Climb a Tree

Climb a Tree

February 16 & 22, 2014

There's an incredible tree somewhere in the north west part of Calgary that I climbed with a friend when I was 19 or 20.  The branches are strong and perfectly spaced for an easy climb.  You can go a couple stories up, feel safe and overlook downtown.  It's perfect.

But I forgot where it is.  And then winter came and I started to worry about ice and cold.  I really should have done this in the summer.  Ah well.  Live and learn.

In October, on the last warm day, I went down into Fish Creek to find a tree but they were all either too young with small branches, or had fallen over.

I started to worry about this.  Then on February 16th, Chris and I went to Tubby Dog.  On the walk back to our car, I noticed a tree in front of an apartment complex.  It wasn't huge, but it would do the trick.  On a whim we stopped and I started to climb.

I got up about 5 feet and then my available branch climbing options started to dwindle.  And I got a bit nervous about falling out.  So we hung out there for a few minutes.


A couple of people noticed me, but they didn't seem that confused or fazed by the fact that a grown woman was up in a tree in a residential area.  I guess that's 17th Ave.  Weirder things happen there every minute.

When I was up there I realized that this was number 30.  This was the last thing to do before the big date.  And I didn't want to get down.  I've lived the past year with fun and exciting goals; how could it end?

Of course, it had to.  I needed to come down and carry on with my day, but it felt anti-climactic.

I guess what it really was is that now I was only left with the fact that in just 12 short days my 20s would be over.  No more distractions.  It's time to face reality and that sucked. 

The weekend prior to my birthday, we decided to go to Santa Monica for a couple of days.  It was such a beautiful reprieve from the cold winter we've had for the past few months.

On February 22nd we were biking around the area and ended up in a park.  And there it was - the perfect climbing tree.  Since it was still before my birthday, this could be my real list item!

I needed a bit of help to get up to the first crook, but I was able to climb a lot higher than the last time.  With the help of a second set of eyes, I was able to get pretty high up.  Though, not really that high.  I'm not a kid anymore and I did start to get nervous again.

The tree was smooth and beautiful, with a lot of branches.  It was old and comfortable.  I even scraped my elbow, which I liked.  What's climbing a tree without a scrape?!

Chris took some silly pictures of me and I was able to take some from within the tree. 

And then it really was time to come down, put my list behind me and face my dirty thirties.

Here we go!