Over the last week we've been on summer vacation, traveling to beaches from Amagansett, NY, down to Avalon, NJ. It has been a fabulous week of visiting with family and friends, swims in the ocean, and much needed down-time. Back in May my friend Erin passed on to me this copy of Richard Preston's The Wild Trees as part of my amazing birthday package. I was ecstatic. Richard Preston had written a few pieces for the New Yorker years ago about tree climbing that I loved. The tattered copy of one sits readily available in my file cabinet at work, the same copy I lent to Erin two years ago. He went into detail describing the men and women who choose to climb giant redwood trees on the west coast and their discoveries. Finding out that he had finally written an entire book on the subject my eyes grew with eager anticipation. This morning I finally finished The Wild Trees and I must say that if you love trees and tree climbing, this book is totally up your alley. The passages rope you right in (pun intended?) and take you to a whole different world of exploration and wonder.I admit I am not much of a recreational reader, but I would highly recommend this book to almost anyone. As a result I've completely gotten re-fascinated with tree climbing. We weren't back but a couple hours from our last surf venture and I was writing a friend and mentor to see if he still had a climbing saddle to get rid of as he mentioned some years previous. It was a total shot in the dark but I figured what the heck. The entire length of New Jersey I spent staring into the roadside canopy. I got hooked looking at every tree and its structure, silently contemplating whether one could climb it. Luckily for me my old teacher was spending his Saturday writing up a tree inventory as part of his consultation business and replied quickly. He acknowledged by geeky arboreal tendencies with a cyber grin, telling me in return about a consult he had done recently that allowed him a fun climb. "Frankly the tree didn't need to be climbed", he concluded, "but it was such a nice tree". I could relate all too well, and grinned myself.
The last time I climbed a tree it was a glorious old oak. The date was October 21, 2006.
I swore to myself that day that I would never abandon my love of trees, or the conscientious skill of proper tree climbing. I guess it took me a little longer than expected to amass my own climbing set-up, but with a saddle and flipline in a garage in Jersey and some internet "retail therapy" as I like to call it, I'm successfully getting back on track. And it feels great. Better late than never I suppose.
Time to practice my knots. Happy Sunday.
3 comments:
I thought the book was good too. But I don't view Preston's writing the same way, after finding the Grove of Titans in a spot that was the exact opposite of something Preston wrote in the book.
Grove of Titans and Atlas Grove
As you can see, I'm not a handful of botanists, and I've discovered that more people know about and have seen the groves than most people might imagine.
Still fine trees. Check out the page and the albums. Same trees including Iluvatar and Lost Monarch.
Thanks for commenting M.D. The fact that some of Preston's writing is exaggerated certainly does not surprise me. The anthropologist in me appreciates you thinking more objectively. And thanks for the link. Those images are fabulous! Either way, as you say, they are still some fine trees. Be well.
Just happened to pop in on this blog of yours again. I get through so many redwood related blogs, pages and articles, I loose track.
Now an then, it's fun to revive or revisit an older conversation.
I see we posted last in July. And I think my last long visit in the redwoods was mid-August. Went to Jedediah Smith Redwoods, Prairie Creek Redwoods, and Redwoods National Park.
At the latter, I think I found the anonymous titan now listed at Sillett's university redwood page as 2nd largest. They won't even give names of trees anymore it appears. But I found a monster size redwood, fitting a tree recorded on an old tall trees list as "Fusion Giant", which I think may well be the tree, merely a fraction of an inch height difference. With a 22' or larger diameter, it has the girth needed.
A lady in the info office - and apparently one of Sillett's previous students - said I'd never find it. But I was not looking just in the lowland moist areas where most monster redwoods are. This one was up around 300 feet elevation, with no creek anywhere to be found nearby.
If you visit the link I supplied before, I added a page and link to the old tall trees data I found on a European website.
Or, here it is too:
Redwood Dimensions
Same trip, I found Adventure Tree in Prairie Creek redwoods, complete with climbing rope hidden on the backside. And a bunch of unidentified titans scattered here and yonder.
Same park, located Zeus, Rhea and Kronos, and got some video clips.
And - finally figured out the identity of Screaming Titans. Never saw a photo for it online before, and realized it's the one a few sites have been calling Lost Monarch, but it's not. It's Screaming Titans. That one had me scratching my head for months, wondering why no other tree was found that might fit the bill.
It's been fun, because I like puzzles, problem solving, and trees.
Cheers,
M. D. Vaden of Oregon
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