Avery spent the afternoon waiting by the mist net. She planted herself at the base of a large maple and played the lure recording of a male call every twenty minutes, hoping it would cause the nesting male to make himself known while trying to protect his territory. Leaning against the trunk of the old maple and looking into its canopy above she could both see and hear the wind rustling the branches of the not-quite-yet-leafed-out tree. It was still spring in the North Woods. The cold nights kept the buds from blooming too early.
Avery soaked in the sun shining down through the canopy, warming everything in its wake as she waited. The mosquito netting over her head helped to keep the black flies at bay, but it was annoying to look through. She took it off. It was better to have a clear view of the beautiful day. The forest wildflowers were in bloom, eager to take advantage of the fleeting opportunity to photosynthesize before the maple leaves shaded the forest floor. All around her were trillium, Jack-in-the-Pulpit and her favorite, bloodroot — a plant that got its namesake from the reddish sap in its root used as a dye by Native Americans. This glorious flowering showcase, she knew from her years of tramping through the North Woods as a girl, was a short-lived scene.
Her reverie was broken by the sound of a male saw-whet responding to the lure. Its ‘toot, toot, toot’ wasn’t hard to recognize. Avery took out her binoculars to search for the small owl in the trees but spotted nothing. After a couple of hours of waiting she took the mist net down. At least now she knew there was a male in the vicinity, which meant there was probably a nest and he would be busy scouting for food for the chicks tonight. She carried the ladder back to Kirby and searched for Jake and Frank to thank them, but they had gone.
Avery set off through the woods to Huntington for dinner.
Kim Baker found her in the dining hall. “There you are!”
Avery sat with Kim and her students for dinner. Their stories and laughter made Avery feel ten years younger. She was enjoying it so much she decided to come back more often. Being alone at Kirby was great, but the company lightened her spirits.
After dinner, the crowds of students left the dining hall to meet up at Metcalf house for a roaring fire, games, and cards. Avery and Kim headed over to where the Durant family houseboat — the Barque of the Pine — rested on land, where Kim had found the saw-whet pellets.
“He seems to have had an affinity for the chalet style,” Kim remarked as they walked by Metcalf Hall. They stopped for a moment to stand and admire the log cabin with decorative motifs, including a large W made out of bent limbs that graced the rails and roof.
Continuing on, they passed the private quarters of William and his wife Janet. This cabin was sheathed in bark. It also had an elaborate front porch. Avery remembered seeing a picture of William walking down the front steps in a book about the Great Camps of the Adirondacks that sat on a coffee table at her grandfather’s cabin. It was a photo taken in 1889 by Ray Stoddard who worked for the Durants on occasion, marketing their Adirondack properties. “I know he used all local material, not just because it was cheaper and more accessible. I think William West Durant believed what he was building should stand the test of time, and he chose the wood for that purpose. I read that he’d spend days in the forest looking for just the right tree to cut. The college is lucky none of this has burnt to the ground,” Avery said.
“How’d he prevent the wood from rotting in this climate?” Kim asked.
“He used a special formula of beeswax that protected the wood from the elements.”
“It obviously worked,” Kim said.
“It sure did,” Avery said, looking around at the numerous cabins and construction still standing after a century of wind, rain, snow and sleet. Mammoth trees that had been standing when William was building, stood as sentinels to the passing time.
They passed the trapper’s log cabin; a solid looking affair with a low angled roof and front porch that was not as decorative as the others but just as rustic looking.
“I wonder who lived there?” Avery said aloud.
They arrived at the Barque as dusk was about to fall and went into the houseboat to explore briefly.
Like the other buildings on the grounds, the houseboat was enveloped in cedar bark. The interior had pine paneling. There were two small bedrooms, a small kitchen and two baths. It reminded Avery of a child’s playhouse.
“Who used this?” Kim asked.
“Well,” Avery said, “the story goes that William would launch the Barque with his wife Janet in it out into the middle of the lake while he biked over to Camp Kirby to have a rendezvous with his mistress Minnie.”
“Is there any evidence he had a mistress?”
“Just some rumors as far as I know,” Avery said absently.
“I’d need more than anecdotal proof myself,” Kim said as they left the beached vessel to look for more signs of the saw-whet before it got too dark.
After a short search they found a pine with a small hole about ten feet off the ground. Avery pulled out her binoculars and sure enough there was a female saw-whet, quietly sitting on her brood. Giving the binoculars to Kim, she pointed at the tree. Kim suppressed a squeal of delight.
“This is much more exciting than combing the ground for mushrooms,” she said.
Avery used her flashlight to walk back to Camp Kirby. She was thrilled by the discovery of a nesting saw-whet. It meant another chance to capture a male. It was late when she arrived back at Kirby. She boiled water for tea, turned on the propane lantern in her room and settled down to read more of Minnie’s diary.
June 3, 1893
Nate came back from the store with butter, bread, potatoes, and onion. He plans to fish later this morning for our supper. William left word with Nate that he would join us this evening. I cannot wait to see him!
