The Perfect Christmas Tree

One might think that in a forest full of many different types and sizes of evergreen specimen finding a nice Christmas tree would be a simple task. Guess What? There is nothing simple about it!!

You have to follow the forest service rules which means no cutting of trees within 50' of roads, which by the way, is the area that all reasonably sized Christmas trees (i.e. ones that are less than 50 feet tall) are located. Considering rule number one, you then have to be willing to hike in a little bit in hopes of finding a somewhat open area where the sun reaches the forest floor and the "baby"trees have a chance for survival. In lieu of getting lost by hiking too far into unknown territory, you apparently decide that you have super powers and can miraculously scale nearly vertical cliffs of loose dirt and rock to get that tree that is still 50 yards away and looks like it might be less than 20 feet tall. Suddenly, your husband comes sliding down the cliff on his stomach and you realize that you probably won't be pursuing that tree any longer.

Next culprit, I mean tree...still really high up there, but not as steep of a cliff, so you go for it. As you begin to ascend this cliff, which still has loose dirt and rock, your black lab somehow turns into a mountain goat right before your eyes and is instantaneously 10 feet ahead of you at the very limits of her leash. By the time you get caught up to her she has attempted to move ahead another 10 feet before realizing that she is stuck - wrapped around a rock, under a fallen tree, and tangled in a bunch of downed twigs. (I guess she's still working on being a smooth mountain goat!) After five minutes spent untangling your dog, you decide you'll stick to walking on the road and look for less intense locations to find the perfect tree.

Even though your day has been frustrating so far, you can't help but be captured by the beauty that surrounds you - even on a gray, misty, cool December day. (There was a low cloud deck over the Pend Oreille River and that's what you see in the background. )

OK... FOCUS - With no luck, you decide to move on to another location. It is now about 2:30 pm and you know that you don't have much day light left, so the hunt is really on! You pick a direction and start hiking. Hundreds and hundreds of sky-high trees later, you begin feeling like you will never find a tree that will fit under your roof. You have time to check out one more spot, but it requires walking down the ice-coated hill side (and then of course walking back up it too). It's your only hope of not going home empty-handed. After more or less sliding down the hill, you are stunned to see several potential options! Glorious! "Still to tall", "a bit sparse", "too much of baby tree", "only full on one side". Finally it's narrowed down to two contenders! "JUST PICK ONE!!!!"" was the final outcry. Ten minutes later after making it back up the ice covered hill, the tree was in the truck and we were on our way home after another adventure filled day.

There's a reason this blogged is titled "Wagner's Wild Adventures"!

PS - The highlight of my day was not actually searching for and finding a tree, but it was these guys, which at first glance I thought were horses until I looked again. MOOSE!! A mom and her two babies. It was a real proud moment for me, because I actually spotted them before Ben did! That doesn't happen often. They were in an open field on the side of the main road - that doesn't happen often either. It was really cool!