Sounds like a nice back up adventure for your buddy bailing on you.
If the ground is soft like some of the places I hunt in MT when it rains then I can imagine quite easily the grunt it was to pull that boat and deer hauler through the muck. There are a couple places here in FL where the dikes can get squishy when wet and makes hauling stuff or riding your bike through it a pure nightmare.
Thanks for sharing what you ended up doing...
Dani