After my previous sink at my Harris Creek slide area, I waited for some better weather so I could go into the higher elevations, and check out my Crescent Road pond sinking area, and hopefully get it loosened while the water is still high. Finally, on Wednesday, June 22'nd, the forecast was for sunshine with some clouds in the afternoon, with a high of around 30 C, or 86 F. My dad had an accident, and fell around 12 feet off a sawhorse on a pallet that had been hoisted on a forklift, breaking his collarbone and one rib, and suffered a concussion, which has put him out of commission for a while, in terms of doing things.
So, I had to bike up into the mountains on my own, with me doing some biking down and up the valley near home for 3 evenings in a row to help me get into better shape, with a break from biking the 4'th evening, before finally going on my bikeride.I left some time after 8 am (perhaps around 8:20 am), and took it easy all the way, trying not to overstress my legs during the climb. I took along a couple of Powerade drinks, with electrolytes, to try and keep mine up, in hopes of suppressing leg cramps. As I got close to the top of the main climb, I tried stopping for lunch, but wound up being lunch for the bloodthirsty mosquitoes in the process.
Up in the mountains, I reached my usual spot where my dad usually dropped me off, at around 12:45 pm. Normally, I would be dropped off there some time after 9 am, and would have to do extra biking and hiking to pass the time while waiting for things to warm up. But now, since I had biked up on my own, thankfully without any knee pain, I was there much later, and therefore could head straight for my Crescent Road pond for mud loosening right away! 
I walked up the first part of Crescent Road where it was steep, because I had done enough heavy climbing, and didn't want to tempt fate. But, once I got back on my bike, at around 1:30 pm, my legs started to get cramps.
So, I walked my bike a little further before getting back on and continuing on.I noticed how the low marshy areas (seasonal pools) by the road were full of water, and knew that the water would be high at my Crescent Road pond. But, I did wonder if all the extra mud I piled on the previous year would help make a difference.
Last year, when I was there for the first time of the season, there was enough mud exposed for me to make a sinking video, even though the water in the pond was high. I would just have to wait and see.I got to the area, walking my bike past some puddles on the dirt sideroad, and biked to the trail that ran off into a clearing north of the pond. I took out my things, but when I was ready to apply the insect repellent, I took off the cap, and discovered the nozzle was missing from the spray can!
I searched my saddlebags and found nothing. I searched around for something to stick into the top to have it spray, and found that the capped end of one of my brake cables on my bike fitted in the hole, and therefore I was able to spray it into the palm of my hand, and apply it over my body, with the whining of mosquitoes slowly fading off as I toxified myself. 
But, I could only apply it at my bike, so I would be unable to reapply it on site at my sinking area. But, I figured that I would be wearing a junk jacket to keep warm while loosening the muck anyways, so I hoped that that application would be sufficient. I gathered my things, including my camera to take pictures, my junk shorts for wearing in the mud during the loosening, and some Kool-Aid for refreshments, and was on my way, deciding to wait until after I checked out my sinking spot before heading into the bushes to the north to retrieve my junk parka.Because of the high water levels, instead of heading straight south to the north end of the pond before following its western shoreline, I headed straight west towards the higher ground to circumvent the high water. I didn't feel like taking off my shoes and socks to walk through the water just yet. But, I still had to cross marshy grassy wet areas to get to the higher ground before heading southward, and then finally back east to reach the partially flooded meadow on the western shore of the pond. Heading southward, I quickly reached the area of my sinking spot, and was surprised/delighted to see a large island of mud sticking up in the middle of it!
I put my things down and took a couple of pictures of it, before putting the camera aside and then taking off my shoes and socks to check it out to see if it was just a layer of mud floating on water.I probed it with my hand, and it felt nice and thick, a real great consistency, equivalent to mid summer, and I didn't really feel water below!
I stuck a leg in, and couldn't feel any water pockets below, either! I took a long stick I used for mounting the camera on, and probed the mud with it also, thick end down, and the mud felt thick all the way through! Now, it was time for me to make a decision.
