Valentine

It's just assumed by "everyone", liars included, that every American hunter is a born climber. And it has nothing to do with hunting.

I've climbed over the decades, starting with climbing ladders on box cars on a siding, when I was a ten or eleven years old. But there was some climbing, others could do, that I never attempted.

I could climb up on roofs, but I never would stand at the very end of a roof and look down at the ground. There was climbing I'd do and climbing I wouldn't do.

Some can use a climbing stand, but don't like or use what I call-diving platforms. Those are stands that are just the same. Like one step and you're diving towards the water. Instead, you're quickly diving towards the ground. It's like an open diving platform at a pool.

At my age, if I have to find a new tree stand, I'll buy it used. I know some will buy a good treestand, use it once, and never use it again. And of course there is the fitness question. How long will you stay in shape, at that weight, to carry in or out, a treestand. Or will you fall back, in the beginning, to one lone stand in the forest.