DAY 113

DAY 113
07.26.07
TREE 24

Unlike the previous climb, the wind was not blowing in large gusts. There was a breeze, but not much of one in the woods back by the white water tower here at Mount St. Francis. As I looked for my tree I was lucky that the path had been mowed because I was near there recently and had to forge my own path through the thick undergrowth. I ended up having to do that anyway to get to the trunk of today’s tree once off the path. But, again, I questioned whether I had the right tree ’cause I couldn’t see the orange tag. I just trusted my memory and got started. It is amazing how my memory stores so much information that can’t always be recalled. In reclimbing this tree, I realized I remembered certain limbs that I probably couldn’t have recalled before seeing the tree again. But once in it, it all came rushing back. Just, in my memory, not as many leaves. I had to stick close to the trunk because so many of the lowest branches were dead or dying with bark peeling off. Then as the branches got stronger the climb became easier. At the trunk split I took the right side to reach my tag. There were some good branches and some questionable ones but they held. Once I took my ribbon down I again looked to go higher. I got maybe one branch before I thought it too thin to go higher. I then began trying to transfer to the other main limb. With a good lean on my second try I made it and then climbed a little higher. Then I made my waydown, attempted to transfer back but couldn’t find a good foot hold on the other limb. This wore out my arms. Hopefully with all these limb transfers my arms are getting stronger. I rested a little then headed down finding a better path on the opposite side of the trunk with more strong limbs. Another good climb.

7-28-08: I couldn’t catch up yesterday so I am still in the process today. Here is the entry I should have done on Saturday had I not been out of town.

The first time I climbed this tree was in the morning.  It was the one where I heard strong gusts of wind out my window and dressed quickly and ran out to climb a skinny tree to sway in.  Looking back I can now tell the tree is a tulip poplar.  I can tell from the picture above with the ribbon and pointy twig thing.  It is the seed pod minus the seeds.  The tulip poplar is another favorite of mine because of the shape of the leaves and the many branches that shoot off strong and straight trunks.  You just have to be careful because the limbs get weak very quickly as you go out.  If you climb one, be sure to keep all hand and footholds near the trunk.  Also, the limbs towards the bottom often die first and the best and strongest limbs are towards the top of the tree. 

Friday’s climb caused me some concern.  I drove to St. Louis Airport with my parents and picked up my brother.  Then we drove to Lake of the Ozarks in MO.  We went to our hotel room, got dressed up for the rehearsal dinner and went straight there.  There was drinking, food, visiting, speeches… and the whole time I kept thinking…I have to climb a tree.  So when it looked like the dinner was coming to a close I got my family together and we drove back to the hotel.  By the time I got out to climb it was 11 pm. 

We were staying at Tan-Tar-A Resort right on the lake.  It had a lot of trees so I wasn’t worried but most were well maintained.  That means they low limbs are cut off for aesthetic purposes making them difficult to get into.  Also, the place is just full of oaks very similar to the one I climbed for my family last weekend in West Virginia… the one that my sister filmed.  I walked around near the parking lot behind where I was staying and did my best to find a tree in the minimal light from the street lamps.  Eventually I did find an oak I thought I could get into and went for it.  All the limbs were quite small and spread apart so it was a good challenge.  I climbed slowly and carefully testing all the limbs as I went.  Towards the top some larger limbs started to branch off the trunk which helped, but many were dead too.  So I stopped and took what pictures I could with flash.



I do like how the oak leaves are so dark green on the tops and light green on the bottoms.  It really shows up well in this last picture.  And you can see from the second picture that I couldn’t see much fromwhere I was.  I huge lake and partial moon were on the other side of the tree from the parking lot but I couldn’t get any pictures of it.  But I climbed, I didn’t miss a day… and that’s what’s important.