DAY 105

DAY 105
07.18.07
TREE 16 & 18 (-17)

I woke up at 6 AM to get going on my way to Lake Michigan to have a few days vacation with the McChesney family. Around 6:30 I headed out back from the house towards the edge of the woods. There, waiting in the damp darkness of the morning, were three trees calling my name. I trudged through the woods wielding a stick to brush away the spider webs I couldn’t see. I made it to my trees, took a quick look, and began to climb up the first little crooked tree. Crawling up like a cat along the little limbs I made it to my transfer point. But tree #17 was quite wet and slippery. There was no way I could use it. I tried to reach for tree #18 but couldn’t, so I looked to climb higher in the tree I was on.Swinging underneath then back on top, I was higher and able to reach across the middle tree to the big branch of tree #18. Once transferred I continued up to my orange marker. I pulled it off along with a leaf and noticed how I couldn’t see out to the field anymore. Then I looked to climb higher. But with the damp slipperiness I chose against it. I climbed down the way I came skipping tree #17 again. Easily to the ground I thought this climb was nowhere near as scary as the first time. I felt very much in control and comfortable, plus I was never that far from the ground. I loved climbing in the early morning. Very peaceful and cool.

7-18-08: It’s funny how things become congruent in a year.  I am up early, at my parents, to get going early to West Virginia for a small family reunion-type weekend vacation.  I feel strange things like this keep happening like when my truck stopped working on the exact same day a year later (JUNE 30th, DAY 88).  I imagine similar coincidences happen to us all the time but most of us never remember what happened exactly a year ago today everyday of the year.  Keeping this journal has definitely helped keep details that I would have forgotten without it.

Sorry the first picture above is so dark.  It was really early.  And I think it’s funny how I wrote how much I enjoyed climbing early because that never happened again.  Maybe once at Norman’s, but I am not a morning person.  I guess that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it because I did, just not enough to repeat it.

Yesterday I got my stuff for the weekend and my dirty laundry and drove to my parent’s.  On the way I stopped at EP Tom Sawyer Park’s dog park to climb a tree.  I had seen this dog park across the street from the main park area, and happened to climb a large tree right by its entrance, but never went back in to check out the trees right around it.  The dog park looks nice (for Louisville) and there also seems to be a public garden, which is cool.  Though I don’t have a dog now, I did out west in Seattle and Portland and there are numerous dog parks  out there that are free and some quite large and expansive with multiple fields, wooded paths, and a creek running through it with steps for the dogs to go in for a swim.  After so many encounters with other dog owners going through the same conversation of what kind of dog we have I learned a lot about the different breeds and their temperaments.  I still see dogs today, can identify a lot of them and think some are better than others.  Which is strange because I am not much of a pet person and would have never had dogs were it not for Rachel.  Although, I value my time with Abbey bcause she (Rachel’s dog) is a well trained and behaved dog that I grew to love.  Whoa, I just talked a lot about dogs… it is too early for me to be typing this and stay on track… to the tree climb….

Right, so, I picked a maple and climbed it.  What more is there to say really?

No, ummm… but really, it had some spider webs which was annoying, but the branches were strong and held me.  That was good.  The breeze was nice at the top and I got some pictures.  To be honest it was pretty bland, still fun, but bland.  Not very challenging and nothing crazy happened.  There wasn’t even anyone at the dog park or the garden.  My truck was in the parking lot all alone.  I guess I should just be happy that I got very high in the tree.  Pictures: