huntndog
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Jul 2003
Location: Jersey County, Illinois
Posts: 115 |
Nightmare in the bottoms
Going in to dogs treed on a small island in the edge of a duck-hunting slough. The water was up in the bottoms from lots of rain. Water started out ankle deep then gradually got up to my knees and then lots of thick buck brush to fight through. When I got in there a few hundred yards I fell down two times from tripping on roots, face down and stretched out. I was getting close to the dogs so I kept going. I could finally almost see them when I guess I stepped off the edge of the slough and went completely over my head. Bobbed up and down and scratched and clawed my way back up to waist-deep water. Got everything soaked - Garmin, rifle, dog-tracker...
I must have zigzagged going in because when I said - screw the dogs - and tried to wade back out the way I came, I kept stepping off into deeper water again. (Thankfully, I was feeling my way along so I didn't go over my head again) I floundered around for at least an hour or more, trying to find a way out. Now I wasn't even sure which way the higher ground was. I had marked the truck's location on my old Garmin, but the needle kept going from one direction to another since I couldn't move forward enough for it to get a good reading. It was smooth cloudy and I couldn't use the stars for direction (I knew I needed to go East). Now I was slap wore out and starting to get cold and worried. I even fired my rifle 3 times to try and attract the attention of my buddy who had gone back to the truck to see if I'd went there since I had been gone so long. (He later said he never even heard my gun)
By now, I'm praying to the Good Lord for help. He answered my prayer and I finally remembered I had a compass that screwed on the top of my scope - I knew I needed to go East to higher ground. I eventually found a way to get to higher ground and East by wading waist deep water and picking my way around spots that were over my head.
When I got to knee-deep water, I stopped to rest and "give thanks". I tried to raise my frogleggs up on a log to drain out the water but I was too weak and tired to do so, so I slogged on and made it out to a levy and headed North to the truck. My buddy saw my light and came to me and carried the gun back. We left the dogs in the woods and we drove back to the house so I could get some dry clothes on and drink a quick cup of coffee. Then we went back and retrieved the dogs.
I've been in much thicker places before, but none I'd call the "I think I might die" variety.
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