Is this considered "quicksand"? --a first sinking experience

[freefloater]

Accidently posted twice--first post was the rough draft, please disregard it and read from this post instead.

Two years ago, I was up at our cottage in the summertime. Mid afternoon, it was hot and I decided to take a swim. I grabbed one of our large swim rings to lounge on in the lake. Now this lake was actually a less reedy/weedy portion of the local marsh/swamp. Finished working on my tan, I decided to explore further into a smaller waterway that fed the marsh. I swam the tube into a secluded area surrounded by tall grass. The further I swam, the murkier and slimier the water became----like I'd entered a settling pond. It was in consistency and composition identical to the light, decaying vegetable matter on lake and creek bottoms that your feet sink into past the ankles. Another way to picture it would be like being in a glass of water mixed with the common laxative psylium fibre, a.k.a: Metamucil. It gently enrobed my every form, unlike quicksand's typical vice-grip--this stuff seemed featherlight--- a suspended silt maybe? Exploring just a little further found me in a small algea covered pond. Letting go of the swim ring to try and touch bottom, I realised It was too deep. There was also something wrong with the water. Any time I let go of the swim ring to use my natural bouyancy to float---I wouldn't!!! My torso would begin to slip quickly beneath the surface. I could feel the vegetable matter slipping up my body. The pond material was deceptively deadly as its silkiness had a very arousing sensation as it tickled and gently sucked at my feet, calves, buttocks, and any erogenous zone. One could almost be willing to let go and slide blissfully into its rather hypnotic careess.

The swim ring bobbed on the pond water's surface.
I grasped the tube to establish a better grip, but the motion proppelled it just out of reach. I began to sink immediately with hardly any natural buyoncy available. I was strangely aroused and fought to keep from being lulled. Eye level with surface algea, a determined lunge had my fingertips graze the swim ring's attached grab rope. I dont know if you'd call it quicksand or just brackish water but it was a very strange experience involving both fear and intense arousal.
I returned here later that summer, this time armed with a friend, some rope, and a rubber dinghy. We took turns holding onto the swimring and slipping into the silky material. We'd found a new erotic pleasure....and god! was it amazing!!

So I ask you, the quicksand community, what the hell was I in? I'm prety sure it wasn't "quicksand" in the traditional sense--there was no sand and it wasn't a mud bog. Just water and a deep layer of decayed vegetation maybe ?

What would you call what I was In? Do you have any input?

[Northerner]

I don't know how water+anything can be less buoyant than water (is that physically possible?) but I'm all for floating in whatever variety of silky goo-baths are out there in the wilds.. sounds like an interesting experience. Have you been able to return to the spot?

[Aiko]

Whatever it was you encountered, I don't think I have a proper name for it. I most certainly would not call it quicksand.

I don't know how water+anything can be less buoyant than water (is that physically possible?)

It is theoretically possible, if whatever is mixed in, has a lower density than the water itself. But then it would have a tendency to float on top of the water, especially if the difference in density is too high. It would be interesting to gather some of that mixture and measure its density.

[freefloater]

I don't know how water+anything can be less buoyant than water (is that physically possible?) but I'm all for floating in whatever variety of silky goo-baths are out there in the wilds.. sounds like an interesting experience. Have you been able to return to the spot?

I'm thinking it was probably just settled pond mush, maybe a deep layer of silt or organic mud. Heard of a pond that had mud on its bottom 4ft thick where a swimmer drowned. Another pond with the same condition claimed the life of a workman. He ran into the pond to rescue his dog who'd frolicked in and sank beneath the surface. Firemen who later came to pull his body out said the muddy bottom was so soft and deep it was like quicksand.

As far as returning, havn't been up that way for a while, tempted to return someday again, though.

[Nessie]

It is theoretically possible, if whatever is mixed in, has a lower density than the water itself.

I've read this somewhere too and I've read that it can happen in some peat bogs (but where did I see it???)

It has never happened to me. And considering that from thaw to freeze, I generally hit 1-2 peat bogs per week...that's a lot of organic bogs I've been in without ever finding that. My natural attraction is for thicker mud, though. It could be, perhaps I've gone right past some of that without ever knowing it?

I'll keep right on being real careful at new places, and as for you, enjoy yourself, but don't let go of that swim ring.

Nessie

[Boggy Man]

That mud sounds like loose organic sediment, something which is commonplace in my sinking areas, where certain pond/lake bottoms become exposed along the edges in the summer. It can come from decayed grass leaves, waterlily leaves, algae, and other vegetation. It can vary in texture from really fine to coarse. It could vary in thickness from being totally solid to almost like water. It could be light grey to brownish in color, or be white on top and brown underneath, or be grayish to darker brown on top, but a rusty color underneath. As you approached the area, did you notice the soft bottom rise up to the surface as you went? Sometimes it can be quite bubbly, other times, not. I have found that I always floated in it, even when it was quite loose, floating around chin deep in the liquid mud. But, if it is a layer of mud over top of water underneath, then it can pose a danger, since there is no mud below to support your weight, and you can sink under if you are unable to swim in it.