Was hunting some public ground near the confluence of the Tombigbee and Black Warrior rivers with some of my buddies. We had parked the boat about 2 miles up the Tombigbee and scattered. The plan was to meet at the boat about 10:00 and head in for breakfast. Was a beautiful crisp October morning and the white oaks were raining acorns. Deer were on their feet and I had several in bow range. The only downside was the near constant buzz of the unofficial state bird. Mosquitos were everywhere and I had doused myself with DEET. Was comfortable up in the tree and the deer were quite comfortable upwind eating acorns. I was waiting on a buck but was covered up with big does. After a while with no buck sighting my mind turned to grilled backstraps and started to seriously consider shooting a big doe that was Hoovering groceries at 15 steps. No sooner had the thought crossed my mind and the woods exploded. White tails scattered in every direction along with the trademark snorting.

I was rechecking the wind when the source of the commotion came trudging up the riverbank. It was still prime time so a hunter with bow in hand and stand on his back was not expected. I whistled to let him know I was there and he marched to the base of my tree. Guy asked "have you seen my boat?" No I answered we got here way before daylight. He then stated "it must have been stolen" and wanted to know if we would take him back to the ramp. He had been walking back and forth upriver for most of the morning because he had forgotten his OFF and couldn't stand the mosquitoes. I dropped him an extra bottle from my pack.

Looking at the clouds of insects surrounding his head and the bite marks and scratches from wondering, I started to have some pity for him even after messing up my hunt. So I asked where he parked the boat. HIs answer was just a little bit up the river from where the rivers joined but he had walked upstream since daylight and know he didn't walk past it. I told him he was at least 2 miles up the Tombigbee and saw his expression change. He admitted he parked his boat on the Black Warrior. He has spent 2 hours walking upstream of the wrong river. I offered to ride him back to his boat but he thanked me and started back downstream. No compass, no map and honestly no clue.