After waiting another two weeks, the weather finally turned nice, with the forecast for Saturday, June 4'th calling for sunshine, with a high of 28˚C, or 82˚F!
I don't usually like to go on weekends, but I didn't want to wait until the following Monday, which was supposed to be just as warm, just in case the forecast changed for the worse. But, anyways, I hoped that things would be quiet in the mountains, since many people would want to be at home to watch the Canucks game final#2. I just couldn't wait to see what effect the heavy rain had on my slide area, especially since it had resulted in a mudslide elsewhere, which hit into one or more homes! With the warmer weather, I was hoping to try getting deeper in the quicksilt, and perhaps even try and pull myself sideways deeper, or even under! My dad gave me a lift into the mountains, and dropped me off at around 8:43 am. When he left, I suddenly realized my helmet was missing!
I had left it in the truck! 
And to make matters worse, my camera was inside the helmet! I COULDN'T BELIEVE THAT I HAD FORGOTTEN TO TAKE THEM OUT OF THE TRUCK!!!! Since my dad gave me his cell phone, I couldn't contact him, and if I phoned home, he wouldn't have gotten the message until he got home, or to my brother's farm, that is if he didn't notice the helmet and camera sitting in the truck before then! Anyways, he wouldn't want to come back all the way to give me those items, since it took up precious time and valuable gas.Hoping that he might discover my things right away and return to find me, I hung around the drop-off area, deciding to check out some junk that had been dropped down the hillside. I smelled the stench of some dead animal, and searched around to see what it was, finding some bones and feathers, brown from decayed flesh, laying on a bag, which turned out to be a poultry feed bag (there were several empty bags like that laying around). So, it must have been a discarded dead chicken. I also found a huge Calgary Flames towel laying on the hillside, which looked brand new! I moved it higher up the hillside, to be retrieved on my way back home.
I was then on my way, continuing with my bikeride, having to change my plans drastically, since I couldn't shoot any videos or take any pictures without my camera!
A number of potholes in the road still had water in them, making me more anxious to see what all the extra rain would do to my sinking area! 
I reached the entrance to the clifftop at around 9:45 am, and I took a quick look down at the older eastern part of the slide area, seeing some indications of silt washed over the ground, but looking largely unchanged from before, having dried out years ago. I walked my bike through the bushes to my usual hiding spot, and got out my things, including my lunch and Kook-Aid, as well as another 4 litre milk jug for transporting water. But this time, there was no need for my junk shorts or my margarine containers containing the gorillapod, since I wouldn't be doing any shooting of videos.
I took off my pants to be in my shorts, which I had worn underneath.I headed down the hillside, and down the silty hillside below the cliffs, down to the debris field. The ground was definitely damper in general, and I was happy to see that my cleanup basin had 4 inches of water in it!
That would reduce the number of trips I would have to make refilling it, and the third milk jug would reduce it even more! There were mosquito larvae in it, but I felt they wouldn't mind sharing the water (including what I was going to add) with me during cleanup. I took off my sweater, to be in a t-shirt, since it was getting warm already.The first thing I did was take my makeshift weighted backpack out of its hiding place under slabs of bark under a small tree, and place it on a fallen tree, in the sunshine, to help it dry, since it was so damp. I then carefully dug out the clay that had settled to the bottom of the cleanup basin, taking care to pull it out without getting it loosened in the water. Then, I proceeded to fill up the cleanup basin with the two milk jugs I had hidden in the valley bottom, and the third one I had just brought, which I had to rinse out better in the sidestream, since some residue (specks) of sour milk was still in there, even after I had rinsed it at home a couple days earlier. In between trips, while I was heading back down for water, I stopped at my previous sinking spot, and dug a tiny trench with my hand to drain the water away that was on top of it. But, I could see water oozing in from the backside (uphill). When I was gathering water, I wished that I had my camera with me, because I wanted to take pictures of what appeared to be two different types of skunk cabbage growing there, one with plain green leaves and one with dark green bands on the leaves. I was happy with how quickly the cleanup basin filled up, and took one extra trip to have cleaner water sitting in the three jugs.
