Worst one I ever did was pack my son into the Unitas for the Youth hunt. Lost the Cabelas Outfitter Lodge on the pack in. We spent the night and he hunted the opener, passing on a spike. Forecast to storm so we covered our gear and rode out, back tracking. Didn't find the tent so we headed to Vernal to buy a cheap dome tent. Called the house and told the wife to order a new tent for my next hunt. Storming on Sun so we hunted low around base camp. By now we had wasted Sat afternoon and all day Sun. Loaded the horses up early Mon morning and took back off. At the trailhead, in the dark, I told my son that looks like the tent. It was set up next to a truck with no one around. We got to our gear just after daylight. While loading our gear to pack in further, a guy shows up and said his son had killed a bull and would I use my horses to help them. Initially I told him we'd already wasted 2+ days of my sons hunt and declined explaining my tent story. The guy told me he had my tent and if I helped him, I could have my tent back. I gave that guy a look that I've back harden convicts down with and thought, what the heck, I've gotta ride back down the mountain anyways. I put my son on an edge of a meadow and went to help. They hadn't done anything to the animal. I quartered it, they helped me load it. They informed me that they had slept in my tent the night before cause it was bigger than theirs and it was set up near the trailhead. They had found it on the trail and put it in their truck before I'd come back down the trail Sat afternoon.
I packed the elk out to their camp, removed their crap, rolled up the tent, loaded it on the pack horse and stuck around shooing birds and insects off of their meat til they got there. They didn't even have meat bags. When they got there I got a quiet thank you from the 15 year old and a complaint from the dad cause I'd laid their sleeping bags over the meat to keep the bugs and birds off.
That whole thing felt wrong from the time the guy told me I could have my tent back if I helped him. In the future I'll help when it feels right but if it feels wrong, you are on your own.
