Each week the Free Press profiles a local business that has used the services of The Business Incubator Center, a nonprofit organization that provides entrepreneurial assistance to new and expanding businesses in Mesa County.

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Imagine a bridge across the sky connected from tree to tree.

A Grand Junction-based company called Bonsai Design, builds custom “canopy tours” around the country — a concept first developed in Costa Rica in 1992.

Being 150 feet high amongst the Redwoods is a breathtaking experience, said Thaddeus Shrader, chief operating officer of the company that designs and installs various adventure education courses. The tree-based canopy tours is the company's specialty.

Wearing a harness attached to a zip cable via a trolley, clients step off of a platform built high in the trees and zip from tree to tree.

“It's a tour of a forest canopy,” said Sarah Shrader, chief financial officer, and sister of the company's founder 36-year-old John Walker. “It's a trail in the sky.”

Installations also includes “sky bridges” where people (still harnessed) walk across a bridge that's connected to the zipline cable.

The course can also include a ground hike, and sometimes a rappel down to another platform, said Katherine Sams of Bonsai Design. Each course is custom-designed according to the client and the environment.

The original purpose of sky bridges were for scientists to study the forests' canopies and then someone came up with the idea of offering rides for the thrill of it, said Thaddeus Shrader.

Walker began designing adventure challenge courses in the 1990s.

While a University of Colorado student Walker spent summers living out of his van, building challenge courses for kids camps in northern Michigan.

In 2003, Walker formed Bonsai Design. The company has built nine courses in five years in Alaska, California, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Michigan, Ohio and Texas.

Three new courses are planned for this winter in Ohio, Georgia and North Carolina.

The company's West Virginia canopy tour was showcased in the August issue of “Popular Mechanics.”

“We call that one the jewel of the east,” Thaddeus Shrader said.

Every ecosystem and every tree, is different, thus each course is unique.

“We get out there and we listen to the forest and have it nudge us one way or another,” Thaddeus Shrader said. “It evolves into its own custom installation.”

Generally it takes two to three-and-a-half months to install a course.

“There's an enormous artistic component,” and an effort to “snuggle and almost hide” the cables in the natural environment.”

After giving people the thrill of the zip, guides slow things down by bringing participants to the sky bridge where the guides talk about the ecosystem.

Participants are interacting directly and learning what it takes to keep the forest alive, Thaddeus Shrader said.

Generally two guides accompany eight participants at a time.

The company is based in Grand Junction because Walker's sister Sarah lives here. Five years ago Walker needed help with his business that was beginning to boom. Sarah's husband Thaddeus, retired as an airline captain to be Bonsai's chief operating officer.

The company has continued to grow. To help with its latest growth spurt, the Shraders contacted the Business Incubator Center, a nonprofit organization that assists new and expanding Mesa County businesses.

The business organized a “company summit” of its 15 to 20 employees to figure out how they could overlap crews, and work on more than one project at a time. Incubator Executive Director Chris Reddin facilitated the meeting.

“Chris Reddin was invaluable in taking all of the creative ideas on the table and creating a well-designed structure to use as a company growth tool,” said Thaddeus Shrader.

“She really helped us get organized,” Sarah Shrader said.

Reach Sharon Sullivan at ssullivan@gjfreepress.com.