I've been doing a lot of exploring in a state forest near here lately and a bit of the exploration has involved off-trail bushwhacking into some spots that are really difficult to get to.

The last time I was here I spied a large pine tree that looked like it would be a great climb located on a very steep-sided ridge rising up between two ravines. Getting to the base of the tree was an adventure in itself involving a rappel into one ravine followed by a difficult climb up the far side on wet, slippery, almost vertical ground.

Getting a line into the tree was a serious challenge in that I was shooting from a position that allowed only the smallest "window" for access. I did get a line up in three shots, got the rope up, and started the climb. Once off the ground I felt safer than I had since arriving at the tree!

It turned out to be a very nice tree and a very nice climb. And there was a very mysterious encounter in the top of the tree.

Imagine my surprise, when, at a height of about seventy feet, I found a perfectly good tennis shoe tied to a tree limb. Just one shoe, hanging there, dangling from a limb on its shoestring, the shoestring tied in a bowline knot. There is no way the shoe could have gotten there accidentally. It had to have been placed there. But why? And why only one shoe?

There was no sign that the tree had been climbed before, although someone must have. There were no scuff marks and the limb was much too high to have been selected as a hunting stand.

Anybody got any ideas?

I'll bite...

Theory 1
It was a highly skilled tree climber. Besides the fact they got up there, the choice of knot indicates tree climber. Notice they didn't use a cinching knot on the limb, plenty of room for the limb to expand, by the time it's big enough to tighten the loop the lace will have rotted from UV exposure, shows awareness of tree biology. It was their way of saying "I was here". To speculate further, I'll say they randomly found the shoe on the way to the tree and decided to get creative with it.

Theory 2
The shoe belongs of one of Alice Lou's conquests, they're hanging in woods trees all over North Georgia.

Theory 3
It's J~Bird's shoe. Theory 2 and 3 could be related.

Did you check for a note inside the shoe?

Also, check the Galactic HQ shoe storage area, there may be some missing, either you and Bill could've been in a state of tree rapture/hypnosis and hung it up there yourselves!
-AJ

By the way, that is totally amazing, to randomly come across a sneaker at height in an out of the way, hard to get to woods tree. Most of the time when I climb a woods tree I figure I'm the first one who's ever been up there. Makes you wonder.
-AJ

I'm not a geocacher so I don't really know what I'm talking about.

Could this be some sort of a geocache?

While I enjoy moss' theories much more than the geocache possibility, that was my first thought, a geocache.

I would have looked inside of the shoe. If it is a geocache, there would have to be either a container with a log sheet, or set of Lat/Long coordinates somewhere on/in the shoe. There is another way to determine if the shoe is a geocache. It would require sharing with me the location of the tree, and I could search for caches in that area.

There is a multi stage tree climbing geocache in my area that is based on a marathon. One of the final stages brings the seeker to-a tree that has at least 50 pairs of running shoes dangling from it. The goecache is tucked inside of one of the shoes. The hider did not place any of the shoes in the tree. The path on which the tree is located is a common place for marathon runners to train in our area, I guess they throw their shoes into this tree after the marathon? Pretty clever concept for a geocache hide as one must search the entire tree, unless they are lucky and find the correct shoe early. Most of the shoes are home to wasps nest...


hook

Duane---There was no note...just the shoe.

I have the coordinates for the tree in my GPS. I'll turn it on in the morning and send 'em along.

I would like to think that this was a joke created by SwampFox or WildBill...but WildBill is not here-He's in the swamp- and neither of them really knows where the tree is located. I only noticed the tree three days ago myself. Besides-this tree is way too difficult to get to just to play a joke!

My theory would suggest that the shoe was put there by a hunter/camper some 25 years ago. The shoe looks to be about circa 1980 to 1985. The hunter/camper climbed the tree to hunt but his shoes got wet on the way to the trees location. They put on their hunting boots and hung it up to dry but forgot to take it down after they havested their quarry.

Over the years the tree grew and took the shoe up with it. Thats my story and Im sticking to it.

Just a caveat about this theory. Its midnight, I just got off work and Im on my second Canadian Rye with diet coke. I may have to edit this when I wake up and read it tomorrow morning.

BKS

I believe this has all the hallmarks of a Rouge Ninja climber who goes by the cover of darkness, Who may or may not climb on black 9mm Ez-bends

Seriously HOOK, That's a pretty twisted joke. 50 pair of shoes! One shoe has the loot and the other 99 have wasps nest
I certainly wouldn't wanna be the fellow looking for that shoe...

Dan

It's a weather shoe.

judging by the look of it there hasn't been any rain in the past few days.

Honestly, my belief is that Bill is going to be upset when he gets on the forum and sees that Joe tied one of his shoes up in a tree.

Hunab---If it had been WildBill's shoe it would have been loaded with OdorEaters. No OdorEaters!

Duane---GPS coordinates-- N 34, 22.189 X W 84, 10.473.

I've been out climbing. If the rest of y'all would get away from your computers, you too might find some dangling treasure out there!

errrgh! had to work today, climbing Sunday

What a great mystery. I thought geocache at first, too, but if there's no note inside that is less likely. I'll let Duane weigh in authoritatively because he is a geocaching expert, but after a quick look at geocaching.com it doesn't look to me like there are any climbing caches near the coords you posted. My guess after reading this (http://www.snopes.com/crime/gangs/sneakers.asp) is that you found a little known crack tree.

It's early in the morning and I am suffering from the time change.

If I can get myself motivated, anytime in the next hour or so, I'm gonna return to the mystery, make another climb, and look around for clues. I don't expect to find anything but it make a great excuse to go climbing.

Patrick...thanks for the link.,..I have often wondered about all the old sneakers that I see dangling from overhead wires. Very enlightening!

When I was a kid, it was common to throw your running shoes over some wires or a tree branch on the last day of school. You had special shoes for Phys. Ed, and you had pretty much worn them out, or outgrown them, through the school year, and you knew you would be getting new ones for the next school year, so what else could a kid do? It was a sort of ritual to celebrate the onset of Summer holidays!

However, I don't ever recall climbing seventy feet up and attaching them with a proper bowline!

Update on the Mystery Of The Hanging Shoe...

I returned to the tree, climbed it again, but so far as the mystery is concerned I turned up no clues. The most I can report is an old faded beer can with a rifle hole lying in the leaves about thirty feet away from the tree. No mystery there...this is the south and any beer can laying about in the woods WILL have been shot at!

Although no leads to solving the mystery were encountered, there were strange things going on out in the woods, things that could make a person nervous.

First off...remember that I am alone and I am deep in forest and off trail. It's more than half a mile to the nearest path and more than another mile to the road, and five miles from there back to the highway. A bit remote in other words.

Interesting then that I should hear human voices on the hillside below me: Someone singing, a bit of talking, then quiet. I sat down at the base of the tree and waited for the sounds to pass. I never heard them again. I was wondering if someone might have themselves a "gardening project" in the area and whether I should be vacating the area before getting shot at.

Then there was a loud screeching sound very near that had my heart beating...until I realized that it was nothing more than two tree trunks rubbing together overhead in the breeze. Like a loudly creaking door.

A squirrel dashing through dry leaves made me jump! Sounded like a bomb going off.

I was happy to get the climb done with and head back to the truck. I kept thinking "Deliverance...!"