This one deserves its own post…

On that first trip down the Gila River about 20 minutes in, we watched a great big blue crane slowly lift into the air right in front of us and fly a couple hundred yards downriver. Aside from a couple cows this would be the only wildlife we would see, though we would hear plenty of mysterious creatures shuffling through the brush day and night. Still, a pretty cool sight, it would happen repeatedly the whole day. We would float for a few minutes, and that crane would lift take flight. Alex and I decided to name him Phillip for no reason at all. Philip was a step ahead of us the whole way, we assumed he was having a pretty good time watching the two of us crash through the scratchy branches hanging over the river and capsize our canoe, wailing and shouting and splashing around like maniacs.

By the end of the first day we were too exhausted and battered to be filled with wonder and quickly forgot about about Phillip. We slept through the night as best we could and slowly rose the next day… We were in no hurry to subject ourselves to more of what had come the previous day but there was no way to avoid it. Back on the water and sure enough, there was Phillip! We were surprised to see he hadnt abandoned us and assumed he had just picked a safe spot on the other side of the river to crash out. As we floated it seemed he was letting us get closer and closer before he would take flight. We continued doing our thing and Phillip did his thing. and throughout the day Phillip kept a close eye on us… The day wore on and Phillip surely had a good time watching us slowly make progress, finally he landed on the bank at a somewhat narrow part of the river and as we floated towards him he held fast, We couldnt have been 10 feet away from him as he stood high on his legs, slowly spread his wings wide as if to show us what he was all about, his wingspan was huge, nearly six feet for sure, and then, as if almost in slow motion, he beat his wings downward and lifted into the air. This time he made a large slow circle above our heads and turned back upriver. It was kind of a bummer, we thought, as if Phillip was done with us. But five minutes later we floated around the bend and there was my truck. Phillip knew that our trip had come to an end. Phillip, our trusty animal guide lead the way and scouted ahead for us. Two days, 35 miles of scrapes, bruises,disaster and best of all. Adventure!