DAY 96
07.09.07
TREE 7 (+2)Again Rachel joins me as I show her more of the Mount St. Francis grounds. We head towards the entrance and branch off again on the deer paths to find my fallen tree. We hop the old rusted fence, fight the constant webs that plague our path, and find the orange mark. We hop up onto the trunk, start at the base and head horizontally upwards. There are no leaves on this dead, fallen tree but more spiders and webs than last climb. Up into the bouncy branches I grab my mark. Then I notice another fallen tree that these branches I’m on are leaning on. Roughly at a 45-degree angle, it leans on a live tree. I crawl upward using the overlapping branches as foot holds, stretch out and reach the live branch. I pull myself up and into the live tree. A step higher and I watch Rachel approach determined to follow. I watch the cars race along 150 then assist verbally in Rachel’s ascension. She makes it like a champ and we enjoy the accomplishment. Adding two trees to the climb is always a plus. Then I climb down past her, back onto the fallen limbs and jump to the floor. Rachel has a little trouble getting down and gets a little stuck. I get underneath her ready to break her fall just in case. I worry about her getting hurt ’cause it would be my fault and I know I would take on that blame. But she made it fine. A very good climber. A very good reclimb.
7-9-08: I love those long composite pictures. I am not quite sure the last little image on the far right of the first picture is accurate, but it’s close. I was trying to get the dead limbs leaning on the live tree. The photo two above here does a better job of that. I was very happy to have such a vast improvement on the first climb and really excited Rachel did it without getting hurt. I remember I kept telling her she didn’t have to follow me, but she gets really competitive and wasn’t about to quit on me. I also remember her getting to the ground and saying something about how rewarding these climbs were for her. They were so physically challenging and scary, it was like overcoming an immense obstacle. Good times.Now I am finally up to date and ready to talk about yesteday’s climb. I was in Burlington, NC helping Father Paul move. We had just driven 9 hours from Louisville and had started at 6AM. The night before Norman helped me make two tape bodies by wrapping me then him. His cousin, Gus, came to help too. I didn’t get to bed till 12:30 and was exhausted all day. Paul assumed I wanted to take a nap after the drive, but I knew that if I did it would only make me feel more groggy so I was set to check out the park just across the street. I changed clothes and then went out into the hot, muggy North Carolina day. I took my time in picking a tree because I really wanted a challenge or a really tall tree. I found both in this massive oak tree that was just off the street. The branches were way too high to reach, none overhung low enough to monkey in, and the trunk was way too huge to shimmy up. But there was a split in the trunk:
It started that split about 7 feet from the ground. I wanted to get up into those large limbs so bad I was determined to find a way into that split. I studied and attempted to get up there for 15 minutes without success. I tried all these different handholds on the bumps in the trunk but it was not holding my footholds. I could get my fingers in the split but not much more. Finally, I had a decent foothold and was able to get more of my hand in the split. I flexed the hand to keep it stuck as I struggled to raise my feet for my other hand to get in there. I basically was using my arm like a rope. It was stuck and completely straight as I scrambled nervously to get some other part of me secure. Slowly I got a little high and reached my left arm over and got a hold in the split. With a semi-secure foothold I attempted to pull my stuck arm out but it wouldn’t budge. I relaxed my arm muscled but I had wedged it in with all my weight. I started to panic, but I had no way out of this but to wriggle it out. I rocked and twisted my forearm till it finally worked its way loose, and just when it did I realized it was still my strongest hold and I almost fell backward. Both arms were so fatigued at this point that I don’t know how I pulled myself the few inches higher to get one foot wedged in the split. Once I did get to where I was not worried about falling I felt my arm which was red and indented with bark marks. The muscles were hard from the exertion but I wanted to get climbing to I wiggled my way up the split to the branches and fought through spider webs till I was to my feet. I shook off the fatigue and began the movements from branch to branch hoping to get very high. But I hit a stopping spot where I saw an option but in my tired state I was not willing to take the risk. So I took some pics and a video and then climbed back down to the split. I took a few more pictures and then tried to figure out exactly how I was going to reverse the process since I knew my arms couldn’t take that shit again. I slid down to the bottom of the split and then positioned myself facing out. I looked down at the ground and the many surface roots that fanned out below. I wanted to find a clear spot for a good roll. I was high up but all that parkour training has trained me for these large drops. I made sure my feet and hands were free from spots where they might get caught and then I went for it. I hit the mulch, did a quick roll and went right back to my feet with a great sense of relief and accomplishment. That was damn exciting and well worth the minor cuts and swelling I got on my arm. It was a new method of climbing that worked, but I may never do again.
This picture gives you an idea of the size. With that car behind it, you can see how big around that trunk is.
