Archery Tag hits the wildlands of Huntsville

Huntsville has another exciting activity to add to your list of outdoor adventures! Find Your Wild is adding to its already impressive list of activities with a wild new challenge that will excite participants young and old. It’s archery tag with some twists. 

Archery tag is a relatively new recreational sport that has caught on in a big way in Canada’s urban centres. It involves the use of protective facemasks, bows, and foam-tipped arrows. While it is normally played indoors, Find Your Wild offers all of its programs on 70 acres of rolling forested terrain at its base at 83 Morgans Road, off Highway 60, just past Hidden Valley. 

So what’s the twist you ask? Actually, there are many. For starters, while urban ‘tag’ is played in a small industrial gymnasium, Find Your Wild has a wide variety of outdoor archery zones where differing terrain and a range of vegetation offer new challenges with each game. 

In urban tag, participants hide behind artificial barriers while attempting to score points by hitting their opponents. In ‘Wild Tag’, participants hide behind logs and large trees, crawl through ferns, dash through open meadows, and crash through dense conifers—all in attempts to reach their goals. Each game has a different goal. 

In ‘Capture the Gnome’ for instance, your team goal is to set your gnome free while attempting to keep the gnome that you have kidnapped from being freed by your evil opponents. Lives lost are regained by your team medic, who is off-limits for being shot. So those who aren’t as fearless can still have a role to play. In ‘Storm the Castle’ it’s the last team with members left unhit that wins, as you work your way uphill to breach your opponent’s castle walls. You’ll have to book to find out how ‘Bird Brains’ and other games are run. Check out their website www.findyourwild.ca to see pictures and videos of the action. 

All sessions start with a half-hour archery lesson on an archery range with field tipped (pointy) arrows and a qualified archery instructor. From there, you practice with game bows and foam-tipped arrows before the challenges begin. Participants aged 12 and older are welcome. Groups of eight to 20 participants can book by emailing the owner/operator ‘Hondo’ at [email protected] or calling 705-380-4479.