October 2020 • Nebraskaland 49
where the birds were.
"I'll just work my way through the
cattails until I get to the other side," I
thought. Man, I was wrong.
I started making my way through
the cattails, as I had planned, but by
the time I fi gured out that it was a
terribly bad idea, I was too far in to
turn around. I have never seen thicker
cattails, ones where I had to lift my
legs to my chest for every step before
taking another. I began using my
empty shotgun as a walking stick. I
contemplated climbing to the top of
a clump of cattails and rolling across
them, uncaring of how wet I would get.
I even turned around and checked
to see how much daylight I had. It was
11 a.m., and I thought it was 50/50
that I would make it to the other side
of the cattails before nightfall. Plus, I
was getting dehydrated. All the while
ducks continued to quack from the
other side of the worst walk of my
life — and that's saying something for
some of the places I've hiked through.
After checking my Onyx app, a must
when looking to see what lands are
available to hunt, I became even more
frustrated as it told me that I should
be out of the cattails. My legs were
shaking and burning from fatigue.
Finally, I made it into a clearing. I was
past it. Without a duck in sight, I quietly
loaded my gun and began to ease my
way west down the line of cattails.
While I've had many adventures throughout my hunting and fi shing career, my fi rst trip to the Rainwater Basin will always
hold special memories for me. It was mind-boggling in every sense of the word, and I couldn't be more happy I did it.
While I've had many adventures throughout my hunting and fishing career my first trip to the Rainwater Basin will always
