Hunting alone

One late November day I decided to go hunting. My wife on holidays in the far east, my regular hunting partner off to the doctor. The area I was to hunt 412 on the hunting map, an area I had hunted for many years. The drive from NE Calgary in the dark timed to arrive at the cut line I was to hunt at daylight. Not a soul in the world knew were I was.

The game that day would be white tail deer, a light dusting of snow showed numerous tracks. The rifle today a savage 243 with accu trigger, Winchester 100 gr power points the bullets.

Well dressed for the cold, with back pack well stocked with food water for a daylight to dark hunt if necessary, I had taken many deer out of this area.

The white tail deer buck is for the most part a difficult animal to hunt, shy, cautious, excellent eyes, ears, and nose. In total tune with there environment, push them to hard and they will go nocturnal. There weakness of course the female and during the rut they can act just plain silly.

I walked slowly down the cut line breeze in the face, advantage hunter, sun not yet up, but legal shooting light.

The morning passed, so far I had seen no deer. I walked out a small ridge, an embankment about 15 feet to my right, this to view a clearing, I paused to look around. I spotted a big doe about 70 m on the edge of the clearing. The doe was legal after the first of November, but I was not about to give up my tag yet, the large tracks in the area told me there was most likely a nice whitetail buck in the area.
The next thing i remember was waking up , there was blood on the snow, I driven a tooth through my lip on my fall off the embankment, I rolled over thinking that was pretty dumb, and inspected for damages, everything seemed find until I tried to get up.

The left ankle was broken, this hunting trip was over, I was about a kilometer from the road. I had hit my head in the fall, took me a few minutes to figure out were I was. I found a small round stick to use as a crutch I found out quickly that was not going to work, I was going to have to crawl.

I began the crawl, the ground was mosey with some light wet snow, progress slow,this was going to take a while. The temperature dropped it started to snow, I continued to crawl. The head trauma didn't help the stops became more frequent, for the first time I had my doubts that I could make it. I continued to crawl as the feeling of dread increased, I still had the rifle strapped to my back, that was staying with me, afraid some animal can smell my blood and would come to haunt me. I finally broke out on the main cut line, the grade increased, as did the cold and snow, my knees by now cut bruised and numb. The reality of the situation was no way would I ever make the truck. I would have to try and survive the night, get my strength back. Then I realized my rookie mistake, I had left the bag with rain gear which I should have put on as well  matches food and water, dumb, dumb, dumb I was going to die here. 5 seasons I had hunted this cut line I had never saw anyone, not once......

Feel hopeless and few more hours passed not sure how long..... Then I heard someone spoke to me, what are you doing there? I looked up two workers with hard hats were standing there, I barely able to reply with chattering teeth-- I fell and broke my ankle.

The two workers carried, dragged me to my truck, with the heater on full, some water and snack, I was feeling pretty good. They offered to drive me to the hospital, by now feeling pretty good I said no thanks I can make. It I have always regretted never getting their names, they saved my life. Later at the hospital the doctor told me my ankle had shattered like an egg, a serious injury and would take months to recover. I don't hunt alone as  much as I use to, and when I do never as far from the road, after all its not a good idea to hunt alone.