I wanted to mix the mud with the few inches of water over the pit, that surrounded the island. But, at the same time, I was tempted to shoot a video of my first sink of the season, into that island of mire! I spent a few minutes deciding, but the fact that my heart would start to pound when I thought about having the sink helped me make up my mind! I was going to shoot a video of me, and hopefully I would go under just like in the first video of last year, but a little more than a couple of weeks earlier! I had to return to my bike to retrieve my margarine container with the gorillapod in it (didn't think I would need it), and returned to my sinking spot, where I screwed it onto the camera. I cleaned off the stick and stuck it into the mossy water-covered ground on the south side of the sinking spot, and mounted the camera on it, positioning it to properly frame the center of the island. I changed to just my junk shorts, and after making some more adjustments of the camera, I was ready to go!
I clicked on the record button at 3:18 pm, and walked around to the northwest side of the bog. I made a statement about all the water, and how I was going to step onto some ground sticking up out of the water. Then, I stepped right onto the middle of the island, which then immediately gulped me down to my chest!
I paused, slowly sinking lower and lower into the soft ground, from which swamp gas bubbled and farted out around me! I slowly tried reaching forward, and pushed down, with the ground giving way and sucking my arms in. As it rose up to my armpits with water moving in around me, I tried to pull up more mud from down below as I struggled in hopes of raising the level of the mud up, with me sinking down even deeper. But, all the struggling and mushing of the mud around me only caused the mud island to flatten even more, with even more water running to around my neck as the level of the mud was lowering into the water. I didn't want to submerge with water closing over me before the mud, so I ended it with a self rescue, as I managed to reach solid ground beside me and drag my muddy body out of the mud that was now mostly under the water. I then quickly cleaned my hands and stopped the camera recording, taking another picture of the area at 3:20 pm before dismounting the camera/gorillapod from the stick.I returned my camera back to my things, but unfortunately just as I had my muddy arm over my good shorts and undershorts, some globs of mud dripped onto them.
I decided to leave it and take care of it later. After removing the camera mounting stick and laying it in the grass further away from the water, I began cleaning up, starting with laying down in the warm water on the mossy ground on the south side of my sinking spot, and rubbing myself on it front and back, only just as a rough cleaning, since I wasn't finished with getting muddy just yet. I wanted to have a stimulating horizontal sink in the shallower thick mud on the southwest end of the smaller pond that had separated from the larger pond when the water level dropped so many years ago. On the way there, I stopped to use some wet moss as a sponge/rag to clean myself off better, especially on my back.I reached the area, which was actually an animal path where the ground was all mushed up. But, the part containing clay was submerged. However, just to the north of it, a more peaty part was soft and exposed, and thick.
I took off my muddy junk shorts, and dropped them to the ground. I was now ready to begin! I first mushed up the area with my feet to help loosen it up before kneeling down, facing north, with my knees bent, sinking them into the south part of the patch of shallow thick peat. I had to remove a rock as well in front of me. I worked my bent legs into the mire, with the sucking muck gulping them down to my crotch. I leaned over, with the hungry ground sucking in my hands and forearms as well, making interesting sucking and farting sounds as I struggled. Imagining that I was stuck and slowly sinking into the deadly mire, I struggled vigorously, feeling it holding my bent legs, my hands and forearms, hugging the front of my abdomen, with me soon to disappear beneath the surface of the voracious ooze, until I was hit with convulsions of ecstasy!
