Backyard Climbing - First report.

Between myself, my son and my daughter the Poplar in the back yard has been climbed about 200 times! We can only go up about 20 feet because it is not that large a tree. My 11 year old daughter in particular has really taken a liking to RTC. She saved up $15 to get a poison ivy t-shirt and wants some poison ivy rope for her birthday!



Last week a friend and fellow pilot that used to climb for his father in law's tree service came over and we rigged the climbing line in a big Longleaf Pine that is in my back yard. I did all the work while he supervised Took me about 45 minutes with the homemade throw bag to get the rope where I wanted it, on a nice branch about 40 feet up.

I was showing my friend the rec tree climbing gear, he really liked it, especially the New Tribe saddle. He showed me a few knots and I showed him the Blake's Hitch. They climbed with a tautline hitch back when he did it for a living.
As of today we have all made it to the TIP!! I must admit that it takes a little while to really learn to trust the rope when going that high.

http://static.flickr.com/62/206213519_63f63a26ee.jpg?v=0
I have been scouting the town for some trees to climb. I even went to a Sherriff's sale on Thursday to try and buy a lot I saw that has three big oaks on it. The highest bid was $1900 so I will probably go to the clerk and try to oudbid them for it. I could have my own grove almost in the middle of town! We will see. That's it for now.

Matt "WOODY" Woodruff

(Woody is my new tree name)

Great post, good luck on getting your grove!

I hear you on learning to trust gear, the higher you get the more closely you start looking at your knots and rope. It looks like your kids doing great in your trees.
-moss