I took a road trip last weekend to Kernersville, NC, the purpose of which was to reconnect with a long-time friend, but I was also hoping to get a climb in somewhere. She and her husband are both excercise nuts and told me they run and bike most every day at a local park. We decided that there must be a suitable tree there I could climb while they biked/ran. We headed out Sat. morning around 8:00 or so - the weather was nice, low 40's, just a touch of breeze and partly sunny. The park is located around a lake that was drained about a year ago for repairs and has never been re-filled. There's just a creek running through it now - not sure why it was never finished, budget cuts perhaps. The park consists of a nice trail, in the woods, which loops around the empty lake and is used regularly by runners, bikers and walkers.

Anyway, I found a nice tree fairly quickly (a decent sized beech) and amazingly got my throw line in on the first toss - a real miracle as I had an audience. This was good as I didn't have my normal amount of climbing time - my friend was doing her run and I didn't want to hold her up too long once she had finished. Her husband was going to bike while I climbed but decided pretty quickly that he'd rather watch me. I had lots of comments from people passing by - from people really interested in what I was doing to those who thought I was nuts! A couple went by jogging with their dog and the dog went crazy when he noticed me hanging in mid-air. He just stopped and wanted to bark at me - trying to tell his mom and dad that there was a really big squirrel in that tree I guess All in all it was a really nice climb although I didn't get to the top due to time constraints, but that was probably a good thing as the wind really picked up as soon as I got down. It was like someone turned on a switch - huge gusts!

I'm gonna try and post some photos - hope they work . . .

-Leslie

Nicely done, looks like an excellent beech.
-AJ

Pretty! Beeches are one of the eastern trees that I miss having out here.

Thanks for posting your adventure. You were just down the road from me.

Really? Maybe the next time I visit we can meet for a climb!

-Leslie

Very nice Leslie! 1st throws are the dreamwork!

That would be great. Let us know when you are in the area again and we'll show you some of our favorite trees. Are you going to Bob Wray's Blueridge Climb-in in April? He lives in Meadow of Dan, VA.

[quote="MightyPoplar Are you going to Bob Wray's Blueridge Climb-in in April? He lives in Meadow of Dan, VA.[/quote]

I'm planning on it, I went last fall and had a blast!