My Friday, August 26'th Adventure, Continued, PART 2:I returned to the Crescent Road pond, where I dropped my bike off north of the pond, and then had lunch. I then decided to try and do the follow-up mushing of the weeds after all!
Near the area, I stripped, and wrapped and tied a plastic bag around my neck to cover up my sun-sensitive "Imiquimod cream"-treated skin cancer. Initially, I planned on doing some limited work from the edge. But, once I got in, I began to go further out and tried to do most of the mushing within arm's reach of the surrounding vegetation, so that I could limit how deep I sank, since I was a little leery of getting muddy too high up my chest, since the water and mud was cool, and the air, while fairly warm, wasn't as warm as I would have liked. But, once I got into it, I found myself moving closer to the middle (I had been getting accustomed to the temperature), with nothing within reach to keep me from sinking deeper, although I was able to push down on some previously buried/submerged clumps of vegetation, which helped give me some support. However, I was finding that as I pushed stuff down, other plants would then float back up towards the surface because the surface water mixed down into the mud where I pushed them under, made the mud covering them waterier, making me wonder if I was making any difference with my work.
Once again, swamp gas was occasionally bubbling up through the mud/water as it was disturbed.
Since I had gotten in, I noticed that each time I had moved myself around through the mud, or especially tried pulling myself towards the shoreline, my lower stomach muscles would hurt worse!
I hoped that I wasn't getting/worsening a new injury, which would make it too painful to do any mudplay at all in the future!
But, while I was in the center of the patch, I did notice something encouraging.
Last time I was in there, the mud I displaced resulted in a few inches of mud rising to the surface in front of my chest. This time, the mud I displaced resulted in a foot or so of mud rising to the surface, but just barely, with some water washing over it on and off!
So, the water level had indeed dropped!
But still, it would probably take a few weeks of sunny hot weather to make the mud fully exposed, and colder air masses were starting to move down from the north with alarming regularity!
But anyways, I did my best to get things pushed under, and after I got out, it looked like there was less green than there was before I had started this follow-up mushing!
I cleaned up, air-dried, got dressed, gathered my things, and returned to my bike.
2016 08 26 2F Crescent.JPG
Since I was on the cool side from being lower chest deep in the mud and water, not to mention the evaporation from drying off, I had to kill time before trying out the mud in the pond further to the north. So, I decided to revisit a meadow with a shallow pond further to the west, which I had visited once before, back in 2013. Last time, there was water on the south end, and perhaps along the east side, with the ground soft along the north side of the water. So, I biked back to Crescent Road, and headed further up the road, until I recognized the correct sideroad on the north side of Crescent Road, since I remembered that it coincided with another sideroad that was on the south side, which led to more meadows to the southwest. I had to walk my bike northward up the sideroad, since it was going up a fairly steep hill, finding that it was really playing me out, giving me the most exercise I had in a long time!
I parked my bike near some trees in an open area, followed a marshy streambed through the woods northward, and reached the meadow. The meadow had no water left in it at all. There was mud, but I couldn't probe the center, where it would be most worthwhile, since I couldn't get too close to it without getting my shoes muddy. It was full of cattle tracks further away. It wasn't a place with really deep mud, but perhaps enough to mush up for a decent shallow wallow.
But, with no water for cleanup, playing in this area was out of the question.
Besides, I had a better place with mud and cleanup to get to, and I was all nice and warm again!
As I started back through the woods, I decided to turn around and return to that spot to take a picture of some of the mud:
2016 08 26 2G Meadow West Of Crescent.JPG
I returned to my bike and headed back, stopping at a pond beside Crescent Road to take a couple of pictures of the mud there (something I have been doing in previous outings), before continuing on back to my sideroad.
2016 08 26 2H Pond South Of Crescent.JPG
2016 08 26 2I Pond South Of Crescent.JPG
I passed my Crescent Road pond, and parked my bike on the trail northwest of the north pond. Since I wasn't certain whether I was going to try shooting a video there or not, I gathered everything just in case - refreshment, camera, Gorillapod and my junk shorts. I also took my swim goggles and swim cap, because I wanted to keep my eyes and hair clean, since the weather was just marginal for total coverage, and since my mom needed to rub more of that Imiquimod cream on my tumor that evening, I couldn't have a single particle/smear of mud stuck around the area!
I then headed to the pond, set things down by a tree on the northwestern part of the surrounding meadow, and removed my lower clothes for checking things out, because it would save me the trouble of having to clean my muddy legs/feet off before undressing afterwards. I then headed out to probe the mud to find the deep spots using the same stick I used last time. Because the high thin clouds had finally thickened enough to make things overcast, I didn't need to keep my neck covered. I focused on the northern part of the pond, since the more southerly areas were closer to the road where it crossed the stream leaving the area, and would be more visible from there.
Overall, I found it to be mostly shallow, perhaps knee to thigh deep, and perhaps hip deep. But, I encountered a few spots that were shoulder deep, which was encouraging!
I spotted a hornet's nest in one spot, so I stayed away from that. After exploring the northwest, north and northeast parts, I tried to go over things again, trying to find the shoulder deep area that looked most promising, but failed to positively identify it.