Nate is a better reader than he let on. His aunt has taught him well. Yesterday afternoon we spent time reading the book William gave him: Murray’s “Adventures in the Wilderness”. I must say I have never read it myself so it is very interesting to read the book that made the Adirondacks so popular. Here is an excerpt:
“Not until you reach the Raquette do you get a glimpse of a wilderness that rivals Switzerland.”
I thought that odd at first when I read it; who would compare this outpost of a region, so harsh and bare in the winter, to the beauty of Switzerland? I wonder if that is why William brought a Swiss music box to show me? He told me he uses it as a model for some of his buildings. William seems obsessed with his building plans. Lately, he talks more about that than our future together.
Minnie
June 4, 1893
Last evening was magical! Nate made William and me a wonderful supper of lake trout fried in butter with onions and potatoes. Nate’s father, I learned, was once a lumberman. When I asked what happened to him Nate said, “He was swallowed up by the woods.” I could not help but laugh, until I saw how he looked on at me so earnestly. I said, “Nate, the woods don’t swallow people up.”
“Yes ma’am, they can, and they did. They done swallowed up my Pa,” he said with such seriousness for a boy. I don’t dare ask what happened to his poor mother. I asked William last night and he was rather vague about it, said that Nate’s father ‘ran off’. Poor Nate. It does seem though that he has plenty of men folk that are like fathers to him. He tells me that his Uncle Ike teaches him the arts of trapping, hunting and angling.
William told me more about his plans for Uncas. He spent last fall surveying the land around Mohegan Lake so he could start construction this summer.
Nate had gone into the cabin by then, and we were sitting idly by a fire he made for us by the lakefront. I felt all warm inside sitting next to him. He is so fair, tall and handsome. And he is so kind to me and Nate. I felt the urge to kiss him, but before I could turn my lips toward his he abruptly stood up and told me he must get back to Pine Knot before Janet wondered where he was. He lies and tells them he is checking on the progress of the renovations of this small hunting cabin. He told me Janet is very tied up with the children and spends her nights sleeping on the Barque of the Pine, to get away from the biting insects. He told me that if she is not on the Barque, then he is. The two of them hardly speak. I do not think they share a bed anymore.
Minnie
The next morning Avery woke up to the yodel of the common loons echoing across the lake. She made coffee in the percolator and sat on the front porch to take in the view and inhale the aroma of balsam and cedar. The loons wailed again. She pointed the binoculars in the direction of the sound and squinted into the lens, looking for the beady red eyes, the ring of white around the neck, and speckled white-on-black plumage. She landed on them: two birds bobbing around at the shore in front of the dock. Mates.
The lake looked tempting, and she knew the water in the solar shower would not be warm yet. She retrieved her towel, left it on the beach and walked toward to the water’s edge. She waded in until the water reached her calves. It was freezing cold, at most fifty degrees Fahrenheit. It would not warm up until July. She went in further. The cold sent shivers up her legs and into her chest. It reminded her of when she was a little girl at her grandfather’s cabin on Schroon Lake and she and her brother would dare each other to be the first one in for the season. A few steps further and the water was at her waist. She just needed to do a quick dive and it would be over.
“Hey, what the hell are you doing?”
Avery was shocked, not only from the cold. It was Jake, as startled by her nakedness as she was by his presence. Her surprise turned to anger. She quickly ran out of the water and grabbed the towel, wrapped it around herself and started for the cabin.
“Hey, Avery, really, what’re ya doing?” Jake asked her as she fumed past him on the shore.
She turned to look at him. My, he had dark eyes. His good looks however did not compensate for his intrusive behavior. What the hell was he doing here this early in the morning?
“I was about to go for a quick swim, obviously,” she said.
“Well, I’m sorry I scared you but that’s crazy,” he said. “I was in a wetsuit yesterday helping a neighbor put his dock in and I can tell you even with a wetsuit I was numb from the cold. You shouldn’t be taking chances like that out here with no one around to watch you.”
She raised her brows. “Why worry when you have that covered?” She stormed off toward the cabin, stopped for a moment and turned. “Just what are you doing here this early?”
Jake glanced around for an answer, setting his eyes on a tall pine hoping it would provide one. “I, I thought I’d come and maybe share a cup of coffee on your porch before I start work?”
Avery softened a bit. He seemed so — sincere.
“Coffee’s in the kitchen. I’m going to shower.” She left him standing there.
He can figure out whether or not I want to share a cup, she said to herself as she went to the back of the cabin to use the shower stall. When she was done she snuck into the front parlor to look out the window. Jake hadn’t left. He was sitting on the porch, coffee mug in hand. She felt a small jolt of excitement.
Returning to her room, she quickly dressed in her field clothes: jeans and sweatshirt. She put her wet hair in a braid and grabbed a mug of coffee for herself. With the stealth of an owl, Avery stepped out onto the front porch and sat down next to him to enjoy the view of the rising sun.
