Easy answer. My first hunt in FL after moving down there. There was some land in central FL available for lease and they had a deal where you could come to hunt some of the non-club land semi-guided to check it out for a price. Me and a buddy decided to check it out and see what it was all about. It was to be a 2 day hunt over 3 days, being evening, morning, evening, then morning on the last day. On the first day they were supposed to drive you around the land on a swamp buggy (a necessity in much of FL) then let you pick out a stand to hunt in the evening. There was supposed to be services there to skin and quarter your animal if you wanted and plenty of ice for meat storage.
Well, right before the hunt we got hit with a September hurricane. I called the place up and the owner said they got some water, but no real damage. I asked if we should head up and he said he would get back to me. After hours of waiting I finally called him and he said "Yeah, come on up we'll be here."[:@] So we head up there and make the 2 1/2 hour drive and by time we get there it's too dark to even check out the property let alone hunt. Night 1 gone. So we get to the campsite where we were going to set up a tent and it is under water. Fortunately they had a camp bunk that you could use. Nothing fancy, 4 walls and a roof with 2x4 bunks and moldy mattresses with a single bulb powered by a car battery, but it's better than sleeping in the mud.
After a restless night of sleep and being a pint low thanks to the mosquitos we get up and wait for the guide to take us to the stands. 4:00 turns to 4:30, then to 5:00, then 5:15 and no guide with hints of the sun peaking up over the horizon. Finally we get a call on my cell from the guide saying his buggy broke down and he's on his way with another. He picks us up and drops my buddy off 40 yards from his stand. We get to the edge of some lowland swamp and he looks at me and says, "You got knee boots right?" I said yes and he said, "Good, I gotta get back to the buggy to fix it. What you're gonna do is head about 100 yards straight ahead and through some brush and your stand will be on the left." Keep in mind it is still very dark and I'm on land that I have never been on or even seen a map of before. I look straight ahead and all I see is inky black swamp water. After getting down and grabbing my bow I couldn't even ask a question before he was gone. Well my knee boots were worthless as I waded through waist deep water (hurricane) that was infested with gators and water mocassins. Finally I reach the brush and it's an impenetrable wall of saw palmetto. The reason it's called SAW palmetto for those of you who aren't familiar it's because it will lay you open if you try to go through it. So after wondering how I'm going to get through this brush I decided to go around it. My flashlight darting along the water's surface occasionly catching the eerie glow of eyes only to have them disappear into the depths and wondering if their owner was now coming or going.
After about 45 minutes it was light enough to see and I found a cut that I went around and then made it to my stand. I saw some hogs, but I was there for deer so I let them go. My buddy was down from up north and he wanted to shoot a hog, and all he saw were deer (go figure). So around 11 the guide pulls up right beside my stand to pick me up. Why he couldn't have done that in the morning I still don't know since it took us 30 seconds to get to where he dropped me off.
We went back out for the evening hunt and I saw the same group of hogs and decided to take one since I had never shot a hog before. I put my 30 yard pin on the biggest sow and shot right over her back.[:@] Fortunately, they scattered and then came back giving me another shot and I was money on this one. Double lung and I heard her pile up not too far away with a death squeal.
We tracked her, found her, anddragged her outto wait forthe guide to come and we put her on the buggy. I asked if he could quarter her out for us because we were wiped and he said he couldn't because he still had to fix the buggy, great service. He saidhe would bring us some ice though. So we quartered her out ourselves in 95 degree heat and 100% humidity getting eaten alive by the insects of the swamp. So we get her quartered and in the cooler and by now all of our ice has melted so we need some desparately. The guide came back and said the ice machine was broken, big surprise
. I asked where the nearest gas station was so I could go get some and he said, "Well,it ain't gonna do you no good, it's past curfew so the gates are locked. Noone gets in or out." Huh?!?![&:]
So I had to wait until the next morning. I cut my hunt short so I could go get ice and I had to wait at the gate for someone to let me out for 1 hour 45 minutes (time that I could have been hunting). I go to the station the gave me directions to and they don't sell ice!!! So I get back and we pack our stuff up and leave and hit the first station we find that has ice and buy some and open the cooler and the meat stinks to high heaven.[:'(] We put it on ice hoping for the best but when I got home I decided I didn't want to chance puking up pig for days on end so I dumped it in the canal behind our house. At least the fish ate well.
Needless to say, I didn't get a membership at that place.