Climbing on the railings of the Barca-Hall fort are (from left) Correll, Calen, Sage and Anya Barca-Hall, and their friend Brittany True-Blood, whose dad built the fort.

Habitat for Kids

Mountain youngsters call their retreats getaways, hangouts, clubhouses--even a place to hide from Mom

Story and Photographs by Grant Wernick

The Santa Cruz Mountains are known to be a great wildlife habitat. Driving on the winding roads that crisscross the mountains, one might glimpse deer or mountain lions, wild boar or raccoons and possums. Look up in the trees, and see piles of sticks and string providing housing for all manner of feathered creatures.

For those in the know--those who call the Santa Cruz Mountains home--it is also a well-known fact that, among the creatures inhabiting nests in the branches of the indigenous trees, are young mountain residents. Call these secret places mountain retreats, get-aways, hangouts or clubhouses. Call them forts.

The Santa Cruz Mountains are home to some world-class forts.

They're inhabited by youngsters from ages 4 to 21, boys and girls alike. Moms and dads are often welcome to visit their children in the forts. In fact, many parents helped design and build the forts. They range from the most simple platform to the most intricate tree cabin. The most elaborate are outfitted with carpets, tables and chairs; some even sport closets and balconies.


Tommy Bondi (left) plays on the second floor of the fort owned by his friends Chris Light (center) and Dan Light. Beneath the boys is their den where they retreat when the weather is bad.




Nine-year-old Dan Light and his 12-year-old brother, Chris, had a fort at their old house in Pennsylvania, so when they moved to the Santa Cruz Mountains they wanted to build another one. The two boys, with the help of their dad, Dave Light, chose to build the fort where the formation of the trees would allow them to have a platform. There is a den underneath so they could play in the fort even on rainy days.

The Light boys equipped their fort with two buckets on ropes to haul hammers, nails, toys and other necessities of fort life from one level to the other. Their fort is decorated with a pirate flag, a large bell and all sorts of little gadgets, including, most recently, film boxes.

Most youngsters like to create imaginary worlds around their forts. "I like pretending my fort is a boat and I go out sailing in the sea," Dan Light says.


Sam Dwyer looks through the trap door in his Swiss Family Robinson-style fort.




Other youngsters use their forts for more practical purposes. "My fort is a good hiding spot if my mom is looking for me to do chores," 10-year-old Sam Dwyer says.

His fort is suspended from the branches of a large pine tree. Sam and his father, Dan, built the fort two years ago in a Swiss Family Robinson-style, according to Dan's mother, Diane Dwyer.

Just like that family stranded on a tropical island, Sam and his father restricted themselves only to what was on hand on the land itself. They made no trips to the hardware store to build this fort. The platform is made from boards that were milled from a pine tree that blew down in a storm. Redwood beams, made from a few small trees in their yard, were used to support the platform.

The whole structure is latched on to the pine tree with rope, which gives it a rustic look and provides a gentler alternative to nailing it into the tree. On top of the structure is a canvas roof with a lookout perch in the middle. Sam says the lookout perch is his favorite part.

Robbie and Katie Wilson hang on to their favorite part of the fort, the cargo net.










Other youngsters report having favorite spots in their Santa Cruz Mountain forts. Eleven-year-old Katie Wilson says, "My favorite part of my fort is my cargo net. I sit, bounce and climb on it." The net has a practical purpose as well, she says. "The cargo net even saved my life once. I fell out of the trap door and instead of hitting the ground I tumbled down it."

Like the Dwyers, Katie's father, Bob Wilson, chose to protect the trees holding up the fort he built for his daughter and her brother, Robbie.

The Wilsons built their fort in a madrone tree about eight years ago, right in front of their house. The tree fort is connected to the tree with cable wrapped around the branches so the tree isn't harmed. The fort is made of wooden beams, planks and a fence for safety.

Wilson says he built the fort so his kids could have a place to play that they could call their own. The cargo net that helped break Katie's fall leads up to a trap door in the fort floor instead of a ladder. He decided it would be safer. Happily, it was also more fun for his kids, he says.

Sage Barca-Hall slides on the zipline that leads into the Barca-Hall's fort.










Another fort that was built with safety as a priority is the Barca-Halls' fort. It is embedded in a 300-year-old redwood and loaded with attractions: swings, rooms, ropes and a zip line. Connecting it all are wooden walkways, providing the children with plenty of room to romp.

"The coolest part of the fort is the zip line. It is like our bus to get in and out quickly," said 9-year-old Correll Barca-Hall.

Their fort was built on two ideas, a place that is safe for young children and one that will accommodate many children. Next-door neighbor Larry True-Blood built it two years ago.

Friends hanging like monkeys on Stefan Nunn's fort are (clockwise from left) Luke Rizzuto, Stefan Nunn, Jeremy Milman, Skip Penny, Casey Sargent and Brendan O'Neill.










Not all forts are built for young children, 18-year-old Stefan Nunn built his fort as a hangout when he was a freshman in high school. He found the tree for his fort while searching for a place to build a rope swing, he says. Stefan, along with his good friend Luke Rizzuto, built his fort as a place to hang out six years ago.

It was originally a bunch of boards put together with heaps of nails in a large oak tree, said Nunn. With the addition of an old goat shed that he tore-down and rebuilt in the tree, it has become a tree cabin. Now it has a metal roof, windows, two stories, a carpeted interior and a balcony. The fort is decorated with road signs and beer bottles making the fort a personalized hangout for him and his gang, he said.

"Having a fort is all about having a place you can call your own," said Nunn.

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