the mother of all trees

pics soon, i dont have a camera!

while deep in the woods today, climbing another tree, i looked over and there it was.......almost a 1/2 km away, poking out of the forest like a beacon....a giant maple tree (99% on the tree ID - wait for the pic).

I quickly rapped down, pulled my gear down and hurried down the trail towards the tree.

a 4' + thick trunk, splitting into 2 x 2' wide trunks about 40 feet up, then splitting into almost 40 x 1' limbs, then many many smaller limbs....i estimate the tree to be around 200 - 225' high, i will know better once i bring the measuring tape to the top.

all around the tree is DENSE brush and trees, making a throwline toss almost impossible. Need the slingshot for this one.

will be returning this week to bag this one. Will probably set up a SRT line for easier entry and egress, i want to stay up for some time in this one!.

more reports on this one to follow, with pics (hopefully the GF will loan me her camera)

That's one HELL of a maple if it's 200' tall.

Get us some pics so we can ID it!

You sound just a tiny bit excited about this one...

slightly excited?? you have NO idea !

it stood out like a beacon, the bright leaves like a glowing orb amongst the green of the forest. When i stood under it looking up, the sun caught the leaves and reflected the sunlight.....I felt very very small standing under this tree.

I'll admit its no giant seqioua, but for my area a find like this is RARE. Its in a deep wooded area too, so i can even set up treecamp without hassle. I will even be able to limb walk a bit, unlike the rest of the trees that have almost vertical limbs, this one has almost horizontal limbs. Some over a foot thick!

i cant sleep....i'm too excited. I'm supposed to be looking for work...but I dont care. This is getting climbed monday!!



as for tree ident, it "might " be a vine maple or a big leaf maple, these are very common in the southwest coast of BC. The trunk has greyish bark, with deep vertical furrows (amolst like a tulip tree ) the trunk is big and thick, the spurs are big and thick and the leaves are big, about 6" - 8" across, in the classic maple leaf style.

the GF will have her camera tommorw, i'll get her to get trunk, limb, and leaf pics.

ok had a short session today, due to time constraints for both of us....

pic 1

taken from 40 feet up a neighbouring tree:


pic 2 a bit dark, but you can see the trunk seperating into two, (this happens at 30 ish feet up) and a great view of all the big limbs to walk on.



would have taken mor epics, but her camera bit the dust.

The tree looks really neat. Do you have the coordinates, or are you keeping the location a secret? It looks like a really good addtion to the treeocache site.

Originally posted by Wild Bill
The tree looks really neat. Do you have the coordinates, or are you keeping the location a secret? It looks like a really good addtion to the treeocache site.

nope, not advertising this one. don't mean to sound greedy but i really dont want a ton of people to come thru and climb it. Its on a trail network that sees a few passerbys a day, i dont really want a hassle with one of them complaining to the local authourities , and then possibly being told not to climb it anymore...

Sorry dude, but that sounds like a bunch of bull-hockey! And my attempts with the calipers to come up with a tree height from your lower photo works out to something in the 95-110 foot range.
Ahhaaahaaahaa!

Have you hugged your trees today,
Wild Bill from Dawsonville
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?????? you have no idea of how quickly ANY activity in our parks gets shut down if one or two people complain. That is why i try to stealth climb, its just eaiser thatn constantly losing areas to climb. The parks people here are so deathly afraid of getting sued that they clamp down on any activity that is'nt mainstream

as for the tree hieght , i still have'nt measured it, but the T.I.P. i rigged to yesterday was at 75 feet, and that was'nt even halfway up the tree yet.

Very tough to estimate tree height from the ground by standing under the tree and looking at it. It looks tall from the photo, not many hardwood trees get up over 110-120 ft. the exception on the west coast being some imported eucalyptus, and some cottonwood/poplar species. First thing to determine is what species it is. Next climb it and do some measuring.

It doesn't really matter at this point how tall it is, that's why I didn't dispute the original estimate of 200 ft. Bill's guess of 110' is probably close. That's a heck of a good height for any hardwood. Looks like a good tree to climb.

I have to climb more or less ninja on most trees on public land so I wouldn't put coordinates on the internet. But it's no problem to say "the tree is in so and so state park" etc.
-moss

ah your right Moss, the area its in is huge, and i'm pretty much the only rec climber in Vancouver anyways...(well as far as i know).
there is a guy in Burnaby and several on the Island...


the tree is in the UBC Endowment Lands.

Damn, I hate being right! It's so boring.

Ok, the only tall maple species I can find for your area is Big Leaf Maple, Acer macrophyllum. Champion trees of this species are in the 110 ft. range. Still a big tree and you might have yourself a champion tree for Canada.

The main thing I like about that tree is the double leader, makes for some fun climbing.
-moss

thats what i was thinking too (tree id).

i like the double trunk too, HOWEVER there are several limbs that have open waterlogged/mossy cavities on the tops of the limbs, right by the trunk, that you cant see until you've climbed up past them. My first TIP had one, about 1.5' long x 6" wide x 6" deep. Makes the pucker factor up a bit when you anchor to them unknowingly :|


i'm going to sling the throwline as close to the top of the canopy as i can, then pull up a soft measuring tape from the ground (spool anchored at gorund) to measure the tree. I've done some glassing of the tree, and the limbs near the top are poor TIP's, so i'm restricting my climbs to lower and middle limbs only.


i left my spiderwire 15lb braid tagline in the tree, with a little 1 oz lead weight tied to the end and pulled up high into the tree. The other end is attached (hidden) down at ground. No throwline tossing today, just undo the line, lower it down, tie on the throwline, pull that over, thenpull up the rope and cambium saver..


anyways, laundry is finally done, i'm gearing up and heading back out.

A simple way to do a good ballpark measure is to drop a throwline with a throw weight on it down to the ground. You can measure your arm's spread "wingspan" and pull up your throwline measure per wingspan units.

Old maples can have lots of cavities as you describe.
-moss

I don't know Canadian blend...but in the Carolina's they call maples "kid killers" You gotta watch those limbs too, my brother fell from one that was perfectly healthy looking when we were kids. That bark seems to hide a lot of internal damage. Tie in close, and Climb Safe!

I'd climb it. Looks kinda like the poplar behind my house, which has 5 leads, 4 of which are about 80'. Nice tree.

Climb Safe!
Icabod

The joy of finding a nice big climber. . .

As I tramp through the tick infested swamps of central Jersey looking for the elusive “great climber”, I can appreciate the excitement over your recent find.
(SRT-Tech, “The Mother of All Trees”)

It has been my experience that in the wild, big trees, upon close inspection, are usually quite damaged. Sometimes to the point of being unclimbable.

If by chance your recent find is less than about 30% rotten and/or hollowed, A good pruning/clean-up job would probably add another 50 years on to her life span. If you can clean-up the damage & die-back before it gets in to the main leaders (when ever possible), your extending the tree’s survival chances tenfold.

Be the “Jonny Appleseed” of the Canadian Outback so my grandchildren can someday climb the same Monster Maple as you.

Got your SilkySaw & scabbard ready?
Regards,
-Ej-

P.S. - Blood, Sweat & Sawdust is good for your gear! Really.
P.P.S. - If possible, post a closeup photo of a leaf of the new found tree.

Thanks!