Tales of a Davis Tree Climber

Fall is here and the leaves are sprinkling down in drifts and gusts. It’s a time when people look around and notice the trees all over Davis. Ginkgos and maples are losing their robes of yellow and red and standing over us, naked.  Suddenly, I’ve got an urge to climb.

When I was young, my mother became so accustomed to me getting covered in leaves and pitch, she got me my own bottle of turpentine. A lot of children climb trees, but I’m in my late 20s, so what’s my story? I just love trees. Period. I still remember my first time climbing a tree with a rope and saddle. I was lucky. Who gets to catamaran to Catalina Island, meet new friends, kayak over tranquil garibaldi habitat, swim in the ocean, and call it professional development?

And the best part? Learning to climb a red gum tree with Chad Brey and Rhonda Wood, folks I had only read about – I’m not making this up – as national tree  climbing champions. Take that, Peter Pan! It starts with a throw line. I  watched them catapult that baby into the air up and over the canopy. Then I threaded my climbing rope up, harnessed up, grabbed my hard hat and ascended with a foot-lock inchworm move that made me wish I applied myself more in bakasana. I had a moment of fear, but Chad was egging me on and suddenly we were forty feet up (see above picture). I swung to a branch twelve feet away, teetered to the end and  breathed the warm afternoon sea air. Feet planted in a Eucalyptus camaldulensis all my worries about the world and the future kind of disintegrated and I was left feeling ALIVE.

The climbing didn’t end in Catalina. I’ve been getting up in the canopies  whenever I can. There is a Deodar Cedar near Shields Library where you can view the entire UC Davis campus. A massive Valley Oak actually hums with the  vibration of a bee colony living in a decayed portion of the trunk. The mulberry at my apartment complex is my local respite when I need to get away but don’t actually want to go anywhere. People talk about getting out to nature. I just walk out my door and get UP to it.

Recreational tree climbing doesn’t have the  recognition or the following of rock climbing. There is a major difference between being in a tree and scaling a rock wall.  Tree swingers manipulate the rope a great deal. Jumping out to a branch is often easier than climbing to  it, and putting most of my weight on the rope, I can limb-walk out to where the branch is just a few inches in diameter.  The views are fantastic, and often startling; every tree is different.

People ask me if it’s legal and safe. As far as I am aware, there is no law against climbing a tree in Davis.  Safety is job one. I learned with arborists; these people climb trees every day with a chain saw. They are cautious. We wear boots and helmets. We have safety ‘flip-lines’ and triple-lock carabineers. We are not dare-devils, just thrill seekers, safely. There is a whole unexplored world in Davis tree canopies, seldom visited by  anyone besides the maintenance workers who tend our urban forest. When people tell me Davis is boring, I think, “It depends on your perspective” Perhaps only boring people get bored.