Great Tree Hunt

It’s beginning to look alot like Christmas ||Bing Crosby or Michael Buble, it’s a personal preference, I know.

It’s become tradition to document the Great Tree Hunt each year. I’m waiting for the year that my blog post is simply: we got one.

You see, the first year, we had the too-close moose and 5 mile hike and the next year we had the stuck-on-an-icy-slope debacle. This isn’t that “we got one” year either.

This year was the ice rink/misdemeanor year. Of course we tried out a new place. It was up an icy slope to a small parking lot. Along the route were signs saying “emergency in progress.” That didn’t sound good. When we first looked at this national forest access, it was the summer and there was one car in the lot. Now, there were at least 15 crammed in there…plus a tow truck. He was just leaving and I could only hope that we weren’t going to wish he had stayed.

The afternoon started out great. It was fairly warm and we were tramping through the snowy woods looking for the perfect trees. We were on the hunt for a larger one and a small one (we are now so fancy as to need an upstairs one and a downstairs one). Our friend was searching for her first little Montana Christmas tree to cut. (She came last year without cutting a tree of her own and lovingly helped us escape the icy death-trap so it’s a pretty big deal she wanted to come along this year…although maybe she likes the wacky adventures we usually find ourselves in….)

Two small perfect trees were lovingly searched out, cut and placed by the path back out of the forest. And off we went to follow some Intel my Love gathered regarding some nice, larger specimens farther up the trail. A larger tree was spotted, identified, discussed, compared to all other surrounding trees, and decided upon. We joyously cut it down and began our trek back. But when we stopped to collect our other two trees on our way to the car, we discovered that in the half hour or so that we had been gone, someone had actually stolen one of our trees! UGH! And to make matters worse, it was my dear friend’s tree that she had picked out as the perfect one! My friend did not burst into tears as I would have done but it’s not the same to start all over again. When you find The One, there is not another that is like it.

I am still heartsick over this. Public Service Announcement: If you are in the woods, after Thanksgiving, and there is a cut tree by the trail, please do not take it. (Read that last sentence again, out loud, with strong intensity and then you will begin to understand how I am feeling about this.)

So, we continued down the path. It’s now getting colder and the snow is turning to ice. My Love, carrying the one small tree himself, begins to slide down a particularly steep section, legs flailing a bit looking for traction. This may have been more traumatic for me, watching him. Luckily, the tree acts as a rudder and guides him into a snow bank.

And my friend and I begin the hunt for the 4th tree of the day. It’s just not the same, but she gamely selects another one and we return to the car.

The parking lot and road down are now much like a skating rink. But our new car seems to handle it well. As tradition dictates (well, year 2 tradition…Rabbit trail: how many years makes it a tradition?), we munch ginger snaps and sip cocoa (with rum for the non- drivers!). It’s a match made in heaven and our fingers and toes begin to thaw.

At one point, we almost lose the tree on top of the car to the interstate but an extra bungee cord does the trick. One more tree adventure in the books. All I need now is to find those Christmas lights!

And Musing…