The three madrones

One thing my brother and I did a lot during our first five years in Oregon was climb a trio of madrone trees. We had two on our own land that we liked to climb, and another on a neighbor's (my brother and I were allowed to go on the lands of our nearest neighbors at this time). The first one on our own land we discovered when we were looking for climbable trees and found this particular madrone a little up the hill behind the garage. It actually couldn't be climbed very well at all, even though a tree we could climb well was what we wanted. Still, it became a good place to rest and we did use if often when we first found it.

With the second tree, it too was near the garage, but was actually closer than the first. It also was easier to climb, having a thick branch at the front which was easy to get to, easily strong enough to support us both or more if we wanted to, and had a great view of the valley we lived in. From it, we would just talk, take in the view of the valley; or, if something was troubling us, we'd just sit on the tree and keep calm there or just think about the problem.

The second tree meant a lot to us, so did the first, and they meant no less, despite our decline in climbing them when we discovered a third madrone tree, this one being the one on our neighbor's property. The third madrone was climbable like the second, but differed in the fact that pretty much every house in the valley and beyond could be seen from the highest accessible branch (I reckon it was twenty feet up or so). I remember us going to that tree every day at one point and spending hours there, with me going to that branch and looking over the valley while my brother preferred the middle section of the tree, which wasn't as high but still provided a great view.

In the second five of the ten years we spent in Oregon, we climbed the trees less, as we got busier with other things; in addition, the third tree became less of a great place to visit since our neighbor moved and sold their property to someone else. Still, we managed to make the occasional trip to it. It's now been a year since I last saw any of the trees, but they will always be significant to my brother and myself, and we won't forget them.