Treestock

PHOTOS

what more to say

THANKS BOB

http://seamorelilfoot.smugmug.com/gallery/4811488_oDTpP#285992467_5BTA7

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BUT I AM TIRED - the 120, 130, 150 foot trees were there and BOB was right - 60 foot to the lowest - BUT that Souther Red oak was beyond words. 11 climbers on rope

special thanks to "Cliff on Rope"

...JerseyGirl...thanks for sharing the photos....looks sweet...

...my favorite...wow!

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Tree Climber's Toast: May we climb a 200 year old oak together, and may we plant that tree tomorrow.

...I like how the board is quiet....everyone is worn out from their adventures!!!!....

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Tree Climber's Toast: May we climb a 200 year old oak together, and may we plant that tree tomorrow.

JimK,
I am sorry that you were not able to come, the trees were fantastic and so was the company!

Thanks to Bob Wray and the Tangelwood park operators!

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Jeff Newman
Climb High Look Far

OOOOKKKKKAAAAYYYYY! I publicly admit that Bob has bigger trees than mine. Or, at least he has more big trees...!

Tthe 1,800 acres at Tanglewood Park (donated to the people of Forsyth County, North Carolina by the Reynolds Tobacco Co. family) has at least three areas of virgin forest with monster-sized red oaks, white oaks, willow oaks and tulip poplars. There was also a very special turkey oak that will be featured in a new video for Sherrill Inc., and maybe in the AARP magazine (three of us "old fogies" saddled up for the photographer, to prove that the over-50 crowd can do some amazing things in the canopy).

All I can say is that I was mighty, mighty depressed when it came time to pack up and leave Sunday afternoon...!

Thanks JG for the nice photos. Now I want to see the other photos from the other climbers.
They must be more. ! Nice trees and the camping area looks nice too.
Darned, I missed a good one! Embarassed

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Oldtimer

yeah those are some pretty incredible photos. I think you've reached the holy grail of tree climbing photography. Really captured the sense of the climb in all of its respects.

As is always the case with a Bob Wray event, the climber gathering at Tanglewood was a huge success: Thirty or so climbers, an uncounted number of huge trees, good food, camaraderie, and a whole lot of great climbing.

The whole thing was wonderful and for me, the highlight of the event was having the chance to observe the diversity in gear, technique, systems, and climbing styles. Thirty climbers meant thirty different ways of doing things. There was SRT done a dozen different ways and DRT done another dozen different ways. There was the J~Bird Dangle, the Icabod Snag, as well as several other line retrieval ideas. There was new gear and there were new ways to use old gear. I never cease to be amazed at the fact that no matter how many different ways of climbing I’ve seen, there is always someone with something new. Will we never run out of new ways to climb a tree?

As long as we have gatherings, rendezvous, and climb-ins there will be the opportunity to observe and share the innovative thinking that exists within recreational tree climbing. I hope it never ends, because I have always been a serious advocate for the idea that the more different ways you have for doing something the more likely will be your chance to prevail in the face of challenge when it comes along.

The biggest problem is simply trying to remember it all and finding the chance and time to try it all out and see what will work for me. I’ll probably forget most of it before I get around to trying everything I saw.

That’s great because it gives me the excuse to go again next time! Play it again, Bob!

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Hang your line on a limb...be a rogue on a rope!----- Joe, 2007

I'm typing at you from Bob's laptop in the heart of the Blue Ridge, I just had to stop by because I don't want Treestock to end. Mossy is probably about 30,000ft above New York by now, and I already miss you all. You are such aromatic people! I will type up a full report when I get back to the real world. I have a date with a BFT in the morning! Peace!

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powered by

Waffle Strong
"Every family tree has a nut."

23 hours after leaving Treestock on Monday afternoon I finally arrived in the Dirty Bean (Boston). A few tornados and generally nasty weather up and down the east coast bollocks'd up the air traffic, stranding me in a HoJo's on the edge of Philadelphia Monday night. I tried to talk a Philly cab driver into taking me to Boston (I suggested he might have some relatives to visit), was quoted $800 or $350 to NYC.

It was great to meet many that I've known only on the message boards and reunite with others, you all feel like old friends. I was spared a rogue waterboarding, the tree gods flipped the board (bird?) off J's truck in transit from Bumpass. So we found a different way to get to the heart of the matter: throwing, climbing, talking, playing music, and repeated night and day until the tree-o-sphere glowed around us like the pipes on Alice Lou's double-wide Harley!

