DAY 26

DAY 26
04.30.07
TREE 30 & 31

What a climb to end on my first month here! I explored more of the Sanctuary for about 3 hours on a hot afternoon. On the edge of a clearing was a tree with a big windy branch that twisted low to the ground right over the path. I cat crawled up to the split trunk. Caught between the split trunk was a branch of another tree. I peaked around and saw the first branch of a nice tall tree. The tree I was on was a dead end (literally) so to make myself feel better from yesterday I made the transfer and climbed and climbed and climbed till I got to the top of the tree. I swayed in the wind and relaxed feeling very satisfied. I was way up there. A very good climb. I was going to count my body lengths as I climbed down, but in my concentration to not fall I forgot. I’d kinda like to know. Next time I climb it I’ll measure with a string.

4-30-08:  The first picture focuses on that windy branch low to the ground.  When I climbed back down and returned to that limb I went down in a strange way.  I went sliding down on my stomach head first.  I’ve done this other times as well.  I figure if I start to slip I would be in the perfect position to quickly wrap my arms and legs around and squeeze. 

The second picture was my attempt to capture both trees from a distance.  They are the skinny ones in the dead center.  The leaf is from the second tree, a beech tree.  Though time has turned the leaf slightly brown it still retains a little of the light green of a new spring leaf. 

This climb really did make up for the previous few days’ failures.  It was my highest climb to date which is why I was so interesting in finding the actual height.  Stay tuned for the measurement. 

Yesterday I tried a multi-tree transfer.  I called the video 5treetransfer4-29 but after watching the video, I think there are six trees involved.  Just to help you as you watch this video (which is a little long) the first tree had a few thorns on the trunk.  That is why I pause and look at my hand.  It ended up bleeding.  On the second to last tree, where I slowly climb up to try to reach for the last tree, my arms were getting so worn out by this point that I was nervous my grip would give out.  It’s a battle between hurrying so I won’t fatigue, but rushing the transfer and having to climb higher ,then reaching over and over which wears out my arms even more.  You”ll see: