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MULTIMEDIA Video:  A-maze-ing! Take a trip to Zach’s farm

There’s something about a corn maze that brings out the kid in you — no matter how old you are. Just ask maze creators Chris Colby, 40, and John Zacharias, 58, owner of Zach’s Farm, who together have created a 15-acre maze on his bucolic 221-acre York, Maine, farm.

“When you’re done you stand back and go, ‘Cool, look at what we did,” said Colby, who has refined his design technique in this, the pair’s third year creating the maze. “I’m out here cutting every Saturday and Sunday from the last week in July to Labor day with nothing but a ‘bushhog’ mower, a gas can, a wrench and water.”

The mower resembles a big push snowblower, said Colby, with sharp blades for teeth.

Making the whole thing possible, if not at least a whole lot easier, is the fact the cornfield is planted in a scientific grid layout so that, once it’s grown six feet or so high, Zacharias and Colby can use nothing more than a 300-foot-long nylon string to mark their paths as the bushhog mower wreaks havoc creating the trails. It also helps that they have a friend who flies them over the field in a “1936 double-winged tail-dragger” airplane to take photos of the maze once they’ve cut a good swath through it.

Each year the maze incorporates a local media or corporate sponsor’s name or logo into the design. Last year it was a shark in honor of The Shark, the classic rock radio station in Hampton. This year it’s an arrow heading toward a bull’s-eye paying homage to the Kittery Trading Post, which lets them put up a marketing booth at the store to entice customers to the maze.

Meeting up with Colby and Zacharias early one morning last week, you can’t help but be infected by their excitement at showing off their creation. The two old friends joke and rib each other about all the work that went into the project, and how far their efforts have come.

“Once we get the aerial shot then we set about trimming it up and that makes all the difference,” said Colby, as he and Zacharias led us through the maze.

Kids and adults alike will want to walk and run their way through the maze in different spurts. Walking at a normal gait will take the average adult about 45 minutes to complete the maze, said Zacharias, noting they hand out “cheat sheets” to everyone in case they get lost inside. Folks are also encouraged to bring a picnic lunch and refreshments, if they like.

“I love it out here because I get to ride a tractor like I’m still a little kid,” Colby said with a laugh and a howl.

The maze is open Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays through Oct. 12, from 12 to 6 p.m. Admission is $7 each, and free to children under 3. Group rates are available for weekdays only. For directions and information, go online at www.zachscornmaze.com, or call (603) 205-1456.

Michael Keating is managing editor/ features at Seacoast Media Group