Ziplining Through the Redwoods

By Marcy Joyce
Wine Country Lifestyle / Spring 2016

Tour bus after tour bus pulls into the Sonoma Canopy Tours parking lot off of Bohemian Highway to unload enthusiastic passengers. One by one they climb out and line up at a desk in the alcove of a wooden hut-like building gripping travel brochures and “things to do” magazines. Off to the side, restrooms labeled “last chance for the next 2.5 hours” sit a few yards away.

Reservations are required for this forest zipline excursion, and behind the desk is receptionist Bailee Barr who has been expecting all who have shown up. Some have done this before—others are newbies. Once checked in, everyone is shuttled uphill in a covered pickup truck to the welcome center and zipline course. From here, guides familiarize everyone with their safety equipment, techniques and protocol before they soar a couple hundred feet in the air from one treetop to another at speeds of up to 25 mph and distances up to 800-feet.

Wine tasting enthusiasts take note: Sobriety is a requirement for this adventure. So plan to visit tasting rooms after your zipline adventure. It will give you something to talk about between pours.

“It’s scary enough to be fun but not too scary to be enjoyable,” explains Bailee, as she checks people in. “It’s a good way to get outdoors and experience something new.”

“It’s not often that you get to look down on redwoods,” said guide Moshe Zrihen, working with fellow guide Joey Ballard.

Breathtaking, panoramic views of not only fog-laced redwoods near and far await on this exhilarating eco-educational adventure but also madrones with red berries and peeling bark, douglas firs and bay laurels.

There are seven ziplines, two sky bridges, a ladder of wood steps spiraling around a tree and an 80-foot drop via rappel at the end of the course.

To get started, Moshe and Joey assist each person in the group with their helmets and seat and chest harnesses with metal clips, explaining that a rope at the to avoid crashing into the other tree.

The friction of the rope itself helps stop you, said Moshe. Guides also give break signals as one approaches the end of the zipline. Moshe goes across on the first run after reminding everyone what to do after reaching the other tree. Joey makes conversation with each adventurer before sending them off.

As a woman prepares to zip over the deep ravine, Joey asks her if she’s nervous. “I’m nervous,” she says.

“I believe you,” Joey humors, as he calmly and gently instructs her on how to position herself and hold on. As she glides forward, the zipline sounds like a car backing up in reverse.

To further put nervous first-timers at ease, Joey makes Tarzan and “Swiss family treehouse” references and later treats the group to a human beatbox performance.

One woman commented on feeling a sense of vertigo at first, but also excitement and anticipation. First-timers start to get the hang of it, no pun intended, after two or three times.

“This is what the birds see. This tree is moving a little bit. You can feel it,” said Beverly, a Rohnert Park resident who ziplined with Sonoma Canopy Tours previously when she invited a group of 14 people for her fiancé’s 50th birthday.

“And if you look over there,” Moshe points from atop a tree during the course, “you see the white tree of Gondor for Lord of the Rings fans. It’s a white tree with no brush on it. Over that ridge over there is the Bohemian Grove where the top .01 percent, the presidents, prime ministers, oil company owners, captains of industry meet and talk about where they want the world to go. Apparently every president since the 1920s. Some of us (guides) have seen helicopters drop people off. So that’s kind of cool.”

To ensure maximum safety, guides initially undergo a rigorous 40 hours of training by a third party followed by a written test and ongoing monthly training.

“Our guests appreciate that safety is top of mind,” said Marketing Director Debbie Klein. “For our liability and your safety, don’t touch the shiny stuff. The guides handle all of that. All you have to do is look around and enjoy.”

Sometimes people stop too soon and need to pull themselves to the ledge on the second tree using a hand-over-hand technique.

“She’s a lightweight,” says one zipliner about another.

“You should’ve had some In N’ Out before you came,” Moshe jokes.

Sonoma Canopy Tours opened in the summer of 2010 as part of Alliance Redwood Conference Grounds, which has been providing environmental education programs to public and private schools since the 1980s. Klein explains that business manager Bruce Wohlert was inspired after ziplining on a full, sold-out canopy tour in Puerto Vallarta.

“He said, ‘Well this is very popular and we have trees’,” Klein said. “And we’ve done very well,” she adds.

During “outdoor education” programs, fifth and sixth graders learn, among other things, that coastal redwoods only grow in certain places in the world.

Adults can likewise re-capture their childlike wonderment of experiencing nature as education on forest growth and the history of the area is similarly available to them.

That said, tours are customizable; the guides ascertain how much information people want while on course.

What Sonoma Canopy Tours adventurers see as they traverse is the second growth after the 1906 earthquake, according to Klein. The previous growth was used to rebuild damaged structures in San Francisco, she said.

Groups often make reservations for bachelor and wedding parties, retirement parties, milestone birthdays, corporate events and “just because.”

For corporate weekday team-building events (32 people maximum), meeting areas and lunch are provided. Groups are taken up every 20 minutes so people don’t have to wait too long to take their turn.

And then there are the “bucket listers.” Klein tells of Dorothea, a 92-year-old woman who ziplined at Sonoma Canopy Tours with two of her nieces who were in their 70s.

“The two nieces were scared to death, but Dorothea had the best time,” says Klein. “She was going to jump out of a plane the following year. This was a bit too tame for her.”

Wine tasting enthusiasts take note: Sobriety is a requirement for this adventure. So plan to visit tasting rooms after your zipline adventure. It will give you something to talk about between pours.

You can get your photo taken in mid-zip and helmet camera rentals are available for those wishing to capture the experience in a video and perhaps share with friends on Facebook.

Price varies depending on the day of the week and age of the person. Those over 59 receive a senior rate. Hours of operation also vary depending on the season although tours run rain or shine.

For more information, visit www.sonomacanopytours.com