I sat down and had lunch. Partways through it, I applied sunscreen to my back, shoulders and front, to give my skin time to absorb it before my sink under the hot sun. After I had lunch, I headed southward, to walk around the southwestern part of the debris field, trying to get a look at the southwestern edge to see if anything was soft, but found nothing as I headed eastward. I headed back north, to the location of my old cleanup pond, long since dry, located east of my current area and just east, over a rise, from my original staging area. I then returned westward, back to my area.
Now, I was ready to have my first sink of the day!
I stripped, taking off my hat as well, and headed down to my sinking area. Since it was very early in the afternoon, I decided not to have too deep a sink yet, saving a deeper one for later on, once things heated up more. So, therefore, I never bothered to use the backpack for the first sink.I decided to have a sink in the same soft spot I had sunk in last time, a patch which had deer prints in it, meaning a deer walked through, sinking only an inch or less in the mud, which when agitated can make you sink much deeper!
There was still some water on top, so I swished it off with my hands. With the surface now free of water, I was ready to begin! Doing my quicksand dance, I agitated the wet, somewhat soft ground with my feet, with the ground turning to rubbery jelly rather quickly!
Facing west, I stood in the middle and began to pump my feet, the rubbery ground giving way and sucking down my feet and legs. I noticed that it was quite a bit thicker than last time, and felt really wonderful! 
It felt rubbery solid, but continued to give way slowly as I continued to pump my legs. As I continued to sink, I hoped that it wasn't at a point where it could pack around my feet, since I have had that happen in other years in places I had re-used after they had gotten thicker after previous sinks. I just kept on making sure that the mire stayed loose around my legs and feet, and continued to enjoy the sink, also being leery of any leg cramps coming on, since it was going to take a while to escape from this thicker stuff, which would seem like an eternity if I was in constant excruciating pain from cramps. When the voracious ooze rose up to around my waist, it made some interesting sounds as I swayed back and forth vigorously, but water was pooling around me a bit, making slurping sounds as I struggled as it ran into the brief gap between me and the rubbery mud during my swaying motions. I also had my hands down into the mire, getting them "stuck", and then pushing them up, which helped me get sucked down deeper. I sunk down past my belly button, strongly held in the muscular grip of the undulating ooze. But, due to my buoyancy, my descent was coming to a stop.
I wanted to try sitting back, but the action of moving my abdomen back resulted in the mud behind me bunching up, and in front of me depressing a bit, resulting in the water that had been pooling behind me running around to be in front of me, which wasn't the best, especially since it was a bit on the cool side. In fact, the mire itself was somewhat chilly, but warmed up to me nicely, although my feet were aching a bit. I just continued to enjoy the feel of the sucking silty quicksand, holding me tightly, struggling and feeling its grip. Then, imagining that I was helplessly stuck and about to be gulped down to my death in this pulsating quagmire, I struggled vigorously until my body was wracked by convulsions of ecstasy!
I lingered for a while and continued to struggle, enjoying the feel of the thick ooze that had such a strong grip on my body. But, because of the coolness of the muck and the pressure it had on my legs, along with the way it tightened it grip when I applied any stress to the mire, I decided that I better begin extracting myself before leg cramps, which now seemed to be imminent, had a chance to develop.
So, I slowly began to work myself out, lightly pumping my legs while pushing down on the more solid (less giving) ground to my sides with my hands. It was a very long, slow process, with me feeling my legs slowly slip up through the rubbery silt. I couldn't lift my legs too much, or the muscular grip of the quicksilt would tighten around them to the point where I could likely develop the dreaded cramps! So, I continued to go at it slowly. Once my crotch began to get to the surface, I was able to alternate between working each leg up a little. I lifted a leg up until the mire locked up, lowered it until the mire loosened, and then lifted it again until the mire once more locked up, with the leg getting progressively higher each time. Once I began to lose leverage in that leg, I switched to the other leg and repeated the process until I lost leverage in that leg, at which point, I would go back to the other leg. As I got closer to extracting my legs, I did begin to feel some leg muscles start to tighten up, but repositioning my feet, and relaxing any stress helped. I then continued to work my legs up carefully, until I was able to extract my feet all the way, with the mire making sucking sounds. I was now free of the "inescapable" silty quicksand, just barely averting the onset of leg cramps!
