Surviving The Pit of Despair

First of all, Burney got his buck. Second, OMG!, it was in the deepest darkest, most desolate crater on the whole property. Burney had taken a buck there about 10 years ago and after we got it out, everyone pledged never to get near that Pit of Despair again.
While loading my deer, Burney showed up and said he had a deer, then told me where it was. OMG! I almost had another heart attack. But gamely, Mark, Burney, Crosby

and I went after it. We had two flashlights, a smoking 4-wheeler and 50 feet of rope.
We followed a narrow trail downward until it became so narrow you had to stand sideways to stay on it with 100 foot drops on either side, ( a mountain goat would not be stupid enough to go down it, but we did) then at the end rappelled down into a beautiful little valley with a flowing stream. Perfect to get a deer. Then I looked up at the mountain above us to drag the deer out. OMG!  Move the deer 5 feet, it slid back 3. We had to get 3/4 the way up before the rope would reach the maximum limit that the 4-wheeler was able to back down the trail. Finally, finally we hooked on and got the deer out. I will never go back into that hateful Pit of Despair again!