Quicksand Fans

The Boggy Man Report #4: Enjoying Being Sucked Under, On & Off Camera (videos to be released at a later date)!

On Thursday, July 29'th, my dad drove me up into the mountains, for my 4'th adventure this year! I was back at my Crescent Road pond sinking spot early, noticing that while water levels had dropped since last time and my bog was still exposed, there was extra moisture on the surface, the very thinnest film of water, mostly around the center. Some small animal had also made a soggy "V"-shaped trail in the mud, entering and exiting it on the south side. Some waterfowl tracks were also on top. I decided to wait a few hours before having my videoed sink there, to give the sun a chance to warm things up and hopefully evaporate the excess moisture from the surface of the bog.

So, I decided to bike up the trail, past the third pond with the sphagnum bog (my main pond is actually #2), and then taking the left fork, instead of the right, which I had hiked down previously. I used to go down that trail many years ago, and I remembered it connecting with other trails, including two that were beside a meadow and pond which I didn't explore too much because it was so close to the trails, one going around the south and east side, to join with another that was on the north side. But now, a lot of those roads have been abandoned, so the area might be a bit more secluded. It was a bit awkward in places, with alder bushes growing on the trail in places, but cattle kept paths open on it, good enough for me to pass through on bike. I briefly checked the south edge of a large meadow to the north of the trail, but figured that it was one that I had been to in the past, which yielded nothing of interest. The trail turned southward, and then eastward. I was wondering if it was going to take me to a main road, when it suddenly joined with another road at the bottom of a hill, and in front of me, was a meadow with a pond!

Could that be the pond I was looking for? It seemed too easy, and felt like I wasn't far enough to the northwest. But, a pond was there, and so I hiked to what I assumed was the east side of it, noticing some bare patches of mud exposed on the northeast side! I decided to take a picture of it on the way back, so I continued on, in a clockwise direction, exploring its shoreline, excited that this pond appeared to have some potential. On the southeast side, I found some more mud exposed, and decided to head to higher ground, get out my camera, swap SDHC cards, and then take a few pictures of the mud there.




I then found a pole, and checked out the depth of the mud, finding it to be only around thigh to crotch deep. I wondered it it was like that all the way around. I continued on my clockwise hike, deciding not to take any more pictures there, because my battery indicator went from 3 bars to 2, and I wanted to make certain I didn't run out of power for my video. I noticed that there was a grassy smaller meadow further out beyond the shoreline, with a smaller pond in the center. I was wondering if anything deeper might be exposed from there, but wasn't certain about that, since the shoreline there seemed to drop off into the water, although I did see a little bit of mud. As I continued on to the west end, I was thinking about how this pond shared similar characteristics with Crescent Road pond #3, with a ring of sphagnum bog with a pond in the middle, and surrounded by water.

When I reached the west end, I found a beaver dam (dirt dike covered in willows), which I crossed to the north side, seeing a tiny pond on the south side, with a flat bare shoreline on the south end. When I reached the north side of the dam, I noticed that the road was right there! So, I decided to follow it to the south side of the tinier pond.

As I got closer, I was in for a rather big surprise! The flat west shoreline was where the road crossed there, and I immediately recognized the area as THE THIRD CRESCENT ROAD POND!!!!! I was not exploring a new pond after all!!!!! I remembered from past explorations that that pond never did yield mud of extreme depths. The trail took me in a loop, returning me back to where I had started!!!! So, what I had thought was the east side was actually the north side, and what I thought was the west side was actually the south side! My orientation was out by 90˚ because I had thought I was at a different pond! But, it was getting close to lunch time, and the time I wanted to prepare for the sinking, and I was brought back to the area rather conveniently! So, it did work out nicely, since I would have otherwise would have had to do a lot of biking to get back to the area, and would have therefore had a later start to my sinking. So, this worked out fine! I returned to my bike, and returned to my pond.

I had lunch and did some walking down the trail to Crescent Road so that I would have some energy, before returning to the area, taking several pictures of my sinking spot, which did look like a bit of the moisture evaporated, but not all.

I attached my GorillaPod to my camera, wrapped its 3 knobby tentacles around a long stick, and stuck the stick through the decayed sod on the south side of the patch of "innocent"-looking ground. I framed the bog nicely, and wearing just my junk shorts, I double-checked to make certain everything was ready, pressed the record button at 12:48 pm, and it was time for action!


