Quicksand Fans

After my previous bikeride, with rather painful hikes, I decided to wait until my baby toe on my right foot recovered quite a bit more before going again, since I was so concerned about re-injuring it. It wasn't easy letting so many nice hot days go by, but finally, my toe improved enough for me to try and give it a go again on Wednesday, August 24'th, 18 days after my previous bikeride. This time, I could walk more comfortably in my hiking shoes, whereas last time, it was too painful, forcing me to wear rubbers all day. So, with hiking shoes on, I left home just after 8 am. The forecast was calling for sunshine with cloudy periods late in the day, and a high of 32˚C, or 89.6˚F. It felt cooler in the morning than last time, even though it was to be a warmer day than last time. It was likely due to the lengthening nights at this time of the year. I just hoped that it would warm up as they forecasted. On my way up, I snacked on a couple of Pizza Pops for lunch, and was happy that while there was some slight burning from my toe rubbing inside my shoe, it was feeling fairly good.

Around half an hour before arriving at my destination, I began to notice something disturbing. A soreness suddenly started up in the right side of my right knee, at the top of my fibula! That was the beginning of the type of knee pain that had impeded my bikerides years ago, and I had hoped that I had put that behind me! But now, there it was! I biked carefully, and reached my Crescent Road pond area some time around 1 pm, happy that I hadn't seen any cattle at all. Something else that bothered me was the fact that the wind seemed to be coming up, something which always interfered with the audio of the video, and I so badly wanted to capture the sound of each fart that the bog made, since it had built up so much swamp gas over the summer, since my last sink there!

I got out my things, including swim goggles, my plastic margarine container(s) with my Gorillapod for mounting my camera to a stick for shooting, and junk shorts, and I switched the memory cards in my camera. When I headed to the north end of the pond, I was happy to see that my right foot felt comfortable, even when walking on the uneven ground! My right knee also felt okay, and I hoped that the long break before biking home would help recover from that soreness as well. Before heading to my sinking spot, I dropped my things in the grass north of the pond and retrieved my breathing hose from on top of an old beaver lodge hidden in the thick alders on the eastern shore in the northern part of the pond. I then headed to my sinking spot on the west side with all my stuff, noticing that the water did indeed drop, and stopping briefly to take a picture of a bare boggy part which I took last time as well, to show how it looked now:


I never bothered to take any pictures of some other boggy breaks in the grass, because they were not that significant. When I reached the main sinking spot, it looked nice and thick, thicker than last time. I jumped on the grass and the quaked nicely, but not as loosely as last time, an indication of how thick it was getting. I took a couple of pictures of it:



I changed into my junk shorts, and walked barefoot through the grass, and was happy that there was no pain whatsoever! I took my stick I used for mounting the camera on, and checked out places around the south side of the bog for sticking the stick into the ground. But, because shadows were getting a little bit longer, in order to have the camera right at the edge of the bog without its shadow reaching the shooting area, I had to either set it up on the southwest side or the southeast side, but not the south side. After some experimentation, including mounting the camera on the stick while it was on the southeast side, I finally decided on the southwest side, hoping that the movement of the sun wouldn't cause the shadow of the camera and stick to sweep around into the picture some time into the video. I was still concerned about the wind, and wondered if putting up some sort of wind shield behind the camera would work, such as a margarine lid. But, it looked like it might catch too much wind and cause the camera to move. It also made the camera shadow larger, which I was more concerned about keeping out of the picture. So, I decided not to shield the mic, and just hoped that the wind stayed low enough for the duration of the shooting. It seemed that I always had trouble with wind just as the mud conditions got to their peak, and I hoped that this time would be different.

I properly framed the picture, deciding on centering it roughly around or below a white speck on the surface of the mire. I planned on stepping just in front of the white speck, which I figured would properly frame me during my sink. I returned to my things, took off my glasses, returned to my camera, adjusted its view again, clicked the record button at 1:55 pm, and I was ready to begin!

I walked around to the northwest side, out of the view of the camera, made an excuse for "accidentally" running into the bog, and then "accidentally" ran into the bog, landing in the vicinity of the white speck, sinking immediately to my waist! I could hear the mire farting around me as I struggled, pressing my hands on the stiffer surface softly enough so as to not break the surface, which pulsated and heaved with my struggles. I slowly kept sinking deeper and deeper, until I was around chest deep, at which point I finally "tried" to escape by pushing harder with my hands and arms, causing the rubbery surface to finally give way and suck them under, where they were "stuck" for the rest of my descent! I continued to struggle, the mire closing over my shoulders, and making more farting noises which I hoped that the camera would pick up. I did feel some slight leg cramps, but they weren't too bad, and I was able to keep on with my sinking. I tilted my head back, with the hungry quagmire rising around it, and then slowly closing around my face (had some trouble with the sun in my eyes until I got deeper), happy that I could see the camera from the gap in the mire over my head, which was slowly closing. I closed my eyes and tilted my head further back to keep my mouth in the shrinking gap in the mire, slowly sinking deeper. Finally, I took a deep breath and sunk the rest of the way under, totally encased in suffocating muck! I then paused for a moment, exhaled some air which hissed to the surface, and then tried pausing again, which was hard to do after exhaling my air, and then quickly worked my way back to the surface, wiping mud away from my mouth and face so I could breathe again. I then continued to work myself up higher by raising my feet below me and then straightening up, and then proceeded to wipe mud away from my skin, and then my eyes, so I could open them again. I worked myself up to around waist height in the mire before I couldn't get any higher. I then leaned over and managed to reach for shore and worked/pulled myself free onto the grass on the west side of the mire, pushing mud off my skin and back into the bog as I went. I slightly smoothed the surface, but not much, headed to some water to clean my hands, returned to the camera, stopped the recording, and turned the camera off.