I agitated the mire to eliminate the impressions and swished off the water that was pooling on top. Then, facing west, I got on my hands and knees in the patch of mire I had just escaped from, and with my knees bent, I pumped my bent legs, with the rubbery surface of the heaving mire sucking them back down, knees first, rising to my crotch. I bent over, placing my hands on the ground in front of me, which swallowed them whole, but there was a stiffer rubbery layer which was slow to give way, due to it being further away from where I was originally sinking, and where I hadn't agitated it enough. So, I laid my arms down in it, which then sucked them in, with me having to readjust their position a bit. Then, imagining that I had fallen into deadly quicksand, feeling the mire cradling my front and crotch, gripping my legs and forearms, about to suck me down completely to my demise if I didn't escape, brought my stimulation once again to the exploding point!
Now, I was finished with my first series of sinks. So, I worked myself out of the gripping mire, which had a strong hold across the back of my knees until I broke the suction. I then agitated the rubbery ooze to remove my impressions.
I got myself cleaned up at my cleanup basin, noticing that the sun had only warmed up the very top layer of water, with it still being frigid down below. I was glad I didn't have to clean my head, although the three milk jugs of water might have warmed up enough. I air-dried, got dressed, and because it was early in the afternoon, had some time to kill before I warmed back up enough to do some more sinking. I was happy that the sun was quite hot, which made things much better than last time.
I had to return to my bike to retrieve toilet paper, since I forgot to bring it down with me earlier. I then decided to do a little bit of hiking along the creek. So, on the valley bottom, after making like a bear and taking a dump in the woods, I headed eastward, walking between Harris Creek and the southern toe (leading edge) of the slide, upstream, looking for any signs of soft areas. There was really nothing to write home about, but as I got to below the far east (oldest) end of the slide, where a tiny trickle of a stream was that I used to clean up in years ago, I did see some fresher silt deposited in the area, including in a sidestream in the valley bottom. I agitated some of it with my foot, but when probed with a stick, it was only 2 to 4 inches deep.
I then climbed up onto the slide by the trickle of the stream, which bordered the eastern edge of the slide area, reaching my very old and first sinking area I had used when I first discovered the slide area. I noticed how the silty embankment still had damp spots, making me wonder if they might have had any sinking potential during spring runoff, although that area was in better view of the easily accessible part of the clifftop.
I located my first, and oldest, cleanup pond (was just a pool of water) there, which has been just a low dry spot for many years now.Wanting to check out a place I had called "clay corner" because of its high clay content, I made my way westward from the location of my old dried-up cleanup pond, pushing my way through a thick patch of young spruce trees to find it. Just as I had expected, it was "dry" (damp but solid).
Not wanting to go back through the spruce trees, I headed northward, uphill through cedars, which turned out to also be an obstacle course in itself. I then got back to the east part of slide again, and headed northward back to the cliffs, which were slowly eroding away, with a steep slope of silt/sand/gravel slowly growing higher and higher, up the receding clifface, which has been slowly shrinking. Over time, it would revert to a steep hillside, like it was before the slide happened. I headed back to my west end, where things were more active and soft, feeling hot again, ready for more sinking, some time after 3:30 pm!
I mixed the water in the cleanup basin to mix the progressively warming top layer with the diminishing cooler bottom layer. I stripped, headed to the sinking area, and tested the ground along the north edge, where the surface stuff had higher clay content, but finding them too stiff to bother with, although enough agitation could allow me to sink. I finally decided to sink in the soft spot just behind (east side of) the northern thick spot I had sunk into on my last bikeride, between that sinking spot and the small 2-foot embankment where things were slowly crumbling.
I pounded the ground there to turn it into a patch of heaving, undulating quagmire. Facing west, I pumped my feet, with the rubbery ground giving way beneath me, and sucking my legs down. It felt quite nice (but with some debris), but it was a bit on the thick side just like the adjacent spot. Once I sunk past my knees, I decided that it was going to be a very slow sink, with the wetter stuff deeper down also fairly thick, as opposed to the nice and liquid stuff that I found when I first sunk into that spot just to the south on my last bikeride. So, I decided to work myself out, planning on saving that spot for a horizontal sink instead later on, since the rubbery muck did feel like it would be quite nice to lay on.
I decided to sink in between the two spots, with the much thicker stuff to the north, and the softer but thickened stuff I sunk into first to the south. I pounded the undisturbed ground with my feet, with the part muddy, part grassy patch turning to rubbery jelly and giving way beneath my feet. But, water that had been pooling on the patch to the south was oozing into the patch I had activated, even though I had tried swishing it away from that large patch of quagmire on the south side.
