DAY 340
03.09.08
TREE 169
When I looked to see what tree was next in line to climb I was a bit surprised. It is the tree about a mile or so north on 393 from my parents’ house. The first time I climbed it was a revelation in technique. It was the first time I successfully utilized trunk shimmying… like a koala. It was difficult going up, but worked. Then going down, it was like sliding down a big pole. Fast, easy, and efficient. It changed how I climb trees from that day forward and increased the amount of trees I considered possible. For such a huge advancement like that, I guess I just assumed it would come up later in the order. Yet, there it was in my journal and it was time to reclimb it. I was excited.
So when I had my shoes on and camera ready I went outside and just started running. I ran down the edge of 393 the entire way to the tree.
The bright sun in the clear sky was making quick work of depleting the accumulated snow.
Water trickled fast down the rocks by the base of the tree. I was hot and took off my two hooded sweatshirts. Then I climbed up onto the rocks and leaned against the trunk resting and catching my breath. Then I turned and faced the tree. I wrapped my arms around it, jumped and wrapped my legs. Then, as I have often described since the first time I climbed this tree, I walked my hands up, then brought my knees up. As I approached the split in the trunk I could feel a cold wetness from the snow melting down the back. I shimmied up just past the split then hooked my foot into its crotch. I rotated around and was on my feet. From there the climb was easy. Just limb to limb up to my ribbon.
I stood at the top of this tree and smiled in admiration of it. Like the chicken/egg argument, I often debate whether to give the credit of my new skill to me or to the tree. It’s true, I just tried a way to climb and it worked, but perhaps without this particular tree I wouldn’t have tried it. I guess I’ll just not worry about it and credit the entire experience.
I took pictures as I do,
then put the camera away to sway. I watched two cars go by underneath me knowing they never saw me, but I always look in the windshield for any possible recognition.
A maroon Ford Focus was coming up, I checked, and what to my surprise, I see a finger point up at me.
Someone actually spotted me! And the nice thing was that I didn’t get nervous or care. I actually liked the spotting. Minutes later I heard a car approaching from the other direction and I had a feeling it might be the Focus.
But the time it drove back by I had slid down the trunk and was standing on the rocks. It drove by and he pointed again. He didn’t stop and strangely he didn’t come back around. So where ever he was headed, he wasn’t headed there anymore.
I threw my hoodies back on and then ran back home. What a damn fine tree.
3-17-09: Now I think it was just a matter of time. I appreciate that tree, but I do not think without that tree I would have not figured out shimmying. Really, I had shimmied before this tree, just not as far, and not as a way to get down. Just a matter of time.
Also, you have to wonder where those people were going, right? They came down the road, saw me, turned back, but then never went back the original way. Where were they going in the first place before they saw me? Were they lost?
—
March 9th 2009. Monday night. Meet Yancey:
Yancey is me with a light suit on. I bought some coveralls with the name Yancey sewed into the breast. I spent three days sewing x-mas lights into it and a hat. I asked Drew, Natalie, and Tim to help me make some pictures at George Rogers Clark Park that night. There is this amazing tree with one incredibly long limb.
I wanted to climb that with my light suit on and have them take a picture. But first I need to see how long it was going to take. So I did a test run. I was under the impression that I need to go fast so I thought I would just crawl underneath the long branch to the trunk. I also asked Tim to time and film me doing so. I got started, moved along, then the branch started to get bigger and bigger. My arms were starting to fatigue fast. I asked Tim how far I was from the ground. 10 feet. I could make that fall, but I wanted to try to crawl back to the end of the branch. I struggled, locked knuckles to take a break, kept going, and asked Tim how far I was to the end. 10 feet. Not going to happen. I was going to have to fall. And so goes my first fall EVER out of a tree. I got it on film
and I got it in a picture.
Natalie was taking a test shot and when she saw I had fallen, she took her finger off the shutter, hence it is so dark. I lay on the ground, fine, but exhausted. I couldn’t move my arms for a few minutes. I was so frustrated thinking I had wasted the whole night. I was going to be too worn out to climb again. But we gave it time, I gradually recovered, a little, and we picked a different tree.
While I waited for the photographers to set their camera Natalie took a few more fun shots.
Yancey doing jumping jacks:
Yancey doing cart wheels:
Yancey walking like a robot:
Yancey doing somersaults and losing his hat on the first one:
Yancey running back and forth:
Then I finally climbed a tree. The shots I am keeping secret… but you can watch the videos Tim took. There is one when I went up
And one when I climbed down.
Both were taken at double speed so appear to go twice as fast as reality.
Thanks to Drew, Natalie, and Tim for the help, support, and good times.