Took a shot too late in the day in a swampy area and hit a deer but it ran deep into the forest. I tracked its blood trail for about an hour until I realized I must not have hit it in a vital area and it was long gone. By then I was way into the forest and it was FILLED with these big waterholes that went hundreds of feet down. The bedrock was porous limestone and the water had created these giant sinkholes, which then accumulated rainwater and dead leaves. One wrong step and BLOOP, down you went. It was November and the light was already pretty thin and I had to spend the night there, since I was not going to risk a late night swim trying to walk out. I only had my daypack, so it was a tarp, a space blanket and a space bag (like a space blanket but taped to be a sleeping bag). That added to my wet/cold weather gear was pretty much it. Made a fire and tried to stay as close to it as I could for the night. I have rarely been happier to see daylight as I was the next day. Of course, it snowed during the night, so getting out became that much harder as many of the pits now had a coating of snow over them so they were camoflauged. I had to pick along with a long stick to keep from going into one, and that meant it took forever to get back to my truck. Ugh!
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