I got up, and smoothed the surface of the mire to remove my impressions. While I was laying down with my hands in the mud, my back was being eaten alive by the mosquitoes
, but now I could smack them again. I headed over to the south side for cleanup in the small pond there, and was happy to see that the tiny stream leaving it was flowing for the first time in ages! There were shallow pools of water in the rocky streambed that were just enough to clean myself up, and the water in the stream came from the surface of the pond(s), which was where the water was warmest! I headed over to the low spots where I could clean off, and tried laying down in the water, but found that while the water wasn't cold, it was still not as warm as I had hoped. In fact, it was a little uncomfortable, especially with the sun going behind the clouds! I guess that the water needed more than a second day of sunshine to warm up to an optimum temperature. But, there was a small isolated pool that warmed up nicely from the sunshine closer to the stream entrance, just east of the stream, and I was able to clean off in it, including my hair, which was also muddy at the back bottom. The sun also came back out from behind the clouds to help warm me up and dry me off (some slight wind occasionally came up to help with the drying as well).All cleaned and dry, I headed back, stopping to pick up my muddy shorts and clean them in the water and then wring them out. I hung it on a dead tree just north of my things, and then got dressed, brushing off the mud from my clothes which had been drying and flaking away. I checked out the video I made as well.
I took one more picture of the sinking spot:
Now it was time for my next task, namely loosening the mud in my sinking spot. However, I noticed that the sun had gone behind more clouds, which were getting thicker.
When loosening mud, in addition to warm air, unrelenting sunshine was totally essential for me to maintain any level of comfort or reduced chilliness while bringing up cold mud from deeper down. So, I realized that the mud loosening job would have to wait for some other day.
But, however, I did notice that the consistency of the mud was already fairly loose, meaning that the high water already helped keep it loose! That would make my job easier for next time.I gathered my things and was going to call it a day and head back home earlier, since it was my first time I biked all the way up into the high elevations under my own power. But then, I realized that I was feeling the need for another mud fix. So I turned around and first headed back to the area of my main sinking spot, where I stripped again, and then headed back to the shallow peaty mud around 1 to 2 feet deep at the south end again, to have one last horizontal sink.
This time, I kneeled down facing south, with the hungry bog sucking down my bent legs, sucking then down to my crotch. I leaned forward, and put my arms on the ground, which then swallowed them. With my arms and legs "stuck" in the hungry morass, my front of my abdomen pressing into it, imagining that I was going to slowly disappear beneath the surface, I struggled vigorously, until I once again reached the exploding point!
Now, I was finished for the day. I headed to the edge of the sedge grass on the north side of the smaller pond on the south end, where I cleaned off my arms, legs and front in the warm, solar heated water. I then air dried, returned to my clothes, and got dressed. I had thought about going back to take a picture of the mud I had the two horizontal struggles in, but decided not to bother, since it was in the shade, making it too dark for a good picture, and I didn't feel like swapping memory cards again in my camera.
As I was heading back, I was picturing myself on my stomach in that bog I struggled horizontally in, with it closing over my back and head, swallowing me whole forever. 
However, realistically, it was only several inches to a couple of feet deep. My real deep bog was the sinking spot I had grown and nurtured, where I shot my latest video of the season, and next time I would be loosening nicely.I put my things away in my bike, and was on my way some time around 5 pm, although I could have stayed until 6 pm. I got home shortly after 8 pm, over an hour before dark.
It was a nice day, with the heat quite evident, even in the higher elevations.
Vernon officially hit 30 C or 86 F, while at our place, we recorded 29.2 C, or F. I was happy that I never had any knee pain, although there were some leg cramps towards the end of the trip to my destination. But, I felt that the cramps would have been worse if I hadn't taken along two bottles of Powerade, with electrolytes. It was great that there was enough mud exposed for me to have a sink right away, even with all the high water all around!
My addition of mud to my sinking spot really made a world of difference! 
But, I was disappointed that the mud had to slump down below water level when I struggled in it, making me decide not to have a submersion. I wondered if I had just stood in one spot without struggling, and used my feet to make me sink down the rest of the way, and perhaps carefully putting my arms under to help pull myself down without disturbing the surface, and perhaps some bending of my legs to speed things up, then I just might have been able to go under without the island of mud flattening out into the water. But, I was surprised that the mud didn't feel as frigid as I had been worrying about! So, the sun has been working its magic! But, now there likely won't be much mud exposed for a video for next time, unless the water really drops before then. So, I will likely be doing just mud loosening next time, and perhaps I just might be able to mix the mud up to the surface of the water! 
Thanks again for sharing your adventures with us.