INKSPOT•PROJECT: October 2012

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The Space Between

Dark. Lost. Forgotten.
The space between things either
Pushes or pulls. [reach]

Saturday, October 27, 2012

The End Of A Cycle

Banana spider
Season, coming to a close.
[i need more coffee]

Monday, October 22, 2012

River Grass

Below reflections,
Green river grass bobs and floats.
[Days roll in like waves]

Thursday, October 18, 2012

We are cruising towards Florida at 37,028 feet with an outside temp of -67F, at 592 mph.

This trip was highly successful and the tree climbing simply spectacular.

Felton proved to be a ruggedly hospitable town, readily offering curious tree climbers some local stories, forgotten history and even secret places.

Boulder Creek offers some of the finest cafes and breakfast burritos anywhere, and you can eat them right on the sidewalk.

Thanks again to our new friends Josie and Nick from Mount Hermon. They provide an important role of bringing people closer to the beautiful redwoods on a daily basis. From tree climbing to challenge courses to zip lining at 140 feet high in the redwood trees, what they do is surely to inspire and enlighten people about the amazing redwood forests.

Lastly, I am grateful for the space-time and tree-time I shared with friends who travelled from all over the country to attend the Tree-Climber's Rendezvous. It is always a treat to unabashedly and endlessly geek-out about tree climbing with those who climb. But more importantly, and perhaps vitally, the craft of tree climbing thrives when people meet up, climb trees and exchange ideas and techniques. I hope to return to the Felton area someday to (re)locate and ascend some big beautiful trees.

Pacific

The Pacific churns,
And pummels the raised shoreline.
[Unfathomable]

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Sunrise on the Left Side

Half Moon Bay greeted is with the usual campground noises, plus heavy machinery to re-surface the asphalt. We either need to leave before 8am or be held here until 1pm. We chose the former.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

JB is on the PCH

JB found a new toy: a piece of seaweed that dubs as a whip. Here he is demonstrating his skills.

Half Moon Bay

At the west coast. Beatifically Pacific.

The Search Goes On

Heading to the coast today. It's been a great stay here in Felton. We made some inroads in the search for big, old growth redwoods.

The area is rich in Redwoods and redwood logging history and culture. It seems that over the decades, the saving and the protecting of the remaining old growth trees has won out. It sounds like the struggle over the trees was intense and contentious. I look forward to learning more about it.

The results of the struggle are clear. There are too few of the big ones left, especially here. But they surely are here.

DBH: 96"

Before heading out of town, we had to take care of some unfinished business. We measured the DBH of Perseverance at 96", an impressive girth.

Autumn In CA

There are only a few telltale signs of autumn in these parts of CA. The blast of bright yellow leaves of the Bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum) stand out in the evergreen redwood forest.

Trees Adapt

While hiking yesterday, I found this cut Douglas Fir trunk. Other than seeing elephant faces in it, the cut reveals something much more interesting. This tree was possibly struck by lightening and the center was hollowed and burned. Apparently, the tree survived the initial trauma. And until it was cut down, the tree was actively healing its wound by growing bark into the exposed wood. The healing process created the curling cambium and bark areas at the bottom. They kind of look like curled elephant trunks.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Henry Cowell State Park

Redwood leaf in a spider's web

These giant trees grow from a tiny seed that is the size of an oatmeal flake. The huge Coast Redwood seeds grow inside a pine cone that is about one inch in length. The small cone holds about 50 seeds.

Henry Cowell State Park

We're hiking around the remarkable Henry Cowell park, looking up at the old growth forest. It is dominated by Coast Redwoods, but there are Douglas Firs and a few other specimens to see.

This giant Coast Redwood is 270 feet tall and sports a 17 foot DBH.

Monty's Log Cabin

Sometimes you find an establishment that emanates a lively, irrepressible local character. Monty's Log Cabin is that place.

We enjoyed the endless, raunchy jukebox tunes, the fire pit outside and a small pack of the local dogs who belly up to the bar along with everybody else.

Last call on Sunday nights is 11:05. The place was still packed.

Sequoia hiding in plain sight

Alan, TC and Lawrence got a high line into "Ginger," the Sequoia. They thought it was a Coast Redwood when they were getting into it. But when they got to the top and looked at the bark and the leaves, it was clear, Ginger is a Sequoia. Apparently this tree is one of only 3 Sequoias on the Mount Hermon property. They measured it at 206 feet tall.

Climbers:
Lawrence (in this photo)
Alan
TC
Paul
Jean

Perspective of Perseverance

In this photo from the other day, JB is about 120 feet on the air. This is where we anchored our SRT lines. From here, we climbed "ladder" style with 2-in-1 lanyards up another 40-50 feet.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Canopy Tour Photos

Zip Line in redwood space

Redwood Canopy Tours in Mount Hermon

The guys went for an awesome canopy tour, guided by Josie and Nick.

Untitled

The Night Train Returns

JB
Paul
Lawrence
Alan
TC

Trinity Tree

Perseverance

Dropped Chapstick

Sometimes things fall out of your pockets from 150 feet in the air. Luckily, someone found my Chapstick and stuck it on the tree I was climbing.

The Cathedral of Redwoods

This is the view upwards when you stand in the middle of the ring of redwoods in front of our cabin.

When ancient redwoods are cut down or fall over from an extreme natural event, their roots usually live on. These surviving roots go on to grow a new batch of trees. These next generation trees often grow in a circle around the ancient tree's old footprint. The younger circle of redwood trees is known as "Fairy Rings," or "Cathedral Groups."