| What: Climb a redwood Where: Northern California Height: 100 feet Time: 3 hours |
When you were a kid, did you enjoy climbing trees and basking in their shade? Of course you did! Embrace your inner tree hugger. Reconnect with trees in two stages. Climb to the top and then zip around the canopy. In Northern California, consider legally climbing a giant redwood.
| Note: While you can no longer legally climb redwoods in Arcata, Tree Climbing Planet offers climbs in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Remember, it is illegal to climb a redwood in national and state parks. TCP offers the only safe way to climb redwoods without damaging these endangered old-growth lifeforms. |
Redwood Park | Gearing up | Climbing a Redwood | Grasping at Branches | Appreciating a Tree’s Perspective | Zipping Around the Canopy
Redwood Park
While driving my electric Kool-Aid green car playing the Grateful Dead, I spot a psychedelic school bus in the lot. Along the fringes of the redwood grove in the very center of Arcata, some guys are dance-sparring using capoeira techniques. Kids are skateboarding, and a girl with a ponytail in a pink shirt and bell bottoms is hula hooping. The central green lawn at the clearing of Redwood Park is a festival of amusements. Old guys are sitting inside giant tree stumps. Kids are balancing on a slack line. A girl in a white dress walks across the hill. And a circle of flower children in earth tones are grooving as a guy strums a guitar.
Gearing up
I march into the redwood grove wearing a harness and tangerine helmet. I attach a rope to my harness and look up at the tree named “Trinidad.” Young Trinidad is only a hundred years old and already about a hundred feet tall. The guide assures me that redwood bark is tough – 6 to 18 inches thick – and resistant to fire.
Climbing a Redwood
I grab the first hold and raise myself off the ground. Soon my limbs are all sprawled out. I have perched both my feet and both my hands are hanging on. The first forty feet go by pretty quickly. Tree climbing is similar to rock climbing; you must plan your next move like a puzzle.
After a while, my arms start to feel like jelly and I realize how high up I am. My body begins to tremble a bit and my nerves are fraying like bell bottom jeans. I take a break and grab my camera. With a shaky hand, I take photos above and below and desperately try not to drop it.
Grasping at Branches
After hanging out on the lower platform, it’s time to climb to the top. I swap in another rope to my harness. The platform is just below the lowest branch. The branches are thicker than a baseball bat so you can’t just wrap your hands around them. They are not that close together, so some stretching is also involved. I have a finger hold and somehow wiggle my arm until I can grip the branch next to my armpit.
You must step as close as you can to the trunk so the branch does not snap. I weave in and out of the limbs to reach the next branch. At times, I give the tree a full body hug, with my corduroy pants velcroed to the bark.
About 10 feet from the crown, the rope ends and I am sitting on a branch, reflecting on the climb. From this vantage point, I can see Arcata below and the faint outline of Humboldt Bay shimmering through the leaves.
A Tree’s Perspective
At 100 feet, I appreciate young Trinidad’s perspective of the surrounding redwood canopy. When the hill was bare, and there was no town below, how did it feel to become a giant? Trinidad must have wanted more and craved an ocean view from higher angles. The young redwood wanted to taste the moist fog, bask in the sunlight, and enjoy the temperate coastal breezes.
Trinidad is still growing, yet is still relatively a shrimp. This redwood’s siblings in ancient groves further up the North Coast are touching the stratosphere at almost 400 feet high. The trees in the ancient grove are gargantuan, strong, and hardy. They have been around for thousands of years. As the first human civilizations formed, their redwood empire had already conquered most of the continent. OK, it’s probably a good time to head back down to earth. Once I connect my harness back to the rope anchored to the top platform, I rappel back to the ground.
As I walk across Redwood Park, I value the insights passed down through the ages. Like for the hippies of yesteryear, the doors of perception have been briefly held open for me. Like the amazing redwood, we remain rooted to lessons from the past, embrace present moments, and reach for the skies.
Zipping around the Canopy
After you climb a redwood, back on solid ground, you are now ready for some ziplining. The instructor goes over the basics when you are at each platform:
- Clip the first lobster claw.
- Clip the second lobster claw.
- Clip the keeper line to the pulley.
- Clip the carabiner to the pulley once it’s on the cable and lock it.
- Check that the carabiner is locked.
- Check again that the carabiner is locked.
- Remove the keeper line from the pulley.
- Announce that you are ready to zip.
There is a circuit of cables connecting the three trees: Trinidad, Arcata, and Eureka. From the top platform of Trinidad, you zip south to Arcata. You transfer the pulley to the next cable and zip further south to Eureka. One last transfer and you zip back to the bottom platform of Trinidad.
I complete two zipline circuits. The first one is after climbing to the top platform and the second after climbing back down from the crown.
P.S. Logging old-growth redwood timber was another gold rush in California. A hundred years ago, loggers cut down coastal redwoods (including Arcata’s Redwood Park), leaving just 5% of the original forest. Red gold fueled the rapid growth of LA back in the day. Since then, environmental groups have replanted redwoods to begin reviving the grove. We all need to find the correct balance for protecting the redwoods.
Check out the following resources about how you can help our redwoods.
