DAY 198
10.19.07
TREE 121
With the leaves finally ( and quickly) turning to the beautiful warm fall colors I wanted to climb a tree at the Mount. I am lucky that I am still here and can do so easily. I walked passed the labyrinth through the woods. I wanted a tall tree so I could get some good pictures of the colorful expanses of the sanctuary. But in the dense woods the trees are tall, but low branches are few. I tried climbing up a young tree and bending it to a large one, but that didn’t work. Just beyond that was the tree I climbed. Its leaves still mostly green with little bits of deep red on a few.
This climb was a good challenge with lots of hard reaches and tricky passages. It is always difficult to have only one branch to hold onto, lift myself up with, get on top of, and then go up further. It takes a lot of particular holds and good balance. Sometimes lots of trunk hugging.
I pushed up to the top on thin limbs. The wind gusted occasionally tossing me a bit. It made me nervous but I’ve come to expect the movement and to trust that the small limbs can handle my weight.
Unfortunately this tree did not provide a good view of the expanses. Just what was nearby. And not too many colorful leaves.
But at least I climbed in daylight. That really felt good. I then realized I had forgotten ribbon again and carved shallow notches on a branch. Then I climbed down letting gravity make those difficult reaches and tricky passages easier.
It’s really starting to look like fall, though it’s still warm.
10-19-08: This fall, the 2008 fall, has been very similar to last years. The warm weather has lasted and the leaves are turning later. But now they are really starting to change, and fall, quickly. I was looking forward to this, but as I bike down the road and the cool air gets under my shirt collar I think… damn, I could go back to warm weather (I’m not ready). I guess I’ll just have to start layering. As any biker knows, no matter how cold it gets, after biking a while, you just get hot. But I just equipted my bike with fenders and lights, and I’ve pulled out the rain coat, gloves, and face mask so I am ready for the worst.
I went to my parents yesterday to switch vehicles with my dad for my coming trip to Ohio for my opening. I also did some laundry and got some more of my things to make my new house feel more like home. In the late afternoon I went outside to see what my dad was up to. I helped him fix the fence which was damaged by the fallen trees in the Ike storm. Then I went and climbed two trees just in the corner of the property by the back the house.
I climbed up the little one and leaned my back against the larger one when I rested momentarily as I readjusted my holds.
I reached the first limb of the smaller tree and reached my foot back to stand on the first limb of the larger tree. As I stood there and looked for a path higher up my dad told me of a guy he saw on TV. He had a bottle of brandy up in a tree and drank the whole bottle. He was rip-roaring drunk and the cops came to tell him to get down. He threw the empty bottle at them and they said he was under arrest and to climb down. The drunk man refused and told them cops to come get him. Then, for unknown reasons, he began to climb down (possibly because he had to pee) and slipped and fell a long way down. This story made him think of me. Nice.
After the story I went back to the smaller tree and climbed up a little higher then transferred back to the larger tree on a long branch.
If you look close at the branch in the picture above you see some seed like things. That is an old pile of animal poo. Not sure what kind but probably raccoon.
I climbed past the poo and situated myself on a nice branch to take some pictures.
I shifted my focus upward to take some more shots of the changing poplar leaves.
Then I heard a little scratching noise. I looked up and spotted a squirrel with a nut in his mouth.
He tried to sit still and act like invisible. But I just stared at him and wasn’t trying to be still or silent myself. I guess I loosened him up because he just started to turn and face me. We watched each other for a while.
Look at that nut in his mouth. It wasn’t long after that last picture that he just took off down the trunk and jumped to another tree. It was a nice interaction while it lasted.
I climbed back to the smaller tree when I was all done shooting and enjoying the sunshine. I slid down the trunk of the rough hackberry to the ground satisfied with this climb. I’ve had some duds lately so it was nice to have a good experience.
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