Weekly Photo Challenge: The Sign Says

  The sign says “Start your climb here!”

Can you see the path worn in the bark go up the tree, around the back and then come back around just before the first branch?

The burr oak that sports this impressive animals sign stands on my family’s farm and has always been called “the coon tree”.

The tree is awe inspiring on it’s own.  A giant that stands a bit apart from the rest of the trees with bark ridges so big I can cup my hand around them.

As impressive as the tree is, it always boggles my mind a bit when I stand at the bottom and look up the track worn in the side and think how many little clawed feet, whether they were from coons or other animals, have climbed this tree. The track almost always shows signs of fresh wear (you can see not only the browner spots of fresh scratches but the black dirt that runs up the middle) and the path is deep! You can get an idea of just how deep the path is worn if you compare the difference of the height of the bark on the bottom right corner to that of the path.

What sort of animal signs have you run across this week?