Having seen a video on YouTube of a (Canadian!) fellow who climbed a really tall tree, we thought it might be fun to tackle the big White Pine out back — see how far up we can get, find out how tall the tree is, and maybe snap a photo or two from a decent height.

From this view (if you’ll excuse the choppy photo-stitching), it certainly seems that trees like this are really made for climbing. The branches at the base are sturdy and well-spaced. It doesn’t take long, however, before diligent young climbers encounter tree sap, which is in fact quite sticky. Reaching up to grab a hold, you find that the tree grabs back! It has a way of getting around, too — exposed skin, clothing, and cameras all become covered in the stuff. On the plus side, its extreme tackiness helps with your grip as you continue the ascent… I wonder if they ought to use it at rock climbing gyms, instead of that white chalky stuff.

Anyhow, we made it roughly half way up — which turned out to be about 30 feet off the ground.

At this point the branches seemed to become smaller and more dense — which doesn’t necessarily make for easier climbing. But we could see out over the canopy:

Not the most dramatic view perhaps, but the country is so flat ’round these parts that you can see for a good piece even from a mere 30 feet up.

So, how old is the tree? It’s too bad that the easiest way of determining this involves chopping it down and looking at the rings. I suppose that you could take a core sample, just like they do with polar ice. That wasn’t really in the plans today, so the tree’s age remains unknown.