There were many highlights for me: treeboating up in a willow oak Friday night, listening to owls calling, raccoons fighting, then waking to a magnificent songbird chorus. A double espresso in a paper cup artfully sent up the rope by J~Bird, a big tulip by the river (thanks Greg for setting the ropes), SRTing into one of the big "cottage" tulips on Mike's 3/8" static, staring up at impossibly tall skinny oaks between the fat tulips, even survived hash browns at Waffle House on Friday morning.

Thanks to Bob Wray for making it all happen! My only disappointment was that Alice Lou didn't chase me around the campground, maybe next time.

I took no photos so I'm looking forward to more from all the shutter bugs.
-moss

Wow!!!!! What a great weekend. Just want to thank everyone for all the wonderful information and help. and for those who climbed with me and were sooooooo very patient, a special thanks. I learned alot and saw so many different things to try. Took a few nice pics and video, and met a bunch of great people. I look forward to climbing with you all at the next event.

	moss wrote:
	I took no photos so I'm looking forward to more from all the shutter bugs. -moss

...that's rare...Moss...

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Tree Climber's Toast: May we climb a 200 year old oak together, and may we plant that tree tomorrow.

Welly welly well my Roguesies... I have finally arrived back in Bumpass. What a trip this has been. A brief synopsis for you a la Bird~style...

Left Friday and arrived for a sunset and warm welcomes as usual. Found a nice place to park the tree~wagon and my "new" canoe and proceeded to set up the tiki lounge/ Palatial Rogue Dome/ water park. A little music and drums, trying not to wake the natives , and staying up late, late late.

I do remember waking to Arbogal's wonderful car alarm. I thought it might have been a prank, but I could tell by the apology and speedy delivery of a hot cup of joe,,,, er coffee that is, that it was merely faulty equipment. Mostly people had drove off through the thousands of acres in search of monsterously big trees carpool style. Moss, Arbogal and myself had other ideas... wouldn't it be fun to don our packs and head for an unknown tree in an unknown direction to an unknown location with some ol'fashioned footwork. It worked, and we spent from breakfast till dinner in a big white oak, or was it red??? I dunno, and it don't matter cause I forget. It was a heck of a tree to spend all day in. Moss brought the Boston style Peanut butter Jelly Times, and we treelosophized, and laughed and I demonstrated the brown cloud technique for them both, rising and descending. We called that trail lover's lane...

for reasons which shall remain undisclosed.... it wasn't us lemme tell ya!

Suppertime was the Wray Way as usual... everybody came together with all kinds of delectables, and we also had a tree to climb right at the pavillion. Then there was music... two total freaks, one with a guitar and the other with some kind of bassy drum... Treeman brought a bag of percussion instruments to share, way to go PJ! I guess there was some rain or something like that, by this time the rum was flowing so I had not a care regarding precipitation, it was all more about participation anways. And staying up very very very late. And secret meetings at the tiki lounge/ Palatial Rogue Dome/ water park.

Sunday was not as sunny as the name might imply, but Moss and I climbed a WONDERFUL poplar right at the bank of some flowing brown river with Mr Greg. I had also had breakfast delivered by Arbogal as repairation for the previous morning's car alarm craziness. Simply lovely. That river was really cooking from all that rain too! Then there was some thunder that chased us out of the trees but we definately got our good climb and were very glad the rain and poison ivy didn't spook us off. Carolina style PBJ's and apples at eighty feet in the rain tasted really good! Thanks Greg!

After the storm mossyboy, Guy, Bob and I played in some slippery trees. Oh Guy, quit hitting your hand with the sidewinder ok? You need fingers to climb trees with us!

Then it was good byes for many except for the hard~core clean~up crew. Which is actually just Rogue Speak for those who want to stay an extra day under the guise of having to clean up, because our compadres really did LNT. It sounds like a good excuse to me, and you all should know by now I have a tendancy to want to linger. Guy, Bob, Moss and I loved every minute of this strawman detail.

