Zipline!

A local ranch (part of which is one of our favorite vineyards/wineries) installed a series of ziplines earlier this year. I've wanted to ride it ever since I first saw their ads. So, as a belated birthday gift (I was at CW Seminars on the actual day) DH reserved spaces for us yesterday.

Here's an overview of the terrain we would fly over. If you click to enlarge, you can see a double cable running from the left edge of the picture off to a rectangular "landing zone" on a far hillside. The total length of this segment was 1,300 ft. The other 3 were each from 600 to 800 ft long.The distance from the line to the ground was up to 100 ft.

And a view looking straight down the cables:

Here we are all suited up in helmets and harnesses and gloves:

That's me coming in for the landing at the end of the first run. I had trouble keeping myself facing forward, so it looks as if I'm going away from the camera, but I'm actually moving toward it.

The next segment goes right through a grove of oaks - we were warned not to reach out too far! Here's DH, who was wearing a "superman" style harness for this run. Instead of being suspended from a loop at the front of your waist, the superman harness has the loop at the back, so you fly like Superman.

And here he is coming in for his landing - click to enlarge, since he's in the shade and difficult to see against the background.

That's one of the guides in the white cap, and another flyer in the red helmet. The guides did a great job of making sure everyone was safe and feeling comfortable with the adventure. Plus, they gave us a tour of parts of the ranch not normally open to the public.

Lots of fun! It was a small group; just us and another couple with their 80-year-old mom, who thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

The entire property (originally a Spanish land grant) is some 14,000 acres, or just a little smaller than Manhattan Island. The town of Santa Margarita sits in the middle of the ranch on the railway line that one of the early owners granted land to, because he wanted the the railway to come through his property so that he didn't have to herd his cattle miles and miles to load them up to transport to the big cities for sale. And the railway stop meant jobs, around which the town formed. However, the town can never outgrow its current boundaries, since it's completely surrounded by the ranch.