By Mitch Lee
As a boy growing up on Limekiln Lake I found much wonder in the world around me.
For example, I wondered about such things as how nature worked scientifically.
When I was a nine year old in the winter of 1975 I was always searching the woods around me trying to figure out what the animals were doing.
I checked their tracks and watched for the places they lived, ate and scat.
The tracks of many animals led me on side journeys up and over creeks, through frozen marshy areas and into open beaver meadows.
These places were like an outdoor encyclopedia of new information to take in at every turn. Except for the sounds of some far-off birds and my dog Mutt’s panting as she followed me along, the woods were quite silent.
On one particular day Mutt and I came across a set of unfamiliar tracks in the snow. I plopped down to my knees to examine them. Mutt stuck her nose down into one of the prints and gave a sneezing sniff. When her head came up she gave a real purposeful look at the woods around us. It caused me to take a quick look as well.
I squinted my eyes into the far reaches of the woods looking for what had made these tracks. I could easily spot, deer, rabbit, coyote, fox, mink, and otter, but this track had me baffled.
After I figured out which was the forward travel path of the tracks I followed them through the two feet of snow. We stopped from time to time to scan the area for any distant movements or unfamiliar noises.
After walking for over an hour the tracks ended at a large, very much dead yellow birch tree. The broken and discarded branches of this ancient forest dweller lay about the base of the tree where they were shed by rot and wind.
The top of the birch, pruned by nature, had only a few remaining branches. Yet the tree still rose sixty feet into the sky.
Mutt and I searched for a good while but did not find any evidence of where the mysterious animal had disappeared.
Then, as if by magic a small white head poked out of a dead branch about ten feet off the ground. Its face was the size of a house cat and it had a mouse-like snout.
The little creature seemed to be as interested in what we were up to as we were him. He stuck his head in and out of his burrow several times to check to see if we had gone.
This little guy was the coolest thing we found in the woods all that whole winter.
Mitch Lee, Adirondack native & storyteller,
lives at Inlet. ltmitch3rdny@aol.com