Tough breaks.
I hope you acted swiftly to get refunds on as many aspects of the trip as possible to minimize your losses.
Coming from afar with a minimum of knowledge and doing it on a shoestring, IMHO you were right to cancel your trip and apply the remaining capital towards "next time".

As a safety net, consider a summer trip out to visit your friend --- go stomp around where you will do the hunting (take and use your GPS). Check the cell phone coverages and find out who the local meat haulers are. Meet some of your friends elk hunting buddies if any. It may not be a complete "safety net" but is obviously more than you have now and you appear to be a "planning" kind of guy.

Good luck,
EKM