An Alaskan moose-hunting saga, part 4: Getting the meat out

I’d planned the previous night to be out of this hell hole, but I’d lugged my canoe and its contents only a mile in 14 hours. I still had a quarter mile to go. Although I hadn’t planned to camp, I had been lucky to keep some of my clothes dry.
The clothes I’d been wearing were soaked from the creek and from the rain. The last dry clothes I had left were a great comfort when sleeping that night. When I woke up, it was hard to bend my fingers. Blisters had erupted where my fingers met my palms. It hurt to hold things.