DAY 160

OOPS! I looked up which tree I was supposed to climb on my computer by just looking at the picture and not reading the journal entry. I saw a big beech tree and I thought, "oh yeah, that one by Hogan’s Fountain in Cherokee Park." So I grabbed my camera and got in my truck and drove all the way out there. I parked along the road by the fountain and then walked back along the street to where the sink hole marked by an orange cone sits right next this beech tree.

I looked up the large trunk to the tiny limb no bigger around then my middle finger that I planned to use as my first hold. And like it did the first time the strong little sucker barely bent.

That is why I love beech trees. Any branch, no matter alive, dead, big, small, will probably hold my weight. I still test them but more often than not I am surprised by the strength. I got past the first concentrated clump of branches and rotated half way around the trunk to continue higher. Then up a couple bigger limbs. I knew a tough spot where the trunk begins to split into branches where there is a lack of holds was coming. But I had surpassed it before, and without a doubt, I was going to do it again. I have yet to fail to reach my previous high points. Once there it took a little thought, but once I accomplished the pass I realized it was the same movements as that first time. Up towards the tops I found my first ribbon and climbed towards it. I pulled it down then transferred across four limbs to my second and higher ribbon.

Along the way I paused to take some pictures.


During the pause it hit me… I’m in the wrong tree! Or at least out of order. I had looked ahead a few days earlier and I realized my tree today was supposed to be at the Mount behind the water tower. And that is where the "oops" comes in. I just shrugged it off and planned to climb today’s tree tomorrow. Back to the climb….

At the second marker I climbed slightly higher then scanned for more transfers. Maybe even to another tree. But nothing. So I made my way down. Using gravity to aid meI was down quickly. But I didn’t feel incredibly thrilled about the climb. It was nice, a little challenging, but nothing spectacular. So I walked back over by the fountain and began jumping to different limbs on a different tree to test my grip. Then I came to this massive tree with huge overhanging branches on all sides.

I went up in one, cat crawled to the trunk, and went down another.




I wasn’t as high but it was new and unknown. Scary and exhillarating… I needed that. It totally improved my spirits which had been deflated now that my show I had been working so hard on was up and the opening over. Time to create new ideas.

9-12-08:  This entry was unique in that I climbed a completely separate and new tree and actually took pictures and wrote about it.  I would do that from time to time and climb a new tree just for fun but didn’t want to record the event.  But it was just such a good climb and the camera was already in my pocket so I did anyway.  

So yesterday I told you about selling watermelons with Norman.  Well afterwards we went to Robert and Cheyne’s place for some drinks.  MaryLiz and Drew showed up as well.  We hung out and then I had Drew wrap me in tape to make a new body.  But right before I did that, I needed to climb a tree.  I didn’t have my camera on me so I borrowed Cheyne’s camera.  It’s a little Fuji pocket sized camera.  I chose a holly tree in their front yard.  I am not sure what kind of holly it is because the trunk was huge and the branches very big and strong.  Most holly trees you see are no too tall and full of leaves.  I didn’t even know it was a holly tree until I was up a few branches and felt one of the leaves poke me.  But it was a great climb and I pushed past the pointy leaves to get to the top.  I got the camera out and adjusted the quality to a higher mega-pixel setting.  Then it told me it had no memory space left.  I was in the dark and didn’t know the camera’s buttons and fumbled through readjusting the mega-pixel setting back to low, and erasing a few pictures that I had taken just minutes before to get used to the camera.  By that point I had 3 images of space.  So I took them of the surrounding view.  But this camera had no long exposure settings so all the images turned out very dark.  And that was it.  A little disappointing but whatever, I was in a tree and it was a good one and a kind I had never climbed before.  I put the camera away and took a few moments to enjoy my spot.  Then I climbed back down and rejoined the group.  At some point I may receive the images I took and when I do I’ll post them to the entry.