It was day one of the hunt. October 8, 2001. I was wearing my lucky cowboy hat, traveling with a group of executives from our company, mostly from Tulsa, Oklahoma. We were headed to Lake Mollet near Kuujjuarapik, Quebec, Canada for a Quebec-Labrador Caribou hunt.

I should have known that it was going to be a bad trip by what happened in Paris. I met Ken Barr 18 years ago when we were assigned as Yurt mates for a Chinese blue sheep hunt in Tibet. We became good friends, and when he booked a bongo hunt in Central African Republic (CAR), he bugged the hell out of me to go along. He knew I had not been successful on three prior trips to CAR in my quest for giant forest hog and yellow back duiker. My wife did not want me to go to CAR again since I nearly drowned in the Bodinge River there during trip number three, The Safari From Hell! Sweet talker that I am, she finally agreed.

The last thing I envisioned for myself that summer was discovering that I was in the middle of a 30-year old minefield with no one near enough to hear any calls I might make. For obvious reasons, no one would be going to that particular beach for an afternoon of sunbathing. So, how did I get in such a situation?

I've been hunting in Africa for 14 years, but two years ago my good friend, Mark Haldane with Zambeze Delta Safaris, recommended I purchase a Global Rescue membership. Mark is a very level headed guy who wants the best for his clients, so I decided to take his advice and join Global Rescue. I hoped it was a waste of money, of course, but I soon found out that no international hunters should be without a membership.

My story is true, and it starts on a cold day in November, 2011 when I took Jim, a client of mine, into a remote part of my whitetail hunting area that is only accessible in the latter part of November. Due to the muskeg and creeks you have to cross to get into this area, I seldom see another hunter. My whitetail/black bear hunting area is in Saskatchewan, some three hours north of Saskatoon.

My crazy story happened mid-year 2007, but I need to tell you a bit about myself before I tell you what happened. I have always loved animals of every kind. As a kid, my backyard looked like a zoo because my dad built me so many cages for critters. As I got older, my love for animals stayed with me. In fact, it morphed into a fascination with exotic reptiles, amphibians, fish, and fur-bearing critters. I even adopted a pet deer, which I still have today. The reptiles I collected included both venomous and non-venomous species.