Facing west, I pumped my legs, with the patch of grass underneath my feet sagging down, with more water from the large sinking area on the south side running into the depression. As the quaking morass rose up my legs, I was happy to feel it softer beneath!
It liquified rather easily beneath my feet, just like the adjacent area just to the south on my previous bikeride! The mire was stiffer on the surface, with matted grass in front of me, which didn't move as much, since I didn't agitate that front part as much. But, I could really feel the stuff behind me sway with my struggles! I had to push my hands down along my sides to move stiffer stuff away from my crotch to help me sink down more easily. Underneath my feet, the silt was so soft that when I pushed up with my hands on the underside of the stiff layer, I could feel the silt beneath my feet give way with not much agitation! I picked up the large dark rusty brown rock to help me sink down deeper yet. I worked my hands down, and with my hands underneath the edge of the stiff layer in front of me that had a small rock embedded in it, I pushed up on it, feeling the mire continue to give way beneath my feet rather easily! I then worked my arms down deeper, and repeated the process, the grassy ground bulging upwards around some of my sides, mainly my right side and front, with bare mire behind me. It took a bit of effort, jamming my arms against the stiff upper layer at my sides while pushing up on the bottom of the stiff layer in front of me (hoping not to injure my shoulder(s) in the process, since that may have been what injured my right shoulder years back in the same general area), but I managed to sink down to my nipples, with water from the adjacent sinking spot to the south still oozing around me. While sinking, I had wished that I had the weighted makeshift backpack on to help me sink deeper, but at least it was soft enough for me to sink a fair bit with no weights at all. I struggled for a bit, but really wanted to have the really gooey stuff that was behind me in front of me for struggling in.So, I worked myself out of the sucking mire and stepped back in, facing east, with the softer stuff in front of me to churn into a really nice goo, better than the grassy and stiff stuff that was behind me now. I sunk back down into that wonderful stuff, feeling the silt beneath my feet melting away. But now, I had no stiff layer in front of me to push up on, only soft gooey silt that I churned and mixed the water, that was oozing onto the surface, in to. But anyways, I was feeling a bit cooler, so I just struggled and worked the silty muck a lot, suspended weightless, with it feeling quite wonderful, churning the thick peanut buttery goo with my hands. I did pick up that large dark rusty brown rock and held onto it as I pumped my legs, feeling the cool surface rise up my abdomen, towards my chest, my upper arms settling into the ooze as I held the rock up. But, once I set the rock aside, I rose back up again, and continued to struggle in the soft sucking morass, and churned the silty quicksand with my hands. I finally decided to bring the sink to an end, and go for a horizontal struggle. So, I worked myself out of the sucking silt.
I had eyed the thick rubbery stuff just to the north side of where I had just sunk, but unfortunately, water that had been oozing around me had poured over the thick spot to north.
I had also wiped surface water from the middle spot onto that area as well, earlier. So, I once again decided on having another horizontal struggle in the large area south of the soft middle spot I had just sunk into.This time facing east, I got on my bent knees, and worked them into the western part of the larger patch of sucking goo, having to adjust my position slightly to sink my knees into a softer spot. I pumped my knees, with the rubbery surface rising up towards my crotch. I leaned forward, and worked some chunks of silt that had collapsed from the tiny 2-foot embankment into the mire, getting my hands and arms "stuck" in the sucking muck, my stomach and chest starting to press down into the undulating ooze. It felt soooo great! Imagining that I had fallen into deadly quicksand and was slowly being sucked down to my death, I struggled, until things once again reached the bursting point!
I was able to easily work my arms out of the softer silt in front of me, but the back of my bent knees were once again locked in the strong grip of the rubbery mire. I had to work them, moving my legs such as to make the mud separate from the top part and then pulling up, such that the air from the gap extended down to the deeper parts, breaking the suction, and then working to break through the locked-up barrier of silt over the back of my knees, the actions causing the mire to make interesting sucking sounds. After repeatedly breaking the suction and putting enough stress on the mire that locked up with stress, the rubbery locking silt finally cracked open, and I was finally able to free my legs!
