Woods climb with Goodaking (Ian)

[moss]

Goodaking and his fiancee Leslie met me for a woods climb last Sunday. After breakfast and sorting gear we headed to the woods. We had a general idea where good trees might be found but the terrain was challenging and even after we found a fine white pine during the scouting phase we had to find it all over again after we worked back to where our gear was cached. In between we snacked on Black Trumpets and Indian Cucumber found along the way and enjoyed the sights: huge white ash, yellow birch and sugar maple among others. By the time we were doing SRT entry into a statuesque white pine the sun was going down behind a ridge above us. After working into the upper crown to enjoy the view we descended out of the tree with a full moon rising in the east. We packed up our gear and began the second part of the adventure, finding our way back to a trail in the dark. All went well, when we finally got to the trailhead I fired up my espresso pot and we sipped some tasty brew, thankful for our good adventure.

The climb

Hericium americanum on a beech snag near the pine

-moss

 

[Gerald_Beranek]

That's one beautiful view from the top. Autumn colors. Nice camera work.

 

[moss]

[ QUOTE ]
That's one beautiful view from the top. Autumn colors. Nice camera work.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks Gerry. We didn't have time to get up into the tip-top (160') but we were high enough above the tops of the hardwoods to get a look around.

Forgot to mention how great it was to climb with a seasoned climber like Ian, often I'm leading less experienced climbers. It's great to have a climber in the tree you can depend on, really smooths things out nicely.
-moss