DAY 162
09.13.07
TREE 76
I headed into Louisville to Cherokee Park to reclimb my tree. Last time I met up with Will and we played frisbee and monkeyed under a bridge. Today I was by myself and as I drove to the park I tried to think of who I could call to come join me but could think of no one. And really, I had to go to my parent’s afterward for dinner so I figured it best on my own. I guess I’ve just been feeling a little lonely lately. So I drove into the park and parked my truck on the side of the S-shaped road that goes right to Frisbee Field. I walked back up the hill towards the entrance I had just came in trying to brainstorm how I could make this climb interesting or exciting. I picked it last time because it was easy and my arms were tired. But Will challenged me to climb without the use of one leg, which I did to a point. This time I didn’t want to do the same thing. I really didn’t want to do anything like that. One thing I did remember about the tree was its numerous and wide branches. 
When I got to the trunk I decided to try to make as many rotations around the tree at as many different heights as I could. I pulled myself up in the first branch and moved from branch to branch trying for smooth movement. Pretty soon I had made it all the way around to my starting point, so I climbed a little higher. At one point, I held a branch with my left hand and lifted both legs to drop them to another limb putting all my weight on that hand. A sharp point in the bark dug into the palm just below my index finger. And my hand started to slide. The pain was apparent but I couldn’t react. I had to keep my grip till I was on the next limb. When I was, I took my hand off and saw the skin had gathered and folded in one spot. I ripped the loose skin off and the blood began to pool. I kept moving around the branches and I was leaving my blood mark everywhere I went. Finally I could no longer go around the tree so I went up to my ribbon by transferring across the high limbs, bending each over to the next. 
I took the ribbon down and took some pictures but the tree isn’t that high and with all the leaves it was hard to see out. 
I got slightly higher then began my climb down. Almost to the lowest branch I saw a man and his German Shepherd watching me. He approached and told me he saw something moving in the tree. He asked what I was doing and assumed I was a student. He then proceeded to tell me about the tornado of ’74 and how it took down 2000 trees in Cherokee Park. 
Kind of a strange but nice man.
9-13-08: That tornado picture above is from the National Weather Services Louisville image archives. They believe it to be a picture of THE April 3rd, 1974 tornado. It almost looks fake. There is no real documentation about the photo, they just found it and speculate its origin. We may never know….
I remember that guy went on quite a while how all these huge trees were down all over the park and how people were just driving up with chain saws and taking the wood for themselves. Lawlessness… a form of looting nature, you could say. The most beautiful old wood, he said. As if he still ached at his awful decision to not get some for himself.
Speaking of people with dogs spotting me… last night I climbed a ginkgo tree in a small off leash dog area just off Baxter Ave. I was going to Flanagan’s with Charlotte and Leigh Ann and spotted the tree after we got out of the car. They went on and I went up. It was just on the edge of a chain link fence so I used that to get to the first limb. As I began a couple was walking by on the sidewalk. This girl with bright blond hair saw me and just stared. I looked straight back at her and said, "how’s it going?" Nothing. She just continued to stare till I was out of her sight. I realize it may be weird but at least say hi back.
Anyway… I was moving through this ginkgo tree and noticed all these light green balls. 
They are actually the seeds making this the female kind. Ginkgo biloba trees actually do have male and female types and the female and not preferred since once these seeds fall to the ground a chemical inside comes out and smells like rancid butter or feces (thanks Wikipedia). Also, a very interesting fact: it is considered a living fossil since this kind of tree has been around since the Jurassic period. You’ll never see other leaves like ginkgo leaves. There one of my favorite. So, I continued up this tree to the top. The climb went fine but the branches, even the big ones are bendy so I had to test them to be sure they would hold my weight. I crouched at the top and tried to steady myself for pictures. 
Then I sat a little while checking out the some seeds. At first I thought they were more like fruit and would be soft. But they are actually pretty hard. I am glad I didn’t try to break one open and get the stinky stuff all over me. That would have been bad. Satisfied, I began to climb down and was almost to the bottom when I woman and her dog entered the park. She stood just below the tree and waited. I did not want to frighten her, nor freak her out or creep her out so I waited silently hoping she would leave soon. Then another guy showed up with another dog. I was not in the mood to wait around all night, I wanted to rejoin my friends, so I started to get to the point where creeping them out was just something I would have to do. If they did say something I could always just explain my project… hopefully they’d understand. Luckily, just as I was about to move, the woman left and the guy was on the other side of the off leash area. I took the opportunity and silently slinked down the rest of the branches to the fence, dropped in the other side so as to avoid any interaction with dogs, and walked out to the sidewalk. No problem… I don’t even think he noticed me. I’m so stealthy. It made for a good ending to the climb.