I then agitated the mire to close my impressions. I also took a close look at the tiny, roughly 2 foot embankment, noticing how much of the water was oozing from a layer of pea gravel. I took a look at some of the gravel in my hand.I cleaned my hands and arms in the slight depression in the thick mire that I had sunk in during my previous bikeride, which had filled with water, to reduce the amount of silt to clean off in my cleanup basin. I returned to the cleanup basin and cleaned up, not needing the cleaner water from the milk jugs after all. I air-dried, got dressed, and poured the three jugs of water into the cleanup basin. I had thought about just leaving them with water to save one trip the next time I was there, but figured that perhaps the impure water might have something that might multiply (bacteria, algae, etc) if left alone for an extended period of time.
Better to just have fresh water for next time. I put them back in my hiding spot near the source of water in the valley bottom, but this time in a green shopping bag, which was less noticeable than having white jugs laying under a fallen tree. I put my now dry backpack away, covering it with slabs of bark. I gathered my things, headed up to my bike, and was on my way home, stopping along the way to get the large Calgary Flames towel, which did have a tiny hole in the center, but was still in excellent condition. I also found a Vancouver Canucks flag mounted on a plastic post on the road in downtown Vernon, slightly frazzled by being run over. I got home after 9:15 pm, and my dad was worried about me coming home without my helmet and not contacting them that I was safe and on my way home while I was headed home.It was the nicest day of sinking so far this year, but it was a shame that I had forgotten my camera and helmet in the truck. As it turned out, my dad left it at his friend's place in Lumby, and I never phoned home to receive the message. Since then, I got it back, but it sat in the back of the truck to and from a fishing lake, and got soaked in the rain. Also, one of the black foam inserts was missing, and the helmet won't fit on my head until I get it back, which was at my dad's friend's place, in his driveway, but he has it now and will return it to me soon.
I was very happy that it was quite quiet on the trails, possibly because people wanted to stay home to watch the Canucks game #2 final that day. So, no one looking over the clifftop while I was there.
I keep worrying that someone might do some walking along the clifftop until my more hidden spot does come into view! But, so far, it hasn't happened, yet! I really wished I had my camera with me, because in addition to taking video(s) of me sinking (actually things may have been just essentially repeats of what I had already shot, anyways), and perhaps more background shots, I wanted to take pictures of what appears to be two different varieties of skunk cabbage. One has plain green leaves, while the other has dark green bands on its leaves. Also, at my new staging area, where my lunch and clothes were, I encountered the biggest jumping spider I had ever seen crawling on my back. I removed it on its thread, and it crawled on my hand (a number of people would probably freak out to have something like that on them), until it dropped to the ground. It was missing one leg, was almost the size of a dime, black, with the top of its abdomen orange. Looking it up, I discovered that it was a male "red backed" jumping spider:
During my sinking in the middle spot, I had wished that I had used the backpack, but at least the rock was handy enough. But, the water on the surface made things cool enough that I might have been more uncomfortable sinking deeper.
In fact, I had decided not to try working myself under diagonally, that is, working myself through the soft quicksilt under the stiffer layer in the middle sinking spot, because I was starting to feel chilled, and the water pooling around me once again made things even worse. During one of my horizontal sinks, I did have my glasses off, but never bothered planting my face in the mire, because of the coolness. The sun was just beginning to warm things up, and needed more time/days to work its magic.I was happy I never really ran into any full-blown leg cramps, likely because of fewer trips to fill the cleanup basin, as well as the fact that I brought along some Gatorade, which had electrolytes (salt) in it, which kept my electrolytes up. When you get low in electrolytes, you can be more susceptible to cramps. Also, perhaps I was also starting to get into better shape!
The temperature that day was officially 27.3˚C, or 81.14˚F, while at our house, it was 25.6˚C, or 78.08˚F, a fairly nice day. The weather continued to be nice for another day or so, before turning more unsettled. Now, I just wait for some better weather, and depending on how warm it becomes, I may instead start heading to the higher elevations, including my Crescent Road pond. My mud lake pond has been flooded for a number of years now because of beaver(s), but with so much snow and runoff and rain, perhaps it might put too much stress on the beaver dam, and I might discover low water levels again there. I would just have to wait and see. But my bikerides into the higher elevations will happen only if we get some real heat that lasts several days. So now, I just wait for when my next opportunity presents itself.