I also wanted to find that hornet's nest, because I had thought about taking a picture or video of it (from a safe distance), to be possibly used as a lead-in for a future video. But, I didn't find it again (unless it was just a piece of wood sticking up
).
I then decided to strip the rest of my clothes and probe the areas with my body, to get a "feel" of the area, to find the really soft spots that would be worthy of using for video. I found the mud to be soft, loose, bubbling peat on the surface, ranging from a few inches to a couple of feet, with stiffer peat underneath that, which I could work my legs deeper into. The stiffer peat had some depressions, which was where I could work myself down deeper. Most of the time, the best I could do was work myself to the top of my legs, or to crotch deep.
I could have worked myself deeper, but because of my knee sensitivity, I didn't want to take any chances with stressing them out.
It looked like it was easier to push a stick down to shoulder depth than it was to push my feet and legs.
So, I gave up on shooting a video
, and instead crawled around in the mud all over the north area, until I finally found a spot to have a stimulating horizontal struggle to end things for the day.
During my slogging through the mud, I did try out the soft spots in that bog "ring" where I had shot the
quaking bog videos last time, and found them to be watery underneath, just like I had expected.
All done for the day, I headed onto the sphagnum bog "ring" around the center pond, and cleaned up on the edge of the center pond, finding that the deeper water of the center pond seemed warmer than that in the shallower Crescent Road pond. I air-dried, got dressed, and it was already around 5 pm. I never took any photos of the area, since I had done so extensively the previous time, and now the mud was all disturbed with trails by my activities, and it was getting too late anyways.
I returned to my bike, put my things away, and headed back to Crescent Road, coasted down into the valley, and this time, because I was feeling stronger, I was going a little bit faster, and actually met my dad on the highway instead of Learmouth Road.
It turned out that my dad had been delayed because of a police investigation of a suspected arson fire on the hillside a few houses south from our place!
There had been two suspicious fires several blocks away to the northeast two days earlier, then this one several houses away on this day, and then another blaze started up near Predator Ridge golf course further away down the valley to the southwest the following day!
There have been many suspicious fires around the Vernon area since early this spring! The next day, I took a look at the nearby fire site, and there was scorched grass alongside the road, leading a little ways up the hillside.
I was disappointed that the pond to the north didn't pan out in terms of something for a dramatic sinking video.
But then, I later realized that perhaps I could have shot a video of myself slogging through it.
I have thought about picking out a spot, and working it over and over again to soften the stiffer peat to a deeper depth, but I don't know if that area would stay exposed, or not.
Also, while it is on the opposite end of the pond, it is still in view of the road crossing the south end. I am reasonably satisfied with my follow-up weed mushing in my sinking spot, since it looked like there are less weeds showing than before, and some mud was even poking up to the surface after I got out!
I wished that I could have mixed the water down into the mud, and the mud up into the water to eliminate all the water, and make the mud all exposed and loose, but it would have brought back up all the weeds I had pushed under, forcing me to have to push them all back under again.
I was happy that I never had leg cramps, so my legs were feeling better (perhaps not playing in the cold stiff clay further south helped).
I woke up the following morning, noticing that my tennis elbow seemed to have returned to my right arm after being better for over a year
, but later in the day, it seemed to settle a bit, and vanished the day after, although it seemed to come back very slightly and then disappear again on and off since.
However, my lower abdominal muscles were then sore all the way across, not just on the right side!
I hoped it would go away soon, but it didn't.
I found that when I laid down or sat up in bed, I had to support myself by holding onto my thighs, otherwise I would get worse tearing pain across my lower abdomen, below my belly button, and I would remain uncomfortable for hours or days after!
Then, I found that it hurt to push too hard to pee or shit, although after a few weeks, I was slowly seeing improvement (with no more pain taking a dump). My doctor checked me out and ruled out a hernia, but he ordered blood and urine tests, which came back normal. Hopefully, by next season, I will have recovered and strengthened my stomach muscles to avoid this problem altogether, and will be able to struggle in the mud, and lift myself in and out without problem.
I am not fully certain, but it appears as though the water level in the pond is slowly creeping up year after year, which makes it increasingly necessary to keep adding mud to my sinking spot to keep it exposed.
I think that particular next job, adding more mud to my sinking spot, would be easier when the sun is cooking the water next May, June, or early July instead of now, when the water is feeling so frigid due to our seasonal cooling.
Because of my lower abdominal muscle pain (still bothering me as of October 1'st), I decided that it wasn't a good idea to go on any more adventures this year anyways, forcing me to pass up on three more opportunities between late August and late September.
Also, it is now
HUNTING SEASON, so there is an elevated risk of being seen by people with
LIVE FIREARMS driving up and down that sideroad, especially since it is a little bit more visible, although a line of trees between my pond and the east pond seem to be getting larger.
And, my skin cancer on the back of my neck should be gone by Christmas, with no more treatments by next spring, and my abdominal muscles will be in better shape.
So, my 2016 season (Aug 19'th, Aug 26'th) has ended for the year, starting and finishing before my 2014 season (Aug 27'th, Sept 7'th, Sept 16'th) even began! I am now keeping my fingers crossed for a much better 2017 season!
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wallow there, before cleaning up my upper front of my body in the tinier pond there and heading back to my main sinking spot, happy that I didn't hurt myself. So far, so good! 