Zip lining and more adventure in Lake Geneva
A decade ago, a portion of the 100 acres off County Road H where the Lake Geneva Canopy Tours & Outdoor Adventure Center is now located was a former gravel quarry, scraped bare.
The other, larger section was a game preserve, filled with tall trees on rolling terrain. The two pieces of the property couldn’t have been more different.
But where some might have seen a scar on the land, Mike Goirl and Lee Tenzer saw potential for a thrilling zip-line attraction. It took time, imagination and more than a little engineering, but the pair built an eight zip-line route, which opened seven years ago.
The route features five sky bridges, three spiral stairways and a “floating” stairway — all mostly through the trees. If that weren’t enough, there’s also a challenging high ropes course that was added several years later.
“There was a lot of erosion control and a lot of cleanup to be done to get this place ready,” said spokesman Seth Elder. “But now the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources uses us as an example of how something like a piece of mine property can be repurposed into a fun and exciting destination that’s environmentally sound.”
The last section of the aerial route is made for dual racing and sails over the old quarry, which is now covered in grass and shaped like a tilted bowl.
Zip liners on parallel lines launch themselves off a 75-foot-tall tower and can get up to 40 miles per hour before they reach the lower tower at the bottom of the hill.
My two youngest kids and I were looking for some excitement on a recent chilly Saturday morning during a visit to Lake Geneva when an employee at the Lake Lawn Resort recommended the canopy tour and high ropes course.
We had arrived the night before and challenged our brains at the Lake Geneva Clue Room, where we tried (and failed) to put together the numerical puzzles that would have allowed us to escape from the space where we were temporarily trapped. We did, however, solve two-thirds of the “Cold War Clash” riddles in the 60 minutes given us.
The next morning, over French toast and chocolate chip pancakes, we plotted out the day’s adventure.
By 9 a.m., we were at the canopy zip-line course, getting directions from guide Colin Lagerhausen and stepping into the beefy climbing harnesses and strapping on helmets. Safety, Lagerhausen told us, was the top concern.
“But we want you to have fun, too, and there’ll be plenty of that,” his fellow guide and second cousin “Sparkle” Lagerhausen said.
After a short ATV ride, we arrived at what the pair called the ground school, where we traveled a short distance on a cable that was just a few feet above the ground. Before our first “flight,” Colin and Sparkle showed us how to position our bodies and use our heavily gloved hands to brake as we approached the end of each line.
Then, after a short climb to a wooden platform, we took off on the Butterfly zip line, which is 110 feet long and had us braking on a somewhat mellow route.
Next came the Honey Bee, which was faster and 225 feet long.
“You start lower and slower to get a feel for what this activity is all about,” Elder said. “Then you go to Espresso. It got that name because it’s 375 feet long, is faster and it wakes you up a bit.”
Then we were on to the Turkey Run, which Sparkle told us was named after the birds that once were raised on the former game reserve.
“There’s still plenty of them around here, too,” she said. “We may well hear and see some of them today.”
One of coolest parts of the adventure wasn’t a zip line but a hanging, doublehelix stairway that wound up and around a big ash tree.
It was only connected via cables at the top and it circled and moved slightly as we climbed nearly 80 feet to its top.
Then came the Beast, which is more than 840 feet long and had us soaring over a green valley.
Last but not least in the forest was the Ahhhs line, which we did before crossing over another sky bridge.
Then we emerged from the trees and climbed the tower at the top of the quarry for the 1,200-foot-long parallel racing line.
After lunch, it was back into the climbing harnesses.
We met guides Fil Mendoza-Vock and Rick Jackley, who led us to the high ropes course where we had to use our best balancing skills to stay upright as we crossed from platform to platform on wobbly horizontal ladder-like contraptions, vertical cargo nets and suspended logs.
Mendoza-Vock darted over the course like a water bug, while we struggled. Fortunately, our harnesses were connected to overhanging cables by webbing and carabiners to catch us when we slipped and fell.
Later that afternoon, over delicious deep-dish pizza at Gino’s East on the water in Lake Geneva, we reviewed our adventure as a heavy rain fell outside.
While the zip line relied on gravity and was easy to master, the ropes course required balance, agility and experience, which we were, for the most part, lacking. Just another reason to return another day.
But our Lake Geneva outing wasn’t quite over. That evening, before driving back to Madison, we stopped at the 51-seat Tristan Crist Magic Theatre, where we saw Crist perform a number of mind-boggling tricks, including one in which he appeared to cut an assistant in half. More information:
Lake Geneva Canopy Tours cost $99.99 for adults and $89.99 for kids ages 7-15. Participants must weigh between 70 and 250 pounds. The price for the high ropes excursion is $55 per person.
The Clue Room rates are $29 per person. Admission to the Tristan Crist Magic Theatre is $29-$35 through May 31. Starting June 1, all seats are $35. For ideas on other things to see and do in and around Lake Geneva, see visitlakegeneva.com.
Getting there: Lake Geneva is 50 miles southwest of Milwaukee via I-43 and U.S. 12.