DAY 52

DAY 52
05.26.07
TREE 58

I chose today’s tree from another time I was driving by my old high school and noticed a very nice tree out front. Since I was going to be there anyway, I stopped off and called a high school friend, Julio, who was very close by, to join me. While I waited for him to show I looked around at the surrounding trees. There were two that looked like amazing climbs but I couldn’t reach the first branches. Julio arrived, I discussed my options and he offered to give me a boost. So I took it and passed on climbing the original tree I saw for its ease. After two tries of boosting I got the first branch. From there, my daily climbing skills kicked in and it was nothing but higher, higher, higher. Again, like yesterday, this tree had beautiful camo-like bark. Very strong branches at good distances apart for a real secure and high climb. I believe Julio was impressed and thinks me a little crazy. But that’s fine. I don’t feel unsafe, I love it, and as much as I like to share climbing with others, I really feel and hope that people can find a similar activity that they love, like I love climbing trees.

5-27-08:  I hope Julio reads this entry because he was wondering when he was going to show up in it.  I am very excited that he is back in Louisville.  He just moved into the Henry Clay building downtown.  I helped him move in and he’s got a nice place.  He helps me into trees and I help lug his couches.  I also like the picture above because it has my truck and Julio’s car.  I am not sure what I like it, but, you know, our attachment to our vehicles can be strong… we identify with them.  Or, I guess I should say, they help us be identified as we drive down the road.  Especially my rusted, paint-peeling, old truck.  “Ol’ Blue” or “Big Blue” as my dad calls it. 

Also, I will refer to sycamore trees like this (camo-bark) until I learned what a sycamore is.  Which I think took me a while. 

Sunday’s climb was a bit of a disappointment.  I had been away from my parents’ place since Tuesday and instead of stopping to climb before I got home, I just wanted to go straight home.  A few hours later I went across the street to the development and found a tree that turned out to be a short climb.  I couldn’t get high and I’ll explain why in my video.  What was awesome was that it turned out to be a three tree climb.  I went up a little maple and bent it over to get into the big tree.  Then I went out a limb and then pulled over another small maple and climbed down.  That was a first for using a small tree to get down.  Luckily I didn’t just band all the way down, the tree leaned up against the big one preventing a fall.  I’ll share some pictures from the climb then the video: