My Friday, August 19'th Adventure, PART 1:Since this was the first time in a long time that I had been to the area, I took numerous photos, so this report had to be broken up into multiple parts, since I am limited to only 5 photos per posting.
Over the past while, due to numerous injuries, my adventures have been rather scarce, with 11 in 2012, 6 in 2013 (golfer's elbow, knee pain), 3 in 2014 (tennis elbow, knee pain, shoulder pain), and 0 (ZERO) in 2015 (knee pain, shoulder pain, hip pain, some tennis elbow)!
I passed up on having any outings in 2015 due to a combination of fear that my knee/hip pain would get worse, and because I was so involved with my extensive work on a very ambitious water garden project (I will tell/show all about it in an off-topic thread this fall or winter). I still had to be careful now due to knee pain, although I had gone sinking in 2013 and 2014 when my knee injuries were fresher.
This year, trying to get started with my adventures has been an adventure in itself!
I had been going on periodic "rehabilitation" bikerides around the hillside neighborhood to get into shape, and I tried to set a target date of the beginning of July. But, in June, pain returned to the middle of my left knee, below the knee cap, which forced me to back off the length of the "rehabilitation" bikerides and the amount of hill climbing, forcing me to gradually build up the length of the bikerides again, waiting for them to become long enough again, causing me to miss my first target.
Then, I set a target date for the end of July, since I was biking more and climbing hills more. But, my hip pain exploded, which forced me to postpone things again.
July had been rather unsettled for the most part, interrupted with brief breaks of hot weather before another cold low moved in with more thunderstorms and unsettled weather. So, there weren't that many weather breaks for my adventures, anyways.
I set another target date for early August, but my dad's truck was unavailable for taking me up because my brother needed it for produce deliveries.
I had my bike fixed up at the bike shop, so it was all in great shape. My dad didn't want to take me up into the mountains until I proved that I could bike from home to down into the valley and back home. So, I proved that by going to and from Swan Lake Nurseryland, where I checked out their extensive selection of plants. So, my dad was satisfied.
I set another target for mid August, when we finally had a decent heatwave!
But, my brother chose that time to take his family camping and he needed my dad's truck, so there was no truck to give me a lift into the mountains again (something that is essential since my knees have been giving me problems)!
But finally, the following week, things all came together, and on
Friday, August 19'th, 2016, I finally had my
FIRST outing since September 16'th, 2014!
My dad and his truck were handy to take me up into the mountains, past all the big climbs!
So this day officially began my summer!
I finally had the opportunity to find out whether Crescent Road had been rerouted to pass within sight of the hidden liquid mud and sticks pond, which was where I had shot part of my
"Forbidden Shorelines" video a few years ago! I also finally had the opportunity to find out if the upgrading of the sideroad going past my Crescent Road pond for logging has made the entrance more conspicuous from Crescent Road, to find out how much the road had changed, and whether the alders between the road and the east pond had been removed, which would effectively increase the visibility of my sinking spot from the sideroad! I also finally had the opportunity to see if the logging operation had been finished, meaning that the road would have been reverted back to being the quiet sideroad that it had been for years! And, last but not least, I finally had the opportunity to see what my sinking spot was like - whether it had turned into a solid weed patch that would be a lot of work to restore, or if there were patches of exposed mud among the invading weeds to sink into, and whether the mud would be above or below the water level! If there were any mud patches exposed in among the weeds, then I had a good idea for my first video!
For a very long time, I had been in an uneasy state of suspense due to all the images in my head about what things might be like, and whether I would be able to have my first submergence right away! Now, all those unknowns gnawing away at me for so long would finally become... known!!!
To make certain that my dad could be back downtown in time for an appointment at the hospital (something just found out at the last minute), the drop-off had to be timed to around 9:05 am. Because my knees weren't completely 100% and didn't know how they would react to my activities that day, I didn't want to have to climb any big hills to get to my area. Luckily, when the drop-off time came, we had made it up the Crescent Road hill, and he dropped me off right beside the entrance to the hidden liquid mud and sticks pond!
I was really happy to see that Crescent Road was the same as it was before, with no sign of any re-routing that I had been so concerned about!
That hidden pond is still hidden!
So, that was one worry off my mind (although it could still happen in the future)!
When we stopped and I got out of the truck with my things, and I was finally
, actually
, in the region that I had longed/strived to reach for so long
, I guess that all the anxiety over everything that worried/excited me about my areas, that were all being, or going to be, revealed this day, got to me, because I suddenly had a most shocking dizzy spell!
I struggled to keep my balance, and some of my fingers on my hands were tingling like crazy!!!
I was worried that I might have to cancel if I got any worse!
But, after my dad left and I was on my own (he left me his I-Phone for contacting when I was ready to come home), I started to feel better!
I packed my stuff into my saddlebags, and was ready to begin!
First, I dropped my bike off down the grassy part of the trail leading into the woods to the east, out of the sight of the road, and then headed further down the trail and then northward to the hidden liquid mud and sticks pond there. I was so glad it was still hidden!
The water was still rather high, with only a little bit of mud exposed among sticks, with fingers of low muddy ground extending slightly into the woods. After deleting all my previous photos/videos from 2014 from my SDHC card (they were all saved to my computer), I took some pix of the mucky areas around the south end of the liquid mud and sticks pond for backgrounds:
2016 08 19 1A Liquid Mud And Sticks Pond.JPG
2016 08 19 1B Liquid Mud And Sticks Pond.JPG
2016 08 19 1C Liquid Mud And Sticks Pond.JPG
2016 08 19 1D Liquid Mud And Sticks Pond.JPG
2016 08 19 1E Liquid Mud And Sticks Pond.JPG
To Be Continued...
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in the shallower clay further to the south before calling it a day, getting cleaned up, air-dried and dressed. Here are some final pictures of the bog at the end of the day (lower light levels adversely affected the quality of the final two photos):
