Ken Climbs a Tree
October 10, 2005 -- From A Life In Progress--Part One

I used to think that everybody needed to have good trees around for climbing. Well, I still think that. I think that climbing trees is a very good form of exercise. I'm sure that typing on a keyboard is good exercise too, but it is very limited. Keyboard typing is the exercise that I am doing at this moment, and for the next couple of hours.
I remember climbing pine trees. I was happy to discover that climbing a good pine tree is a lot like climbing a winding staircase. It is hard to get started because the first branch is often quite high off the ground, at least on Ponderosa pines, the type I am most familiar with. I was sometimes able to climb up the lower part of the trunk by getting finger-holds in the bark. Large ponderosas have heavy chunks of bark with spaces between. Climbing up the bark of a Ponderosa must be like rock-climbing, something I have not done much of.
When you struggle to climb up a broad, rough trunk, it is rewarding to reach the first branch, You can boost yourself up onto it, then get into a standing position, then you can usually reach the second branch. After that each branch is easier to reach, and in a while you are stepping from branch to branch without very much effort at all. It doesn't take long to climb up to near the top of the tree. At that point you get to where the now quite thin trunk starts to bend under your weight, and so you decide you have gone high enough. You are a bit giddy with being on the slightly swaying trunk and with the view from a height that you experience. Having climbed so high you linger to enjoy the view for a while, looking out in different directions. Then you make your way back down the winding staircase.
When you get to the lower branches, you have to do some work again, to lower yourself down. If the bottom branch is not too high off the ground, you can hang from it by your hands, and then let go, landing upright perhaps, or kind of crumpling to break your fall. If the branch is too high up, then you have to climb back down the bark.
Other trees are good for climbing too. The ones where you can walk along the long branches are great. The bending willow types are good. It is fun to climb up to the top, so high that the tree bends over and lets you all the way down to the ground. Then you let go of the tree and it swings back upright, more or less. It may take some time to become fully erect after the ordeal you have put it through.
Perhaps city kids don't get to have all this fun. Maybe they have their experiences in gyms. I'm sure they do some good things too, but to be out in nature, with each tree a different challenge, there is nothing like it.
I was not the best of climbers. There were other kids better than me. I remember there was a pier on the railroad bridge that some of the more skilled kids used to climb. It would be a typical climb for a rock-climber. I tried it but it just seemed too dangerous. I think my muscles could have been stronger, also I think I was shorter than the other kids at that time.