DAY 234

DAY 234
11.24.07
TREE 158

I dropped my brother off at the Cincinnati airport this afternoon.  I came prepared to climb because I thought I might on the way back.  But, instead, I worried about gas.  I was supposed to fill up at a Marathon station because my parents have a card that gives them a rebate.  Well, I drove mile after mile looking for one as the gauge got lower and lower.  Finally, I just got too paranoid I was going to run out of gas on this cold, grey day.  I pulled off at Carrollton and filled up at a Kroger gas station.  Relief from stress.  Good thing I did when I did too because my mom thinks the gas light is broken.  Just like the damn truck.  I was lucky.  After that the music was better, the weather was nicer, and I was now willing to entertain the thought of climbing carefree.  But no opportunities seemed to arise.  I made it all the way back to Buckner and decided to venture behind the Oldham County high school.  Not a whole lot there either.  I parked by the tennis courts beyond the football field. 

There was a stream nearby, or creek really, with some surrounding trees.  First I approached a bunch of sycamores but they were too young and small.  Another tree caught my eye.  I hopped the creek and found my entry into the tree. 

Not too difficult at all.  Branches were low, some dead, but enough strong ones to make it up almost to the top.  There were some dried out vines that got in my way but I just busted through them. 

I tied the ribbon then shot some pictures. 

Nothing very interesting except maybe a parking lot full of school buses [top of entry].  Then I noticed something strange… no leaves. 

Not one on this entire tree.  What do I collect?  I hadn’t thought of this.  I guess I take nothing.  And to be honest, it impeded my tree identification.  I am just getting started and leaves were my best shot at guessing.  Winter climbing may prove to be a lot like the beginning of this project where I didn’t know what trees were what.  Oh well, back to the climb.  I climbed down, uneventful.  I got mud on my feet and nothing else interesting to report.  It’s hard to compare to yesterday’s tree. 

11-25-08:  How is mud on my shoes even interesting?  It’s not.  Man, I can’t wait to get to the reclimb of this tree.  That will be one good entry.  You guys just wait.  You’ll love it.  February I think.  Yeah, it’ll be a while.

I ended up staying at my parents again on Saturday night.  We stayed up playing cards so I didn’t feel like driving back late.  Plus my mom enticed me with a good breakfast in the morning.  So Sunday morning I had that nice breakfast then hung out with my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew till they left.  Then I got my stuff together (a new down comforter, THANKS MOM & DAD!) and left to go home.  I got back and my throat started to get a little soar.  Sometime this happens and I thought it might fade away.  I put away my laundry then patched my bike tire.  Then I thought I would walk to the Good Folk Festival at the Mellwood Art Center.  I had to walk because I still don’t have a bike pump.  I left and looked for trees on the way but didn’t find anything good by the time I got there.  I went in and saw Michelle, Patrick, and some other people I knew.  It was pretty interesting but my throat was getting worse.  I finally decided to leave but instead of walking home I thought I’d walk to BW3’s to meet Julio and Mike who were watching the Redskins game.  I pretty much just wanted an excuse to go a different way to find a decent tree.  I was making my slow progress down Payne Street when I saw the billboard by the Distillery Commons. 

There’s a line of magnolias behind the billboard that are nice and tall and full of branches.  It was the perfect tree.  I picked my tree which had two trunks and then picked the side I wanted to climb. 

I jumped for the first branch then started to climb up the tree.  Climbing a magnolia is like climbing in the summer.  The tree was full of green leaves and it was hard to see out. 

Plus the huge billboard blocked the light from the street lamps and made it quite dark.   As I got higher and above the level of the top of the billboard I could see there was more than leaves in this tree.  There were a few large pieces of roof shingles. 

I got as high as I could which was pretty much the top. 

I could just barely see over the roof of the Distillery Commons to see a few of the downtown buildings. 

I tried my best to get a picture of the Payne/Lexington intersection but struggled to keep still. 

I took a few pictures with flash and got some interesting shots. 

Then I climbed down taking a few more shots along the way. 

This tree had plenty of limbs and it was a pretty easy tree but my throat was getting worse and worse.  I finished walking to BW3’s and was there with enough time to see the last 15 minutes of the game.  When we were leaving I asked if Mike would drive me home.  I was not feeling good and didn’t need the cold exposure.  At least I got a good climb in.  The rest of the night I felt awful and could barely swallow.  I hate being sick.