DAY 341
03.10.08
TREE 174
Today was clear and sunny yet again.
Not that we’ve had a very long string of clear days but it makes for good tree climbing conditions and fast snow melting. White patches remain only in the deep shadows of the landscape and in commercial parking lots. I drove to EP Tom Sawyer Park in the late afternoon/early evening to climb the tall, dark poplar by the main lot.
Last time it was wet, cold, dark, and my hands turned black. The conditions today are a good contrast. When I got out of my truck I had to walk through a little but of very wet snow.
I stepped carefully so I wouldn’t get my toes wet. At the base of the poplar I noticed a peculiar thing. Some of the limbs at the bottom were dead and the bark was peeling off leaving the white wood underneath exposed. It almost looked like bone with flesh hanging from the bottom. I remember there being dead branches last time but not this bark peel. One day at work I got to see a young magnolia trunk damaged from a young buck rubbing its antlers on it. The look of that damaged bark was similar to this. But these limbs are way too high for deer. Is it from an animal? Or perhaps the snow and ice caused it to happen. I’m not sure.
I began my climb pulling myself onto the lowest branch which was an easy reach. I moved up through the strong limbs at a relaxed but quick speed. I didn’t spot my ribbon until I was high in the tree. I realized I was up the wrong leader branch so I began to transfer across to the right one. Up a little further and I was there at my previous high point.
I took down the ribbon
and began to take pictures.
No shots seemed to catch my interest too much.
Some girls in a nearby field were playing some game led by an older man. From my distance and obscured by other trees I couldn’t tell exactly which game. I stood up there at the top of this nice poplar and I thought about this project. I wondered if people were going to get tired of the same kind of pictures, repeating the same views. I also fear that my entries are repetitive and boring. Should I have been conducting more projects or experiments during these climbs? It almost seems too late to ask this question. I only have about three weeks left. What I concluded from these thoughts was to try something then. I timed my climb down. I didn’t try to race but I didn’t go really slow either. Having no other time to compare it to, I didn’t have much to about it. It took me 3 minutes and 47 seconds. I suppose I’ll do it a few more times and see if it sparks anything. But timing different trees may not mean much. I need to think it over some more.
As I walked back to my truck I stepped back into my previous foot prints in the snow and checked my hands. They weren’t dirty at all.
3-18-09: I don’t think I timed anymore trees. It didn’t seem to make sense unless I had been doing it all along. And even if I had, I am not sure it would have been that informative. When the first year ended, I did treat the second year differently. Obviously I haven’t been reclimbing trees. But I have also been making a lot more videos and trying to climb more different types of trees. No more ribbons and no more leaves. I wonder how year 3 will be different?
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Tuesday, March 10th 2009. I worked with Norman in the Knobs. It was another beautiful, abnormally warm day. We sided the inside of a wood shop and got done around 3:45pm. Norm headed to the Mount afterwards to work at the clay studio. I headed to the same place to climb a tree. When I got to the studio with Norm, Tracy was there. I had met her recently and discovered she climbs trees… but with gear. We had said we should climb together so I asked her to join me. She was excitedand wanted to join but she had to get her gear. I told her to climb free of gear with me, but she just wouldn’t have that. So she left and I waited for her return.
Once back, we headed to the other side of the berm of the lake. There is a huge sycamore there that Tracy has had her eye one for quite a while. I didn’t see many trees that seemed climbable to me in the area so I just watched Tracy get her throw line ready. She found a nice spot and began to try.
Throw after throw, she wasn’t getting close. The branch she was trying to hit was way up there… like 40 feet or more. I think she was a little rusty on the throwing but I imagine it didn’t help that I was just watching her. Also her dog kept coming up and standing on the line.
She let me try a few throws and, as I assumed, I didn’t get it either. I had the feeling she wasn’t going to climb that tree. I started to look for a young tree to climb and bend down across the creek. But then Tracy got her throw bag stuck in a tree.
I climbed up that one in an attempt to bend it down to free the snag.
But I got up there and my arms tired quickly, probably from the night before, and I didn’t think I could hold on. I hooked my arm on a branch and just manually unhooked the throw weight then quickly slid back down the trunk. I thought that was climb for the day. But it wasn’t the only one.
We walked back across the wash and over to the boat docks.
I told her about a tree I had climbed with my gear on the edge of the water. She set up and threw the line successfully after just a few tries. Then as she foot-locked up, I climbed the branches.
Towards the top we both got in comfortable spots and talked.
I was telling her about the fall the night before and how it was the first time. I also told her about how I feel the trees select me, they call to me and I am drawn in. She says it is the trees way of accepting me and they take care of me, not letting me fall. Tracy really wants to get so in-tune with trees that she can communicate with them, really sense what is going on with them. I had never even thought about it that way. I feel I have a close connection with trees, especially the ones I climb, and I feel I can read them well, at least in terms of maneuvering safely in a tree and knowing the limits. I don’t know if I’ll ever communicate with trees, but I do like the thought that these trees accept and protect me because they know I appreciate and enjoy them. I definitely didn’t feel great about my tree service job and cutting down trees. And I often feel a great sense of sadness when I see all the damage the wind and ice storms have reeked on the local trees. Anyway…
It was a good climb with good company.