on our harnesses. Along with tightening them till we couldn’t breathe as easily as before. Tim complained for five minutes on how it was too tight, and how he couldn’t move his legs. The other councilor told him, “If it is too loose you could slip out and fall. And nobody wants to have a broken bone; especially at camp.” That made Tim stop complaining, especially when he was climbing up he slipped, let out a little yelp, and when the rope finally stopped stretching he was really glad he didn’t loosen the harness.
One night, in the summer, a group of guys went out to the tower. Nobody knows how they got inside the tower to use the equipment that was locked inside. The night was dark because the moon was a new moon. It was about 70 degrees outside in the field. The wind was blowing softly to the north. The grass was drenched with dew. Finally the tower door opened, and a bunch of black harnesses came flying out. Everyone put on their equipment, and started walking up the stairs on the inside. Left... right... left... right all the way up the creaking wooden stairs. It was hard to see in there. The only light that was shining through the cracks in the wood planks was the lights from a nearby Welcome Center. Someone above me hit their head on one of the cross beams. We all let out a little chuckle of laughter. Finally, after a few minutes of stepping up the stairs, we emerged from the stairs to the top of the tower. I looked out and I could see the lights from Rice Lake, the bright stars in the sky, and Long Lake with a few boats cruising by. This was the most beautiful thing my eyes had ever seen.
The group of guys and I were standing on the top cracking jokes, and trying to outdo the others with our repelling skills. Of course, I was the biggest rookie because it was my first year. But I didn’t get the worst rappel on the night. One of the guys tried to free rappel, and fell about ten feet, before he slowed down to a stop. We all were laughing at his stupidness, but when he returned to the top we all became quiet because we thought he was angry, but then he started to join the laughing.
The Mega Tower is a gift, a safety risk, and a memory maker. Everyone who goes near it will feel the rush of feelings and adrenalin. Once you have been on the tower you have left your mark on it, just like it has left a mark on everyone who has worked on it or climbed it.