Allison Montroy
amontroy@mustangdaily.net
There it stood before me: 1,300 feet of wire, the “Renegade,” 200 feet above the valley ground and the only way to the other side. Harness tightened, helmet buckled, gloves on, carabiner clipped and locked.
“Front clipped, back is black, safety is on and you’re secure in your harness,” my guide, Graham, ran through his checklist. “You are free to fly.”
Step, step, and I soared down the first, the biggest, baddest and longest zip line at Santa Margarita Ranch Adventures.
Forty seconds later, wind-blown and giddy with laughter, I slammed back to steady ground — ground that has been a part of Santa Margarita Ranch since before California was a state and Santa Margarita was a city.
The 14,000 acre ranch, founded in 1774 as part of the road to Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, is roughly the size of Manhattan and can fit 163 Disneylands on the land, Graham Chilton, my zip line guide, said. Chilton noted one difference: while Manhattan has a population of 1.6 million, Santa Margarita Ranch boasts a population of six.
Santa Margarita Ranch is instead populated with cows. It’s one of California’s oldest working cattle ranches, complete with acres of 17 different grape variety vineyards, a plethora of wildlife and four canopy zip lines, Chilton said.
Chilton said the zip lines have been up and working for the past two years, but before opening to the public, the first zip line was a simple “line for family only.”
Santa Margarita Ranch’s four current zip lines (now featuring extensive safety measures) boast vertigo-inducing heights and views of the massive ranch.
After conquering “Renegade” this past weekend, we continued on to the 800-foot “Woodlander,” the 500-foot “Hilltopper,” and, finally, the 800-foot “Archway” — a line that stretches right under an arched canopy of oak trees before descending next to one of the ranch’s presently harvesting vineyards.
Chilton said while most people prefer the first zip line, he thinks the second and fourth lines are his favorites. I agree. While soaring high over fields of golden grass and scattered oaks was a beautiful sight, zipping right amongst the treetops was a rare experience only possible harnessed onto a cable wire.
By January, a fifth zip line will be implemented into the tour, Chilton said, and will measure 1,800 feet, completing the “canopy zip line tour” over the ranch’s vineyards.
Liberal studies senior Shannon Garner, who is also a zip line tour guide, said doing the zip line tour “is a really great way to experience the Central Coast in a way (you) never have before.”
Garner called the ranch a beautiful working environment.
“I love meeting all the new first-timers,” Garner said. “We have some brave ones who try the ‘superman’ harness, and some people are just crazy.”
Zip line guide Bronson Nicolas named a few unconventional ways that brave zip liners can travel down the line.
“You can jump off (the ledge), do back flips or even front flips,” Nicolas said.
At a cost of $99, it may seem the Santa Margarita Adventure tour is out of a student’s price range. However, Garner said the tours offer a 10 percent discount for students, and he called the tour “a really fun date idea.”
The tour also offers more than just zip lines. The guides also drive participants on a behind-the-scenes tour of the vineyards and ranch land encircling the small town of Santa Margarita.
Just to name a few, the land is home to eight bears, a few mountain lions, bobcats, more deer than can be counted, hawks, two golden eagles and two bald eagles, Chilton said.
During our tour of the land, we also were welcomed by a herd of grazing cattle and a family of goats. Aside from the fact that we were bouncing around in a big white van, it felt like a step back into time. The land looked the way I imagine all of San Luis Obispo County looked in the nineteenth century: wild, open and teeming with life.
The ranch is currently owned by three families, Doug and Kathy Filipponi, Rob Rossi and Karl Wittstrom, who all acquired the land between 1999 and 2001 from the Roberts family, a ranch family in Texas, according to owner Karl Wittstrom.
Even with such new owners, the Santa Margarita Ranch embraces a longstanding tradition of hard work and preserved ecological diversity, Wittstrom said.
“It’s a part of California you can’t see from highway 101,” Wittstrom said. “That stretch of land is the most beautiful in California. And as time goes by, you begin to realize that you don’t really own the land, but you just get to be involved with it for a short period of time.”
Wittstrom said the zip lines create tourism that helps the sustainability of the ranch land.
“Everybody who owned the land before are dead — but the land has been there 150 million years,” Wittstrom said. “Sharing the ranch with people is something that I personally enjoy, and I think that all of us are embracing that kind of philosophy.”
The zip lines are also a way for visitors to experience the ranch’s outdoor element without too much physical work, Wittstrom said, noting that for some, it takes a lot of emotional work to jump off the ledge.
“I was the second one down (the zip line) and I still go down two times a week,” Wittstrom said. “My favorite part, though, is standing at the top watching someone conquering their fears. People are afraid of it but they’re still wanting to do it, and then they do it and they get to celebrate … It’s exhilarating.”
Wittstrom said many out-of-state visitors who go zip lining and wine tasting on the ranch admit “they’re taken away by the beauty and ecological diversity of the area.”
“There are over 200 wineries in Paso Robles,” Wittstrom said. “What makes (ours) special? The ranch makes it special.”
At the end of a long two and a half hours on that ranch, I crossed the street to Santa Margarita Ranch’s Ancient Peaks Winery for some of my own well-deserved wine tasting.
The first wine on the list was a familiar name. “Renegade,” the name of the first zip line and of a red varietal that Ancient Peaks calls an “intensely flavored blend that pushes the envelope and resists conformity, adding an adventurous twist to our family of wines.”
I take a sip. Yes, I can taste the adventure of “Renegade” — all 1,300 feet of it.
Wine after zip line?
With handpicked grapes, the Oyster Ridge wine is perhaps the “baby” of the Ancient Peaks winemakers, tasting room lead Amanda Taber said. The name is derived from the vines’ location — an ancient oyster fossil bed on the ranch land.
A fault line runs through the area, pushing tectonic plates together and, consequently, pushing the ancient oyster fossils from what once was a sea floor up into the soil. This causes the soil to be high in calcium, causing the vines to stress and push their roots deeper.
“The most prestigious wine areas in the world are high in calcium,” Taber said.
The complexity and intricacy of the red blend and special treatment in the cellar places it on Ancient Peaks’ limited edition “White Label” collection.
Ranch owner Karl Wittstrom said while Oyster Ridge is typically a cabernet, “it’s a little bit different each year. It’s an expression of the best of that year, and the best varietals of the year.”
“The wine is an expression of place,” Wittstrom said. “What the wine is to you and what the wine is to me is a part of the experience of the wine. When you taste it, it’s never going to be the same. When you see the place, you come away with an appreciation of the wine, you think of the Oyster Ridge place, and the people who made that wine.”
Oyster Ridge is available in the Ancient Peaks’ tasting room for $50 a bottle, and 20 percent off for zip line participants.