I headed to the north side, and jumped into the center with a splat, landing chest deep in the slimy ooze. I struggled and tried reaching for solid ground, and kept sinking deeper and deeper. The more vigorously I struggled, the faster I went down, churning the surface with my hands and arms, the gooey batter-like mire sticking to them. My struggles really gave the bog some nice movements! However, my struggles was making me breathe rather heavily, forcing me to stretch out the part where I was just barely at the surface, so that my breathing could relax enough to finally go completely under, having to dig mud from my face a few times to keep breathing before the gulping "Grimpen Mire"-like ooze finally sucked me completely under! Totally submerged, I exhaled some air, which then bubbled to the surface, paused a few more seconds, and then resurfaced to breathe in fresh air.

After wiping mud from my face and eyes, I decided to go around my bog and break up the entire surface to make it more uniform. I was able to rise a bit because of the thicker mud deeper down which I was able to tread lightly on, unless I stood in one place and struggled. Then, I exited the bog on the north side, wiping the gooey, batter-like mud from my skin back into the bog as I went.

Once I was completely free of the slimy ooze, I stood on the north side, and took another leap into the center, this time pulling myself completely under as soon as I landed in it, letting some air out to bubble at the surface again, before rising back up again, wiping the mud from my face and body as I pulled myself to the north side and sat down, and finished the extraction, wondering whether the camera captured everything before its 2-gig limit for Motion-JPEG files was reached.

I quickly cleaned my hands and arms, and then checked the camera. It had indeed stopped recording, so I was wondering where things were cut off. I returned my camera to my things, before cleaning up better, the evaporating water from my hair feeling rather chilly.

I headed to the small pool on the south end to finish the cleanup, but stopped at the muddy area on the west side, where there was sticky clay there, removed some sharp rocks and some sticks, and enjoyed a nice stimulating horizontal struggle, sinking knees bent and mired, as well as my hands and arms, imagining that I was going to be sucked under. After that, I headed to the south end of the pool of water to clean up myself and my junk shorts, before heading back to my things to get dressed and warm up, hanging the junk shorts on a dead alder branch to dry in the sun.

While waiting to warm up, I checked the video, noticing that there were parts where the audio was overwhelmed by noisy wind gusts blasting past the camera. I also was relieved that the 2 gig limit wasn't reached until my final extraction after my quick plunge. It ended when I was sitting on the north edge of the bog, before I pulled out my legs, so I got all the good stuff!

I then went for a walk back to Crescent Road, snacking on another Pizza Pop along the way, to take a look at another pond to the south of that road, which was too visible for any sinking, if there was anything to sink into there. When I reached it, I noticed how the water was right into the grass there, and noticed the interesting volcanic rocks exposed in the area, porous, and slag-like. Once I felt warm enough, I returned to my bog.

I took a couple more pictures of the bog:



I had wondered if I should first take another sinking video first, since a fresh total plunge with a clean victim would be better than an already muddy one. But, I decided not to, since I would then have to clean myself again, or at least my eyes, before putting on my swim goggles for the longer underbog sink I wanted to enjoy. I would be chilled before then as well, so I decided to just go for an off-camera sink.

I had also thought about putting a junk sweater and plastic bag on my head to insulate it so that I could bend down under the mud to bring up more thick bottom to loosen it deeper yet, but decided that from previous experience at the Edwin Lakes area pond, it would make my head too buoyant, so I scrapped that idea.

So, with the breathing hose I earlier retrieved from its hiding spot by a beaver lodge on the northeastern part of the pond, and with swim goggles on my forehead, and all naked, I once again jumped in, this time from the south side to face away from the sun, landing in the middle, again up to my chest. This time, it didn't splatter that much, and seemed thicker on top.

I savored the sink, struggling slowly, hands and arms above the surface, to let my body get accustomed to the temperature of the mud. I made movements with my feet to make the sucking mire gulp me down deeper, and then rested my arms on the surface, which seemed firmer than earlier. I had the breathing hose laying to my left, just within reach when I needed it. Once the sucking muck rose to my shoulders, I gently worked my arms down into the surface of the muck, and continued to make myself sink deeper and deeper, the hungry mire closing over my shoulders.

I continued to struggle lightly, the voracious ooze rising up over my mouth. I continued to face forward, since I could still breathe through my nose, and exhale through my submerged mouth. I tried inhaling through my mouth, but the wall of mud plastered against it would only suck tight, preventing any air from getting in.

I had to start tilting my head back as the mire rose to my nose, and then put my swim goggles over my eyes to keep the mud from getting in them. I continued to work myself down deeper, facing straight up, seeing the mire slowly close over my head, enclosing me in darkness. Then, I took a deep breath just before it closed over me, trying to suffocate me in its smothering grip. I then rose enough to wipe the mud away from my mouth, blindly grab the breathing hose, and inserted the soft end into my mouth.

