Go climb a tree. It’s a good thing. Go way up. On a windy day. Farther up than you think is safe. LOTS farther. Trees are flexible. They can take it. Well, if you know trees. Don’t be an idiot.
Of course, nowadays there’s a whole sport and ethic of treeclimbing. And maybe I didn’t just describe it above. Maybe I just put myself way on the outs.
The official treeclimbers are cool. Arborists are cool, too. I’ve seen my tree-guy pal Tom in action. The coolest thing is how he handles lines from below, and puts things up in the tree while being on the ground. Then how he gets himself up into trees, with just the ropes. He does it simply, too. This new treeclimbing scene, it can be as complex as rockclimbing. Too much for me. But Tom takes it easy. But even more than the lines is his throwbag scene. He can throw a fine line with a bean-bag on it over the crotch of a limb about 60 feet up in a tricky tree, thru a mess of other limbs. In one throw. Sometimes. He gets lucky. Often. It’s amazing. He swings, then lets fly and there it goes. He’s definitely as tickled as I am when it works the first time. So that’s cool stuff. Then comes the climbing and usually sawing…
The new treeclimbing style involves a good bit of equipment, rope and knots. I’m more of a ‘trust the hands’n’feet’ kind of climber. But it would be cool to have the gear around if you needed it.
Our kids just love to climb. So I go with them, then get carried away and go really high, so I can see miles away.
I’m also REALLY into treeforts. I wonder what’s the quickest jiffy fort that one could set up…
Say you climb way up in a tree and you want to hang out. Do you use a “TreeBoat” like they sell? Not me, those require trickiness, two trees, then you lay back. I just want to sit awhile. What I need is a little platform that you can just click in. Maybe a chair-thing would be enough—like a thermarest chair. Would that be totally dangerous or something? I don’t know what I would trust, way up in a tree, besides my hands and feet but maybe something. Maybe a miniplatform would be cool, too. So you could set out a lunch and a book and move around a little. Anyway, some kind of flexible gadgets you could haul up then sit in or on would be neat.
About forts… Hunting laws are getting looser so that treeblinds are being allowed for gun-deer hunting now. I keep seeing what amount to little treeforts everywhere dotting the land. Funny what gets people into trees. I’m sure that no one but me realizes that a wave of treeforts has just swept the land (at least in Michigan). Sure, they only happened because of a weird side effect of hunting, but a law changed and now a million more people are up in trees. Kinda funny. Of course most treestands are very minimal. Most are camo. But actually they don’t have to be. A deer could care less. Treestands could be enlarged and tidied up. Make em into little treetop studios out on the corner of your property. (It seems like everyone likes to have their stand look out over their neighbor’s land, too. That’s also funny.) Anyway, I say make those treeforts bigger and higher. Make em a nice place to hang out. That way you can have a lunch and do a little easel-painting come summer. Most of them sure are nicer than what kids put up, too.
OK, I figure that the best treefort for zero-budget (and possibly trespassing) types like myself is the most minimal treefort. What’s that? Here’s the approach that I figure so far: get some stout wolmanized plywood and 2×4’s and camo-spray-paint em. Cut em into convenient chunks. Haul em WAY up into a tree. Then screw-gun-bolt 2×4 chunks to the treetrunk. Then screw-bolt a 2×4 chunk between a couple branches out at the extremity of the fort. Make these two sets of chunks level with each other. Then screw plywood to them. That should do it. What am I missing? I’ll give it a try.
But for you deer-hunt tree-stand people: let’s see some of those go up higher and nicer and more versatiley (drop-down sides, etc.), then let us know how it goes.
