DAY 98

DAY 98
07.11.07
TREE 9

I wore pants today knowing the wood’s ground cover will be considerably thicker than my last visit. With a pretty sure idea of where this tree covered in vines was located I headed down the driveway towards the Mount St. Francis entrance, then off the path into the grassy field. Looking for a deer path to break into the thick forest edge I moved right, away from where I sensed the tree to be. In the shaded wood I followed the deer path I had found and watched for spider webs. I hit a couple but avoided most of the big ones. Slowly walking as my tree came into sight a deer jumped and ran away catching me off guard. Approaching this tree with the first climb under my belt, I took no time testing the first vine and just climbed up like on a rope, transferring to another vine and stepping onto the dead but sturdy first branch. Laughing at my previous fear and inability to go higher last time, I quickly started testing more vines to get higher. This was much slower and I became fearful fast. But I pushed upwards putting my faith in the wobbly vines and dead limbs. Up another few feet into more substantial branches where the trunk splits I easily inched further upwards and around. I climbed slightly higher still and eyed that very first vine that continued up higher to my position. I debated climbing it all the way down, but at about 30 feet up I saw disaster in more ways than one. So I reversed my steps, which was even scarier. Down the vines and dead branches I made it to the ground. Satisfied that a scary climb had become an even higher and scarier reclimb. Good stuff on an unbelievably beautiful day.

7-12-08:  Sorry for the missing blog day.  I didn’t go out of town or anything.  I think I just wanted the break from it. 

I don’t really have much to add to the entry above.  I trust few vines because they only get skinnier as you go up.  Then you realize that the vines aren’t even attached to the tree that well.  I do a rigid weight test on vines before I use them.  But these vines, I trusted.  They were sturdy.  And, depending on the type of tree, you can either really trust dead limbs, or not.  This particular tree had trustworthy dead limbs only because I had climbed it before and knew it held me.  But, for example, sycamore dead limbs are still incredibly strong where as tulip poplar dead limbs are to be avoided at all costs.

I went to Cherokee Park to climb after going to the library in the Mid-City Mall to get some graphic novels.  I happened to see Natalie on her way out to lunch so I joined her at the City Cafe.  Then, because it was such a nice day, I walked from there to the park.  Along the way I saw the Skyline sign and had to take a picture of it.

I thought it was funny, and I was happy to have the camera in my pocket.  When I was done climbed and walked back to my truck, there was a truck with a bucket fixing the lights behind the sign, so I got it just in time.

The tree in the park is a huge tulip poplar just off the main park loop.  I sat there at the base of the tree for a while catching up with Rachel.  We hung up and I did a spider crawl between the trunk of my poplar and the trunk of another, smaller poplar just next to it.  A spider walk or crawl is where you put your left hand and foot on one wall, and your right hand and foot on an opposite wall.  If you have seen Ninja Warrior on G4 you know what I am talking about.  Once I was high enough to reach the first branch, I grabbed it with both hands and swung underneath it.  I pulled myself up and on to my feet on another close limb and then began climbed up the nicely spaced limbs.  Nothing was too challenging.  It was quite a nice and steady climb up near to the top.  With all the pig poplar leaves It was hard for me to tell how high I was but I guess I was easily over 60 feet up.  I got a sturdy position to free both hands and then took some pictures. 

I climbed down about 20 feet and then stopped when I could see down to the ground and took another picture.