entering the river by sliding the canoe down the muddy bank while sitting in it.  As luck would have it Joe realized as he was pushing the canoe into the river that this was probably not a great idea and didn’t hop in to the back seat as was planned.  This meant Sandy was now heading down a 45 degree bank with a nearly empty canoe and no weight in the back.  While Joe managed to stay completely dry with his last minute decision, Sandy dunked the entire front of the boat underwater and from that point on our radios stupidly sitting on the bottom of the canoe no longer worked as communication devices. 

That evening we pulled into an unbelievable camp site on an old oxbow that had been reattached to the river by surprisingly high water levels.  The pull in was a cattle path and we camped on the far side of a fence from this still heavily used area, bearing in mind that it was still the only path back to the river. 

After setting up the tents Joe, Vicky and I got to cooking while Sandy and Nick went off to explore.  They found an electric fence and a silver spoon but that’s a story for another day.  After they came back to camp we had chili for dinner and headed off to a well earned sleep.  The morning wake up would be more interesting then most.

I woke up around 8am to the sound of a large “mooooo” followed by a response from one my friends, “Moo yourself you...” Followed by some words I won’t repeat here.  It turns out Nick and Joe woke up early to test the water with some flies, and all was going well until the cows wandered into their close proximity.  This was no problem for Nick who moved amongst them and petted their brows; Joe was not as popular.  The cows had a more menacing tone for Joe, with one going so far as to raise up (raise up is a relative term with cattle) and stomp his front feet.  Joe decided to move away from the crowd and get some river in between himself and the cows, and it would’ve worked if the river had been deep enough.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t long after Joe had gotten to the other side that the cows started their direct route through the water, up to their chests, directly at him.  He made it back over the fence with the cows close behind, and closing the distance.  At this point the cows lined up along the fence with their heads hanging over.  One said “mooooo” and so I woke up. 

Thankfully they moved on not long after, and Joe and Nick decided to resume their interrupted attempts to catch breakfast.  This proved to be the most successful fishing of the trip, three trout were caught in rapid succession.  Unfortunately, the combined length of the three would have been no more then 12 inches.  Two of these little guys were immediately released back into the river.  The third, however, was released high into the trees behind us as he managed to catch the fly just as it took off from the river for the next cast.  Amazingly a minute later the little guy came flopping out of the forest towards the bank.  Joe picked him up and set him back in the water, presumably with a newly earned fear of trying to eat flies.  This was enough proof that breakfast would be whatever we had packed.  We ate up and set off.

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