After 11 years, the Hopcott family has the art of corn-maze making down to a science. The process is so precise, in fact, that it now only takes eight hours to groom their 17-acre plot in Pitt Meadows into a modern-day labyrinth of stalks and leaves, attracting adventure-seekers from all over the Lower Mainland. Just don't expect maze manager Brad Hopcott to know how many stalks that equals.
"Too many to count," says Hopcott on a sweltering day this week.
To get things just perfect, the Hopcotts enlist the services of an American who specializes in carving out these giant puzzles based on client sketches, using GPS, a roto tiller and a tractor.
The result is two different mazes every year, with average solution times ranging from an hour to two hours per maze.
Note the word "average."
Hopcott's brother, Travis, remembers a woman who must have set the unofficial slowest time ever to complete the challenge.
"It took her over four hours."
In addition to the mazes, wee ones can cozy up to the petting zoo while for those young at heart wanting to throw an office gig at the maze, there are "cornporate" rooms that come with barbecue pits.
Personally, I want to take on the maze at night, armed with glowsticks and flashlights, which is totally an option, too. The glowsticks aside, that's not corny at all.
Check out meadowsmaze.com for more.
