Sonoma ropes course at risk of closure

Fate of popular youth climbing program gets wobbly as SDC days are numbered|

When the clock strikes midnight Dec. 31, the Sonoma Developmental Center will close after more than a century as home to the developmentally disabled and begin the transition to its next phase. And what that is, exactly, remains unclear – as state and county officials have yet to cement a plan for the future of the more than 1,600 acres of state-owned land at its Eldridge campus.

Caught in the complicated tangle of oscillating outcomes is a wide strip of forest where generations have gone to face down their fears.

The Challenge Sonoma Adventure Ropes Course has been operating at the top of Sonoma Mountain since 1984, funneling daredevils and ‘fraidy cats through its sylvan landscape. Composed of a series of stark physical challenges, the ropes course is especially beloved by local school children because, plainly, a day scaling redwoods and soaring across zip lines is empirically more memorable than a day of worksheets and pop quizzes.

Diana and Roger Rhoten run the ropes course together, with Diana playing general to Roger’s lieutenant. She greets a busload of kids with no-nonsense efficiency, rubber chickens dangling from both of her ears. She’s 73, but moves like someone decades younger, and assumes the intelligence of her audience in the blunt way she speaks.

Last week at the Rhotens’ ropes course, there were 18 kids from Healdsburg High School’s culinary program on site, their enthusiasm for the coming day toggling between joy and dread.

“How many of you are glad to be here? Show me a thumbs up for ‘excited,’ a sideways thumb for ‘meh,’ and a thumbs down for ‘wish I wasn’t,’” Diana said.

The group giggled and stuck out their thumbs, some moving back and forth between “meh” and “wish I wasn’t,” but mostly signaling excitement.

She ordered them into a circle and held up a ball. “We’re gonna throw this ball back and forth to each other, saying the name of the person we’re throwing to, and time ourselves to measure efficiency.” The kids tossed the ball, dropped the ball; they sighed and chided each other.

“Thirty-one seconds!” Diana shouted. “Not bad. But can anyone think of a way to speed up our time?”

The kids shifted their feet and side-eyed each other.

Finally, a girl in a black T-shirt spoke up. “Well, if we stood next to the person we threw it to originally, we could just pass the ball around the circle instead of throwing it.”

The second attempt was completed in 12 seconds. “Almost a 300 percent increase in productivity!” Diana said.

Helping people find the answers within is what the Rhotens’ ropes course is all about. It’s a mental challenge disguised as a physical one. The course encourages teamwork and pushes physical limits and when, accomplished, leaves participants feeling fearless and strong. The Rhotens have hosted community groups, personal growth groups and thousands of Valley kids in their 34 years.

“Our target group is at-risk kids,” Diana Rhoten said. “They’re really what our mission’s about.”

Creekside High School, the alternative school located on the edge of Sonoma Valley High School, has been a particular target of the Rhotens’ enthusiasm. The school is invited up twice a year, with the course fees waived completely.

“It’s great to watch students try something outside of their comfort zone and use that same attitude back in the classroom,” said Shireen Ellis, who teaches history at Creekside.

After the Healdsburg High kids finished their warm-up and stepped into harnesses, the staffers checked and re-checked buckles and belts. The group marched from the plateau down to the forest, where redwood giants were clustered in shade. Leaning against one was an extension ladder, and where it ran out, giant staples extended. Where those ended, some 60 feet up, a narrow platform was perched. A single tension wire ran from tree one to tree two.

One of the girls was first to go up, with her harness belayed to a course employee below. She gamely inched her way across the tightrope, lunging for the heavy ropes that dangled at intervals, her legs as shaky as a newborn colt’s. On the second tree’s platform she was unclipped and re-clipped.

“Static off!” Diana yelled. “Belay on!”

The communication between staffers is call and response, a time-tested way to confirm correspondence. Sixty feet in the air with other people’s children, there’s no other way to be than “safety first.”

A student who’d given a “meh” signal in the warm up climbed three quarters of the way up the tree and froze.

“How ya feelin’?” Roger shouted from below.

“Scared!” she said.

“It’s OK to be scared. Work with the fear,” Roger said.

Her classmates clustered below and shouted encouragement, but eventually the young woman turned back.

“It’s OK,” Roger said. “Nobody is going to be made to do anything they don’t feel emotionally, physically or mentally safe to do. It’s all about choice.”

Challenge Sonoma Adventure Ropes Course hosts an average of 100 groups every year. Most are local school children, because giving kids the opportunity to test their mettle has been the mission of Diana and Roger Rhotens’ lives.

On Jan. 1, that may come to an end. The winding road used to access the ropes course is secured at its base with a locked gate, and the Rhotens are unsure if, on the morning of Jan. 1, 2019, the code they’ve used to open it for years will still work.

“We provide a great community service and we’d like to continue because we feel it’s beneficial,” Roger said. “But you go to these meetings (on the fate of SDC’s 700 acres) and nobody has any concrete answers. Why is there not more clarity on what’s happening here? Why is it such a big mystery still?”

It’s not just the Rhotens who feel left in the dark. Spokespeople from Supervisor Susan Gorin’s office, the Sonoma Land Trust, and the SDC/Eldridge Committee of the Glen Ellen Forum community group all referenced the continuing state of official ambivalence.

“We know the last day for staff is Nov. 9, and then SDC moves into a sort of amorphous, warm shut down mode,” said John McCall of Sonoma Land Trust. “We have not seen any kind of statement about how SDC is operating post-closure.”

In the void left by the lack of reliable information from the state, rumors and guesses have thrived. Some fear the whole area will be fenced off and locked, while the state of California considers its options. Others believe the entire parcel could be sold to the highest bidder, developers who can certainly find ways to monetize 700 premium acres in wine country. There has been conjecture that the state will transfer SDC to Sonoma County without any financial commitment, an offer Tracy Salcedo of the Glen Ellen Forum described as “unworkable” in a letter to constituents.

“Some emails have come around about what the state is saying now, and how they’re not listening to what the community wants,” Diana said.

A call to the state Department of General Services, which is overseeing the SDC closure, was not returned by press time.

The Rhotens would like to see their redwood glen protected, attached to the adjacent lands of Jack London State Historic Park. And they’d like to keep the ropes course intact, so future generations will have a place to practice being brave.

“It’s a labor of love,” Diana said. “This place is no money-maker. But what happens to people here is sort of profound. Seeing them do things they thought they couldn’t do is really satisfying.”

She looked around at the kids scrambling across tension wires and scaling tall trees. “The worst day I’ve ever had here was a good day.”

Contact Kate at kate.williams@sonomanews.com

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