I have decided to change the format of my reports, because I got tired of staying up until 2 am for 3 to 4 evenings after each adventure. So, instead of including every single detail I could remember about the day, I will just summarize stuff and get right to the point.
I already posted about the reasons for my delays in getting my season started in this thread and this thread(2 posts), but the wait finally came to an end on Thursday, July 8'th! I waited a couple of hot days to go by to let things warm up, and also on that day everyone would be out for the evening (parents and some relatives from Manitoba), allowing me to transfer my pix and video to my computer, verify that they transferred successfully, and delete them from my new camera, as mentioned here.
I targeted the "mud lake pond" first, to see what it was like. We started the spring with drought-like conditions, with low water levels, before the weather turned wet for the last 3 months. The main pond in the large meadow west of Grizzly Hill, to the southeast of the mud lake pond, where I took pix of cow bones/skull near boggy parts, turned out to be all high water, and the muddy areas that were exposed last year were all flooded due to new beaver dams.
Looked like I wouldn't be able to enjoy a diagonal sink into thick mud that allowed me to trap air in it when I would lift my submerged horizontal body upwards and then lower myself back down to make it fart violently, something I would have loved to have done on video. A second intermediate pond to the west was also high water, with it into the grass. The mud lake pond, I never even got to it, because the surrounding meadow was all underwater. Last August, the mud was only around an inch below the water, but now it is around a foot or so. So much for that area. My main target was the Crescent Road pond, which I saved as my second destination, to give things a chance to heat up nicely. As it turned out, the water level was also high, with water right up into the grass, although closer to the pond, some of the grass/weed mats floated up to form a waterbed, although water would pour over top where it sagged down under my weight.
My sinking spot was mostly exposed! All the work of adding mud to it last year made all the difference in the world!
If it wasn't for me doing all that work last year, it would have been several inches underwater, and a fraction of the size it is now! When I stepped on the weaker mat on the east side of the sinking spot, the mat was giving way, and making a noticeable hissing sound! I took pictures of the sinking spot (see below). I found a large stick, wrapped the legs of my Gorillapod, with camera attached, around it, jammed the stick through the mat of grass on the south side of my sinking spot, got the area framed properly, and dressed in my junk shorts, I had my first sink of the season in 720p HD! 
I was disappointed about the condition of the sinking spot, because I had hoped it to be nice and thick all the way through. But, it had water in the middle of the surface, forcing me to sink into the northwest side. The exposed mud was thick, but under the surface, there was a layer of watery mud, before deeper down it became the nice, thick, gooey stuff that I so badly wished it to be all the way through. As I struggled, I was uncertain whether or not to go all the way under, because it was still cold deeper down. But, I kept on going down deeper and deeper without feeling uncomfortable, and before I knew it, I finally pulled myself under for several seconds before resurfacing again!
All covered in the brown peaty slime, I worked myself up higher, which was easy in the thicker stuff below, and, wiping mud from myself, pulled myself out, the water flowing over the area where I had disturbed the surface of the mud. After wiping mud from my eyes and cleaning my hands, I was able to stop the recording. I cleaned up, got dressed, and had to take a break to warm up.While waiting to warm up, I checked out another bog to the north, because I wanted to re-create a natural bog at home, and wanted to sample some sphagnum moss to see how some of my sundews would respond to being planted in the moss floating on water at home. Last year, that bog had some mud of some depth in limited areas, but not that great, and paled in comparison to the Crescent Road pond. When I got there, the boggy pond was so high, that the water was right across the road! I walked around the bog, which was exposed, collected a handful of sphagnum moss, put it in a bag in my bike, and returned to my main pond.
I had hoped to make a second video of me sinking into the east side this time, but when I probed the east edge with my hand, the top layer of thick mud wasn't as thick a layer as on the northwest side before i had broken it up. So, I decided not to bother with a second video. I had wished that for the video, that I had sunk all the way under without breaking up the surface, because it would have looked better with the surface intact. Perhaps next time.
So, I chose to go in naked and mush up the mud in the entire sinking spot, making it more uniform on top, which made the entire surface watery, until I began to bring up large globs of thick stuff from deeper down, and mixed it with the looser stuff on top, just like I would do with my Edwin Lakes area pond, which due to my late start, I likely won't be working this year. I found that standing still in the middle of my sinking spot, I felt comfortable, even though the mud was on the cool side, until I started moving to new parts of my sinking spot. I loosened it to around 3 to 4 feet all over the place, but ended up missing spots, making the level of the loose mud's soft, gooey "bottom"
rather irregular. I had just felt too chilled to continue after a while, and had to call it quits because it was around suppertime, and I had to get cleaned up, dressed and return home. On the way home, I chased 3 garter snakes off the road, to safety 
, but found a 4'th one that didn't make it before I got there. I was happy my dad had given me a lift that morning, because I wasn't certain if I could have made the climb without getting knee pain, and I would have surely had painful leg cramps in the mud, which would have cut my video short. I even took it easy during the entire day, to reduce the stress on my legs going up the hills. I did feel some leg cramps shortly before I went in for the video, but none during the video and after that.
Vernon hit 34.4˚C, or 93.92˚F, and we had more hot weather since then, with each sunny hot day warming the mud and cleanup water that much more, and each dry day lowering the water levels that much more as well! We had some windy weather recently, which helps to increase evaporation even more , but it was because of a cold low moving over us, which brought us some chillier weather with some showers Monday. But, it is short-lived, and the weather will turn sunny and hot in a couple of days and stay that way for a while, which will help to warm the mud/water up more, and continue dropping water levels!The biting insects were a little annoying, but the insect repellent kept them at bay until it was washed off by the mud. Even then, I wasn't really swarmed by them. I had a few noseeum (midge) bites, and also encountered a couple of leeches. I did get stung on one of my ankles by something that must have been hidden in the grass and objected to being pushed into the water/mud by my foot.
This coming week, after a day or so of sunny hot weather, I will check out the Edwin Lakes area pond briefly to check on its status before returning to the Crescent Road pond to try another video if the mud is exposed, and also to mix the thicker stuff deeper down with the looser stuff on top to give it a more uniform consistency in the top 5 to 6 feet, quickly returning it to a "treacherous"
state! Here are the pictures:
