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.