Pondering instincts of man and beast
As an eight-year-old, I would think about a lot of things that were going on in the big world as I scouted around the mountain slopes surrounding my Limekiln Lake home.
It was the fall of 1974, and there certainly was no lack of issues in the news to think about.
I had watched and listened to a lot of reports over the previous week about TWA flight 841 and its crash into the Ionian Sea.
The plane went down just minutes after take-off from Athens.
A bomb placed in the cargo was the cause and a total of 88 people were killed.
And then there was the buzz surrounding the upcoming boxing match in Zaire, Rumble in the Jungle, between Mohammed Ali and Joe Frasier.
Those two news stories stuck with me and followed me like a shadow as I hiked amidst the sights and smells of fall.
My dog Mutt and I were headed down to the beach at the Limekiln Campground when we heard a strange sound as we rounded a corner in the trail.
We stopped in our tracks. Mutt inquisitively lifted her nose into the air while I, curious, perked up my ears.
Just at the edge of the woods, about thirty yards away, were two young bucks that seemed totally oblivious to our presence.
We watched as they continued to circle one another.
I thought to myself that we were about to witness our own Adirondack version of Rumble in the Jungle.
Mutt and I froze in the moment.
We quietly watched the deer as they instinctively practiced their territorial push of each another.
Do humans carry this same instinctual practice of pushing others from their territory?
Is that why there is so much war and destruction?
So many questions popped into my head as I witnessed this face-off in nature.
Suddenly the two warriors stopped.
They must have picked up our scent and went crashing through the brush and out of sight.
They bounded away as quickly as the thoughts of the news of the day faded from my mind.
We continued on our hike, with our questions unanswered.
Mitch Lee, Adirondack native & storyteller, lives at Inlet.
