The King of Swings

I had the idea a few weeks ago to hang a tire swing from the highest branch of the tallest tree I could find on campus. This Saturday I decided to try it.

I got the tire from behind a car repair place a few blocks away. I picked a real shitty one from the dumpster at first, but a stranger in the parking lot told me that they kept the good discards around back. The painting process didn't take too long, but I really fucked up the click symbol on both sides and had to correct it with a sharpie.

I tried hanging it solo for about two hours, but couldn't get the rope slung over the branch I wanted with the ropeweight I was using (my Leatherman Wingman). There was a moment where I had a paracord pulley and a fishing wire counterpulley going with multiple other ropes twisted around my feet. This was when I realized that I was in too deep. People kept walking by and giving me weird looks, so I cut my losses and packed up. I dropped the tire in Jonah's room and returned later that night with a hammer to toss over, which worked almost immediately. Jonah knows best.

Once I got some cord slung over the branch, it was pretty simple to hoist the real rope over. Jonah held a chair to boost me close to the lowest branch, and I was able to scramble up and raise the tire.

We were so excited.

All of Sunday it drew attention outside Olin. I heard that someone actually got onto it. Like I said in the Westco tree post, people have way too much confidence in these swings.

Monday morning it was gone. It was a really fun process though.