Rehabbing climber, an old big-toothed aspen and a porcupine

[moss]

My friend Kay had a few pins put into the head of her femur 3 weeks ago after rolling off a friend's bike and landing on her substantial folding knife residing in her hip pocket. She was on a fairly desolate island on the Georgia coast and stayed there for a week after the fall, mostly sitting in a folding chair observing wildlife at different locations. On return she realized her mobility wasn't getting any better and went in for x-rays/MRI etc. Three days and a hip surgery later they released her back into the wild and she's been astonishing her surgeon, nurses and physical therapists who've set her free to resume life as fairly normal.

Kay has been climbing hard for the last 5 years, and sleeping in trees many days per week all summer. She's already built of strong stuff but I suspect her well-balanced physical strength is in part formed by her climbing.

We had a scheduled rec climb in the hills of western Massachusetts and Kay was not going to back down. I carried her gear on my rolling cart and we explored some pretty steep hilly forest to eventually find an outstanding, very old for the species, Big-toothed Aspen. The abundant and heavy upper crown limbs were perfect for hanging a few lines but a challenging line set as forest trees can be. Once we were up there we met a resident chilling on a fat limb.

-AJ

 

[moss]

In response to some questions from a climber friend about the tree here are my comments:

"All of the populus genus trees in North America are considered "weak wooded", in a way similar to the reputation of white pine but worse. This tree has exemplary flawless structure from the balanced root structure, well developed trunk buttresses, straight bole and up to the fine crown. Tree is probably 85-90' or more at the very top based on our rope lengths. My 85' choked line had very little rope laying on the ground and I was not at the top for that rope position. As a very old, slow growing forest tree it has much denser wood than an open grown aspen would. White pine is the same, many of the big old forest whites we've climbed have very tight grain and dense/firm wood at the limb/trunk union. This Populus grandidentata defies the textbooks that describe it as insect/disease prone and short-lived, instead a stout and healthy old tree. A suitable part-time residence for our king of the canopy porcupine."
-AJ

 

[moss]

That's one tough lady and one laid back porcupine. The tree is an Interesting species, never had an opportunity to climb one. We mostly have Quaking Aspens in my area.

In the foothills of the Rocky Mts there are pretty good-sized older quaking aspen, quite sturdy for climbing.
-AJ

 

[TimBr]

Hello, @moss! Thanks a bunch for taking the time and trouble to shoot and post this video and the photos of the porcupine. He seemed like a really nice little guy. Cool that he was comfortable having you in the tree with him.

It’s great to see you still climbing after your injury, which I’m sure is a long time ago, by now. It looks like your hitch and rope combination works like butter with your Rope Wrench. Thanks again for showing us all a peek at a window into your world. Stay well. Tim.

 

[moss]

Hello, @moss! Thanks a bunch for taking the time and trouble to shoot and post this video and the photos of the porcupine. He seemed like a really nice little guy. Cool that he was comfortable having you in the tree with him.

It’s great to see you still climbing after your injury, which I’m sure is a long time ago, by now. It looks like your hitch and rope combination works like butter with your Rope Wrench. Thanks again for showing us all a peek at a window into your world. Stay well. Tim.

Thanks Tim! 3 years and a few months since my eye injury. It's been a long process adjusting to less depth perception (mostly in the first 6 months after the injury) but my brain has done a great job faking me into thinking I'm seeing 3-D. It's most critical in "arm's length" spacial functioning. I often "feel" with my bar tip or hand saw blade tip on tree parts to verify I have it exactly where I want it to be. It's pretty much automatic now, my brain and body know what to do. It's all still fresh though, I'm constantly aware that I have a different physical configuration than I used to.

I've done so much work now with various kinds of animals in trees, this was my first porcupine. I "read" it the way I would any cat, parrot, raccoon, owl or hawk, watching for the slightest signs of agitation after it made its first move in response to me barging into its canopy space. It was calm, steady and we stayed on the opposite side of the tree to keep it that way. Peak experience for me to hang with the beautiful critter up in a tree.
-AJ

 

[moss]

Hope all is well with you, are you getting some climbs in?
-AJ

 

[Mike Islander]

Great video. Thank you for sharing. Except in YouTube videos I've never seen a porcupine move quickly or aggressively (excluding tail flicks). However, all my encounters have been in trees. Maybe they instinctively move slowly when off the ground. We even put a rope lasso on a big black mother porcupine with a bright white baby in Northern California. Teenagers can do such stupid things. Still ashamed of that over 45 years later. Thankfully my little brother was the voice of reason and we immediately let her go. Didn't realize until many years later how rare white porcupines are.

 

[moss]

Great video. Thank you for sharing. Except in YouTube videos I've never seen a porcupine move quickly or aggressively (excluding tail flicks). However, all my encounters have been in trees. Maybe they instinctively move slowly when off the ground. We even put a rope lasso on a big black mother porcupine with a bright white baby in Northern California. Teenagers can do such stupid things. Still ashamed of that over 45 years later. Thankfully my little brother was the voice of reason and we immediately let her go. Didn't realize until many years later how rare white porcupines are.

Awesome! Yeah kids/teenagers can mess with animals in ways that are clearly wrong in retrospect. I have my own list.

I’ve had some cool experiences with them on the ground. Never have seen one move fast. First in a tree for me, they’re around but not enough of them in my immediate home territory to make them commonplace.
-AJ

 

[SoftBankHawks]

Thank you, Moss.