DAY 256
12.16.07
TREE 180
I got up really late this morning. It was a bit of a struggle because of the headache from the drinking. I kept going in and out of sleep thinking and dreaming about the party last night. What happened? Did I remember everything. Then while laying there on Will’s couch I remembered that today was the day to decorate the Christmas tree at home. Then Will talked about the movie I Am Legend with Will Smith. I wanted to see that. So I called my parents and told them we were going to the matinee. We went to Baxter and I scarfed down 3 cheese Coney dogs in the few minutes before we had to go in. Then after the movie, back to the Will’s to get my stuff and go. I needed to climb but I realized I was going to miss the sunlight, and it was getting cold… really cold and windy too. Where was I going to go? I decided I’d go to a tree in Tom Sawyer Park by the parking lot I’d seen before. It is easy and on the way home. I got there and the sky right at the horizon was a brilliant compacted rainbow with the red dominant.
A car at the other end was idling with its lights on and an obvious bar of lights on the roof. I walked on the path as if to enter into the park and when that car was behind the tree in my line of sight I changed directions and walked to the trunk. I examined for an entry but all limbs were just too high. Except one, further out from the trunk. I walked out, grabbed a hold and tested its strength. I knew immediately it would be strong enough but it was covered in little poking twigs. Another one of these oaks. Shingle oaks I think.
But my hands are tough and I just ignored it as I went hand over hand, body dangling. I turned 180 degrees to face the tree and then stabilized my body with the insides of my feet on the trunk. Then I reached up for the next branch. Once in the tree the climb wasn’t that bad except for my hands. The bitter cold wind made them sting in pain. It did not diminish my grip but it did make me compulsively stick my hands in my sleeves. So I kept wrapping my arms around limbs rather than grabbing them with my hands. Only a few times really, since towards the top I had to do a lot of pulling up to get to my high point.
By this time the colors of the sunset had compacted even further darkening the rest of the sky.
I tied my ribbon with much hand pain. It’s the worst it’s been so far for this project. My body was warm from the climb, and that usually helps, but not his time. It actually made me feel that it was a little dangerous to climb in this weather. Only for a second though. Then I looked around me and took in my beautiful view.
I took pictures then quickly got to my climb down. At the bottom limb I went out a foot or two then dropped. I walked quickly back to my truck to get to dinner and the tree decorating. Once home the tree had already been done. Oh well.
12-18-08: Another strange one year coincidence. This would have been much more apparent had I been up to date on the blogging. The entry above was from 12-16-07. On 12-16-08, just this last Tuesday, I went for a bike ride and got a little hungry. Guess where Istopped in and ate? That’s right, Skyline. And I had some cheese Coney dogs. Now, that isn’t that remarkable since that is all I ever order there, but I had not typed or read the above entry when I went. Maybe you were thinking I read it and got in the mood. That was not the case. I think that is crazy. Why do these coincidences keep occurring? What does it mean? What kind of subconscious cycles do we exist in but never realize? I think the calendar cycles affect and control us more than we ever know. Start keeping a daily journal then go back and read them exactly a year later. Let me know what you find. Someone else do it for the lunar cycle. This could be interesting.
Norman and I got up Monday morning to some serious down pour and decided to skip the day of work. I went home to start catching up on this here blog. I got a call from Josh, a guy I met at parkour a while back. We recently discovered that we live two blocks from each other. Anyway, he called to ask a question about finding salvaged building materials but the conversation turned to my tree climbing. He showed interest so I asked him to join me for a bike ride and tree climb and he agreed. I suited up and headed to his place. The first plan was to go to the River Walk Trail and find something off the trail. But first I had to stop at Glass Works and drop something off for MaryLiz. We ended up talking to a few different people we knew in the lobby and time slipped by. When it was finally time to go riding Josh, showing concern for his cold hands, low gear mountain bike, and late afternoon hour, asked if we could go somewhere closer to home. It couldn’t have been a better suggestion.
We biked back towards Butchertown and found a group of very massive trees just off River Road near Frankfort Avenue and the boat store.
We hopped off our bikes and crossed the railroad tracks into the woods. We first eyed a large oak which I tried climbing but ended up breaking a key first branch rendering the tree unclimbable.
I looked over to this huge sycamore and suggested we check it out.
The trunk a the base is about 3 feet or more in diameter. The first branches were also quite high but there was a small hackberry tree growing very close that crossed one of the branches.
I climbed up and transferred into the sycamore. Josh was soon to follow behind. As I searched for my next move I realized that I had no options. Josh told me to jump to a limb just out of my reach. Jumping is not something I do in trees. I said if I were as tall as he was I could easily reach it. I tried some different things to close the gap but I was just shy by less than an inch. Josh eventually sat on the limb I was standing on. He leaned back against the trunk and told me to use his shoulder as a step.
I put pressure on it to see if he could handle it and he could. I stepped, reached and it was an easy grasp. From there I continued higher as the branches got progressively smaller and closer together. The next difficult move required me to hang from a branch, inch up a foot, then hook my foot over and rotate my body on top of it. When Josh reached the same branch he chose not to use that technique but to use his height to hook his leg over it. I sometimes wonder how many more trees I could climb, or higher heights I could reach I was a little taller. I do all right for myself I guess. I work with what I got.
Just a few branches higher from there the trunk splits off into a few major limbs curling in all directions.
I got in between them all
and looked for which one I might take out to the end, but all had few or no substantial limbs to aide in the climb.
So I stayed put and got out my camera to take pictures of Josh following up below me,
the tracks and boat shop,
the river,
the old red brick house strangely fenced in a field of new development,
and, of course, a view of downtown.
Josh took a seat and seemed to really enjoy the accomplishment of the difficult challenge and the view it rewarded.
I thanked him because I could not have reached this height without his help.
We hung out just a few minutes at the top before our hands just got too cold touching the smooth sycamore bark.
We started to climb down and I helped him to figure out some tough spots and he helped my by being my step ladder once again. He transferred back into the hackberry and made to the ground and I followed right after him. He said he felt changed and closer to something, to nature. That he felt good and that he was glad to join me for the climb. Happy to share and to see someone else feel the same way I do about climbing. I told him that that feeling is why I do it everyday.
One last strange thing. When we biked to the tree it was sleeting. When we got into the woods and climbed it had stopped. The second we walked out of the woods and got back on our bikes it started to sleet again.