Natural Encounters

So, I've had a couple of "up close" movements with the natural world this Holy Week.

The first was a quick camping overnight Sunday-Monday on Taylor Pond (a few miles outside of Ausable Forks).  I'm feeling much better after my recent illness, Sunday afternoon was spectacular, and I figured a mini-retreat at the end of Lent/start of Holy Week couldn't be a bad thing.  So I loaded my pack, drove out, and walked the 2.2 miles to the lean-to on the southern shore of this 4-mile long pond.  It was a quiet night (just me, the owls, and the moon) in a lovely spot.

Then, last evening, on my way home from running a few errands in Saranac Lake and Lake Placid, nature--you might say--just leaped right out into my path.  A little after 7:00pm, about 15 miles south of Malone on Route 30, I hit a deer.  (Live long enough in the North Country, and I guess it's bound to happen eventually.)  I'm fine.  The deer...well...not so much.  Nor my car.  The initial estimate from the body shop is that it'll take 'em three weeks to put it back together again.  For some reason, they've started calling me The Deerslayer around the house...