Only done deer or elk hunting before, and that was a long time ago when I was a kid in Idaho. But if we didn't harvest the animal within a day's drive of a meat locker, we would always string it up and gut the animal and clean it as best we could and then get out as fast as we could to save the meat. You probably weren't looking to harvest any meat (although curious if you did, how does it taste?), but did you still go through that process, or just pack it out "full". Seems like it was likely cold enough it wouldn't spoil or smell too much from decay.