“Nice of you to dress up for me. Although what you had on before wasn’t all that bad,” Jake smiled as he took a sip of coffee.
“Watch it buster,” Avery said, looking out at the lake smiling.
“I tell ya what, I’ll make it up to you. Let me split some of that wood over there.” He nodded his head in the direction of the large woodpile that Avery had not gotten to since last time he saw her working on it.
“Deal,” she said.
“Ok, I’ll get to it after we are done working for the day.”
“And maybe if you’re nice, I’ll make you dinner,” Avery said. And this time she smiled directly at him.
Avery found Tom helping students get into the canoes at the beachfront.
“Mail arrived this morning for you,” he informed her.
She retrieved the package her advisor, Dr. Martin, sent. Inside were the poles and a letter.
Dear Avery:
I hope all is going well with your research. Sorry you left these poles behind; I hope it has not delayed your research. I must admit you have set yourself up for quite the challenge. Eighty percent of the time only females are caught in these nets. Hopefully your work will shed some light as to why. Best of luck, and please keep me apprised of your progress.
Dr. Martin
Avery looked at her watch. Nine am. It was still early enough to trap some owls. Poles in hand, she went out to set up her mist net and audio lure by the Barque of the Pine. Instead of admiring her surroundings while waiting to capture the owl, she sat under a Balsam fir and took Minnie’s diary out of her pack.
June 10, 1893
I haven’t been able to write for a few days, as I have been very busy with Nate. And when I am not with Nate, I am with William. Lately he has been coming by more often. Now instead of visiting with me only in the early evening, he has been stopping by in the middle of the day. He just sits with me on the porch and stews in his thoughts while Nate goes out in his small canoe to catch fish. He tries not to be cross with me, but he doesn’t like it if I ask him too many questions about our future, or his life with Janet.
If he does talk, it is about Camp Uncas. It sounds like it is really coming along. He told me he had a road built so his men could get into the interior where the camp sits on Mohegan Lake. He said it is not accessible by boat. But the six-mile road is so narrow and treacherous it is hard to bring material in and out with a horse or mule. So he had a few of his men use the yokes from the boats and put them on their shoulders with slings to carry in the sawed spruce timber he had chosen for the window frames. He said that his two best men carried three logs apiece this way. I dared not ask why the wood near Uncas was not good enough to use. As it is he has his men setting up blacksmith shops on site so that they can make all of the hardware for the door handles and knobs. William, I’ve come to understand, is a perfectionist.
Minnie
June 15, 1893
Tonight Nate and I did something that would make William very angry with us if he found out. Nate took me hunting by jacklight. We were reading about it in “Adventures in the Wilderness”. It all sounded very exciting to me so I asked Nate whether he had ever done it before.
“Yes ma’am.”
“Well is it like the book says?” I asked him.
“Yes, ma’am, but harder sometimes.”
It was after supper and I knew William was not to come this evening, so I begged Nate to show me how it is done. He was not happy about doing it though. He kept glancing at the path leading to Pine Knot, worried he would see William come walking through the woods. I told him, “Don’t worry Nate, he is not coming tonight, and if he did and does not see us I will tell him we went for a short canoe ride to get away from the mosquitoes.”
And so we set off on our little adventure. Nate had a jacklight all rigged on his little boat. It is an odd thing, just like the book describes it: a piece of wood carved in a crescent moon shape with a birch bark wrapped around it and a hole dug in the bottom for a light to rest in. Nate had a small oil lantern in his. He strung it on the end of a pole that was nailed into the bow of the boat, but he did not light it yet.
We paddled over to Golden Beach and found a small inlet to the lake we could barely make out in the dusk. A few deer were eating the water lilies at the edge of the shore. We were so quiet in our canoe they did not hear us. Then, as it got darker, I lit the small lantern. We waited in the boat, just sat there quietly, letting the boat float in the water. It was so calm. And then it happened. A deer on the water’s edge gazed up and saw the light and was mesmerized by it. It was a buck. He couldn’t take his eyes off the light. Nate paddled closer to him. We were about twenty feet away and he still was not spooked. I raised the rifle Ike had loaded for me so we would be ready for this moment. And then I fired. It had been so long since I had shot a deer, but all of my training as a girl came back to me. Nate was so excited! He couldn’t believe my marksmanship. Ike scrambled out and we managed to lift the deer into the boat. We hurried back to camp where Ike put it in the padlocked icehouse for protection against the bears and wolves. There will be venison for dinner tomorrow — not that I need to worry about being fed here. I told Nate to take some of the meat to his family after he butchers it.
Nate made me promise I would lie and tell William that he shot the deer during the day if asked. He said that Mr. Durant would be very upset if he knew we were out jacklighting.
Minnie
Avery closed the small diary when she heard some noise at the net. Inspecting it she found a bird, but it wasn’t a saw-whet. She checked her watch, it was too late to net any more and she needed to figure out what she was making for dinner.