Monday was rain too! Just like Woodstock eh? Well rainy days and Mondays are fine with this tree climber. Especially when you are the guy who gets to reveal a great prank in the morning. Moss had rented a car and opted for no extra insurance, and me being the fella who never sleeps, got to witness one heck of a dead limb drop from a tree pretty darn near to his rented Dodge Viper. A little creative late night rigging with a trashcan and a twenty foot piece of hardwood goes a long way, and the end result was priceless. I guess Bob saw it first, and gave ol Mossy the "bad" news. Then he, Guy and Moss inspected the hot rod for the signs of impact but could find no damage, just a very peculiar bark placement on the right front quarter panel. I had the distinct pleasure of watching Mossy's face turn from confusion to utter amazement when I explained that "someone" must have stayed up late just to initiate him. He still had to bring it back kind of muddy and smelly, but he said it stank when he got it anyways. I am pretty sure that Guy and Bob are still under the impression that Moss was spared a hefty (oh a trashy pun, eh?) car payment by the benevolent, mysterious tree gods.

Bob and Guy left us in charge, so we went out for espressos after packing in the rain and making sure everything was copecetic. We debriefed, that is to say that we discussed the whole adventure and some future plans, then he was off to his airplane and I was about to make some more adventures. So I blew about 300 bux on some cool climbing gear, ate some sushi and drove up into the mountains to harass Bob some more. He let me stay in the tipi, and I had me a little campfire and a can of food, and I actually went to bed as early as 1AM! Can you believe it? We planned to climb in the morning, but in our sleep the wind picked up and the frost came down so it was a no go on both of our decisions. Coffee and bagles and petting the dogs sounded much more appealing to us. You know it is cold when J~bird is up and out of his nest, packed and ready to fly at sunrise without a cup of coffee. BRRRR.

We hung out and then I hit the Parkway for some touristy stuff like Mabry Mill, something I have wanted to see for years, but have always felt too pressed for time. Definately a good stop. That thing is amazing. And the I stopped in Floyd for some lunch with the hippies, boy can they make some good soup and cornbread. Then I stopped at the Natural Bridge, George Washington Nat'l Forest, some campground scouting... some detours and a relaxing ride around the mountains. By this time it was a balmy forty one degrees.

So I drove and detoured and had a blast.... If ive forgotten to mention some details you'll just have to understand I am feeling a bit fuzzy at 3am. I need to draw a bath, and eat and sleep before I start to hallucinate again.

The love of Treestock lives on in my heart. Thank you all for being such a wonderful family to me, I can't wait to see each of you again real soon. Pictures will be appearing soon, so be patient, if you weren't there then too bad, we really did miss you though. Maybe next time.

Love, Peace, Kisses, and Treehugs for you all. J~bird aka the Rogue who never sleeps.

ps

Special thanks for the wonderful gifts Hu, Arbogal, Moss, Shelly, Mary, Clay, Happy Camper, Foxy, Swampy, WildBill, Jim, Mark, Bob, JZ, Treeman, Guy, Foosh, Greggles, Hairy Woodpecker, and PunaKrunch, just to name a few.... love you all... come climb at Lake Anna any time! Good night,,, er or is it good morning??? Whatever! It was all and is all a gift THANKS!!!

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powered by

Waffle Strong
"Every family tree has a nut."

JimK wrote:

	moss wrote:
	I took no photos so I'm looking forward to more from all the shutter bugs. -moss

...that's rare...Moss...

As you can see from J~Bird's post I was too busy analyzing the surface of the aforementioned rental vehicle to determine limb impact point to have time to take photos. I think I have a couple photos of Cliff in a tulip. I tell you, that J~Bird dude is a total artiste, the limb placement over the quarter panel and strategic placement of bark bits was impeccable.

My only other regret was that we didn't have more days so I could climb with everyone there.

Back in chilly New England and suffering deep post-Treestock withdrawal,
-mossyMoss

ON MESSAGE!!!

I don't know if I will ever recover. What a hoot!!

It was a total love fest. I didn't get many pictures either. Way to busy having fun. The only ones I took were for blackmailing purposes. Like the one of Joe of the Jungle and Treeman having a secret private meeting, and the one of Moss free climbing nekkid, and the one of WildBill... anyways...

The trees were superb and I had a blast hanging out with everyone there. I was amazed at how well everyone meshed.

Sorry I could only hang in there till 3am J-Biddy. I’ll try harder next time.

I hope to see you all again at FDR. Is that the next Rogue Rendezvous?

OFF MESSAGE!!!

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You aren't really going to climb on that, are you? -Hunabku