If you haven't heard Florida experienced record rainfall and flooding last week. When this happens the river levels go up so much that the rivers inundate most of the springs I normally cave dive in. the springs actually reverse floow and tannic river water pours directly into the Floridan Aquifer.

So without and caves to dive I had to decided to meet up with Florida Cracker and visit an old friend of ours, Cookie Monster, for a little canopy caving. This would be Crackers first time going inside of a tree. He was about as happy as a climber can get when he lowered himself down into the mouth of Cookie Monster.

Video soon to follow.

I am soo-ooo jealous, but glad that Florida Cracker finally got a chance to visit that wonderful tree. Wish I could be there, paddling right up to all the huge baldcypress, but all these summer campers have me tied down for another five weeks.

Canopy caving!? I didn't know that was possible until now. Can't wait to see the video!

Amazing picture of y'all at the mouth....excellent!

Post that video soon!

hmm canopy caving..
does this fit the bill?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE6Enox3yTs&feature=plcp

Awesome stuff, in the Bald Cypress and the Ficus, doesn't get much better than that.

Love that "perforated" effect in the ficus.

Ficus, good to see you've got the Rope Wrench fully integrated into your climbing, looked perfect for the ficus cave ascent. Was it any trouble for you descending out of the top and removing and re-pitching your cinched anchor?
-AJ

This post brought to you by the unofficial official beer of rogue tree climbers everywhere...



Three years ago, I made my first climb in Cookie Monster. The trip report from that climb can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1217
The climb on that hot, buggy summer day was what hooked me on tree climbing. Hunabku must have known this, as he gave me a
whole set of gear for me to take back to school after that climb. Since then, I've developed a lot as a climber, and (at least I think) have really come into my own. So naturally, Cookie Monster has a special place in my heart, and I really wanted to climb him again before moving to New York State in August.

And what an incredible climb it was.

Tropical Storms Beryl and Debby had saturated North Florida and filled our beloved swamp with water again. The water had receded a bit by the time we made the climb, but the creek was still running fast. We started our short canoe trip at sunrise, getting eaten alive by the hordes of mosquitoes resurrected by the rain. In no time, we were winding our way between trees, avoiding submerged cypress knees. Soon we came upon Smokestack, with its century-old saw marks still visible in its massive trunk. Hunabku and I had wondered whether the seemingly precarious tree was felled by the high winds of Beryl. But it stood, its thousand-year-old limbs reflecting in the dimly-lit tannic water. I said to Hunabku, "That thing will probably stand for another two or three hundred years." In truth, we are the precarious ones.

A short distance from Smokestack, it was time to get our rogue on! This means stepping out of the canoe into the waist-deep swamp water. We walked the canoe loaded with our gear to the base of Cookie Monster, being careful to not touch any trees without looking. Why?



That's why. When the swamp gets flooded after a long dry period, all of the wolf spiders that had resided in the leaf litter move up into the trees. Literally EVERY tree has multiple large wolf spiders on it. Right before taking this picture, I had tripped on a submerged cypress knee and caught myself on this tree...about three inches below that monster. The thought of smashing one of these with a bare hand is just too disgusting to imagine. Later in the climb, Hunabku was actually attacked by one of these, and he screamed like a little girl. We'll have to see if that shows up in the video



I let Hunabku do all the work getting a setting, and then he lead-climbed. While he was up working his behind off getting me a setting, I was down on the ground still standing in waist deep water. Then the gator appeared...



Okay, no, not really. The gators were there - you can be sure of that - but I didn't see any, and they're not much of a concern for the rogues. In reality, I was just basking in the glory of beautiuful Florida the way it's supposed to be: Standing at the base of a giant cypress tree, swamp water soaking my legs, and taking in the sweet earthy smell that can be found only in a Florida swamp. For the first time in a long time, I had a deep deep, soulful feeling that I was where I belonged. I used to get this feeling all the time before I went off to college, when I spent many days after school in this swamp or fishing on the nearby creek. It gave me the chance to reflect upon how drastically my life has changed in the last four years, and made me realize with even fuller certainty that "Nowhere in the world will I feel so at home as I do right here."



Then, ascent.

Breaking through the canopy into the morning sunlight, I was greeted by the wide, gaping hole which every ancient cypress has. Three years ago, I watched Hunabku descend down into that hole to be the very first person INSIDE that 2000-year-old tree. Three years ago, I said to myself "Someday, I'll be able to do that."

Today was the day.

Slowly lowering myself into the Mouth of the Cookie Monster, I was enveloped in ancient Florida. A sustained cool breeze blew up through the gaping hole, drafting cooler air from the swamp floor up into the canopy: natural air conditioning. Reaching out, I became the first person to touch that piece of ancient but living wood. I was filled with a complete sense of one-ness with the land of my ancestors. I could stay there forever.

I can't thank Hunabku enough for introducing me to tree climbing five years ago and giving me my first set of gear two years later, when I started climbing. A rogue since birth, he helped to introduce me to a hobby that reaches down to the very core of my being. I love climbing trees.

-FloridaCracker

"Ficus, good to see you've got the Rope Wrench fully integrated into your climbing, looked perfect for the ficus cave ascent. Was it any trouble for you descending out of the top and removing and re-pitching your cinched anchor?"

No problem at all moss- not alot of friction, small limbs, maillon, alpine with long tail- good to go. Sometimes I just pull the tail up and tie that on as a retrieval line. The line used to go down thru the hollow was a seperate base tied line.

Tree climbers, cave divers, dub lovers... God I love this place


Thanks guys ! Hurrah for the "tree caving" ^^

Awesome.
-AJ

How did the original climbers determine the safety of the hollow cypress tree before climbing? Given the challenging location of the tree it appears this would be difficult. Was it one of the those climbs where you get to the tie-in point only to realize the tree was not as structural sound as first thought?

I have found that trees that you think can stand forever are often the first to surprise you with failures due to latent defects unperceived during the initial pre-climb assessment.

Hmmm... guessing that will be a tough one to answer. I've always thought pre-climb inspections on wild trees can only yield so much info. For really big old trees there's stuff you just can't judge from the ground. First ascent always super cautious, once you get up higher in the tree you can inspect close at hand and see what's going on. If you don't like what you see (or feel) retreat is always an option.

Bear in mind that bald cypress is extremely rot resistant so a top to bottom hollow tube structure is not as dire as it would be with an oak or just about any other tree species. Doesn't mean it's automatically safe but assessment standards are going to be different than usual. I think that's why a local climber can do the best assessment of their local tree species, they know them very well.
-AJ

Original climber here.


What Moss said...

Great write up and pics FloridaCracker!