public static final RRNode getParent(RRNode node) {
    Field field = node.getClass().getDeclaredField("parent");
    field.setAccessible(true);
    return field.get(node);
}

/**
 * Yields a list of all nodes starting from a given node back to its tree's root node.
 * This assumes that the tree's root node does not have a parent (parent == null).
 */
public static final java.util.List<RRNode> getBacktrace(RRNode node) {
    java.util.List<RRNode> nodes = new java.util.LinkedList<RRNode>(java.util.Arrays.asList(node));
    RRNode current = node;
    RRNode parent = null;
    while ((parent = getParent(current)) != null) {
        nodes.add(parent);
        current = parent;
    }

    return nodes;
}