With a good continuous supply of air, I pulled myself completely under again, inhaling through the hose, and exhaling through my nose, my exhaled air "phlup, phlup, phlup"'ing to the surface. It was the first time this year I did that, so I wasn't quite used to it yet, so after working myself under a bit deeper and lingering for a brief while, I then worked myself back up so that my head was within several inches beneath the surface, where my breathing was less work. I then lingered there, in the soft, enveloping darkness, totally enclosed by a bottomless bog, the breathing tube being the only thing keeping me alive! I moved my hands to the surface, feeling the surface above my head, including where my escaping breath was bubbling up, feeling the surface move where the exhaled air was farting out. With the upper part of the bog solar heated, my head felt comfortable down there, which made the experience even more pleasant. I also kept my eyes open all the time, since they were protected by the swim goggles, although all I saw was darkness. I got used to the extra work breathing under the mud, and felt much more comfortable. My diaphragm was getting a nice workout! I struggled a little under the bog, but I couldn't exert myself too much, because the nature of my breathing was such that I had to stick to a certain breathing rate, and couldn't change it. I felt some slight calf cramps, but they were not that intense, and dissipated.

Finally, I decided that it was time to start returning to the world above ground. I worked myself up higher and higher, my exhaled air then changing from a "phlup, phlup, phlup" to more of a rushing sound as I got close to the surface. Then I was able to remove the breathing hose from my mouth, and toss it aside, and wipe the mud from my swim goggles to let in sunlight, as well as from my head and ears. I submerged myself again, this time without the breathing hose, and resurfaced, to enjoy the experience more. Then, I wiped mud from my swim goggles and head, and continued to rise higher, and then struggled some more, but with very blurry and smeared vision from the muddy swim goggles. I then worked myself out of the mire, pushing the mud off my skin, back into the bog as I went, until I was sitting on the edge of the bog, where I extracted my legs and feet, pushing the mud off them back into the bog. I was finally free of the engulfing quagmire!

I headed to the pond, where I found an open area near the edge, and stood in the water with a soft bottom, swished away the disturbed sediment and cold water that was released to replace it with warmer clear water, and then bent over and cleaned my face. It felt more comfortable this time than before, because the sun had continued to work its magic throughout the day. I cleaned my my upper body mostly, and headed back to the south end, this time with my breathing tube, stopping at the thigh-deep sticky clay/peat path on the west side of the tinier pond for another stimulating horizontal, stuck hands/arms and stuck bent knees struggle. I then cleaned myself and the breathing hose in the small pond, accidentally walking into a dead tree branch that luckily didn't give me a bleeding nose.

When I returned to my sinking area, I had to clean up my legs and feet again, since I had to cross the muddy path on the way back, just as I had to earlier. I took several pictures of the sinking spot, with noticeable impressions left by the breathing hose on the west side, with the lower sun really enhancing the surface irregularities on the bog, highlighting every wrinkle and bump in this "Grimpen Mire"-like ooze!






It was a shame there wasn't any time to do another on-camera sink there!

After getting dressed, I returned things to their rightful places, returned to my bike, and the day of adventure was over! But, when I got closer to home, I found a wallet on the road. I took it home, my dad went over it to find identification, I accessed canada411.ca to look up the owner's phone number, my dad contacted the owner, and I returned his wallet to him when he arrived. A great way to end the day!

I noticed that the consistency of the bog was the best after being allowed to sit for a few hours after being disturbed, and so perhaps next time I would try having an off-camera sink first to whip things up nicely, and then have an on-camera sink later on in the day, which would provide interesting results!

I will be slicing and dicing the video into 4 pieces, with 2 sinks (one long and one fast) and 2 escapes (one with mud mixing, and the other cut off). But, at the end of my first sink, the wind just *HAD* to start blasting away at the camera's built-in microphone just as my escaping breath was bubbling up to the surface, completely masking the sound! But, overall, the results were excellent, with the bog behaving like a bottomless pit of gooey batter!

The temperature in Vernon hit around 33˚C, or 91.4˚F, while a high elevation locale (Elkhart Lodge) between the Okanagan valley and the coast, my gauge of weather in the high elevations, hit 27˚C, or 80.6˚F, nice and warm, as I had noticed at my bog. I was happy that forecasted thunderstorms never materialized. But, this new week, the weather is a bit more unstable, so things might be wetter, which might impact the condition of the bog. I will keep my fingers crossed.

Great description! Can't wait to see it!!!

Oh, you lucky, lucky guy! If only I could visit some of your sites!

I would like to see Darby and Jessica Marsh sinking in this mud!!!!!!

My video has been sliced and diced on YouTube, and is linked to in this thread!