Day 2

Day 2
I slept in till 10, I was exhausted and wanted to give Shawn my paddling buddy a chance to catch up. The day was clear and warm as I packed up camp and prepared to another day on the water. I hung around camp till about 11 waiting to see if Shawn came paddling by, with no sign of him I pushed off and pointed the canoe down river. My map warned the next 2+ miles had abundant vegetation, lucky for me I had no problems and the river continued switching back and forth through the marsh. Towards the middle of my day I rounded a bend to see two Sandhill Cranes doing a mating dance. Both had their wings held high, necks stretched skyward and were lifting their feet into the air dancing in circles while giving their strange mating call. While they were unaware I was there, I was doing my best not to laugh at the crazy marsh dance happening in front of me. Towards the end of the day I was gaining confidence in how to pilot my canoe through all the winding turns and wondering, Where was Shawn? As I rounded the bend towards camp I was greeted with a smiling stranger fishing on the landing. The young man introduced himself as Joe and told me he and Shawn had passed me early in the morning. Camp for the night would be Bear Den, a small meadow situated on top of a bluff overlooking the marsh for miles around. We had built a small fire and spent dinner talking of all the beautiful things we had seen the last two days. Before the sunset we were all in our tents and sound asleep, not even the thunderstorm that passed that evening could keep my tired eyes open for more than a moment.