I then headed to the edge of the pond where the small rushes were floating on mud/water which then sagged down, letting around a foot of water to flood in over top. But, some of the water was from under the mat, which was cold, as opposed to the cool, and warming, exposed pond water. I had to look around a bit to find a good spot, and then proceeded to immerse my head in the water for brief periods, since it was early in the afternoon and the sun hadn't finished warming the water yet. I managed to clean my head nicely, and then proceeded to clean myself from my neck down, noticing how the thick mud had left a brown residue on my skin which I had to rub harder to get off. Once I was cleaned from head to toe, I was ready to air-dry off.

While waiting, I dismounted the camera, pulled the stick out, and set the stick in the grass by the path to my things. I took my junk shorts, which I had also cleaned and wrung out during my cleanup, and set it on a branch of a dead tree in the sun. I was feeling chilled, but at least the sun felt nice. The wind helped dry me faster as well. While waiting to warm up, and for my feet to dry out, I went into the shade to watch my video. I was happy about how nicely centered I was and the way the muck looked, but as my luck would have it, the audio was full of interference from the annoying wind! So, I wasn't certain if very many of the bog farts would show up in the audio. I found that while watching the video in the shade, I was getting colder instead of warmer! The wind in the shade was enough to keep me feeling chilled! But, I felt better when I got back into the sun. I took a picture of my bog where I had just sunk in:

I finally got dressed, grabbed my things except for my junk shorts which were drying on a dead branch, and my breathing hose, which I was thinking of using afterward, and returned to my bike. I then put on a sweater for extra warmth, and then biked further up the trail to briefly glance at the next pond to the north, which had a ring of sphagnum bog inside it. I was disappointed to see that my right knee still felt sore when I got back on the bike again. On the way, I looked at a part of the dirt road which was low and usually had water in it with a thin layer of wet clay, with water plantain growing in it (partially eaten by the cattle), thinking how it would have been nice to have lots of that clay to sink in. I continued onward to where the edge of a smaller pond south of that main one, separated by a beaver dam, was up to the edge of the road, where the seasonal stream ran from it through the woods to my Crescent Road pond. The water looked fairly high, and I continued on up the road, which was on the west side of the pond, which was hidden by trees, until I reached a clearing, which was an old logging landing. I looked at where the trails branched out, remembering how I followed one trail and ended up going in a circle, coming back to the same spot exiting via another trail. I didn't bother to go hiking through the bushes to check out the pond, since I was warming up nicely, and had to get back to my sinking spot. So, I turned around and returned to the pond, and walked back to my sinking spot.

I felt nice and warm, ready to go for a nice sink. But, I had to decide on whether to put on my swim goggles and grab my breathing hose and sink under and linger there for a while, or if I should first try for some stimulating struggling on the stiffer undisturbed parts and mushing it all up to get rid of all the sprouts of tiny rushes, sedge grasses, and bur reed. I finally decided to go with the stimulating struggle and mushing up of the surface, since I needed to get the bog's surface "cleaned up".

So, I got undressed, but kept my glasses on, since I wasn't going to go under, or at least not yet. I headed over to the bog and crawled over top of it from the west side, moving over to face the undisturbed north edge, the soft mire cushioning my front side that I was laying down on. I put my hands down into the mire to pretend to push myself up, only to have them get sucked down deep. I laid there on my stomach, struggling, just loving the feel of the mire, like laying on an air mattress that is not fully inflated. I continued to struggle, with my lower part of my body sinking down deeper, starting with my legs, which I had forced down harder. I continued to struggle, pulling myself down deeper, raising my head up higher, feeling the mire slowly rising around my buttocks and lower back, eventually closing over them. It felt soooooooo gooooooood! The mire was farting swamp gas periodically as I struggled, which added to the experience. After a while, I stood up a bit, letting my lower part of my body sink a bit deeper before leaning forward again, struggling and pretending to be trying to escape, but hopelessly stuck, and slowly sinking deeper, struggling until my stimulation reached the bursting point!

I then proceeded to mush up the mud around me while laying on my stomach, starting around the north side and working my way counterclockwise, mushing the surface up nicely, pushing all the sprouts under as well, with lots more swamp gas farting out from me disturbing the mud. I also began to tear at the mat of weeds on the east and then north sides to slightly expand the bog, but only managed to tear up a few inches in some small spots on those sides where the mat was the thinnest. I planned on doing some more serious expansion some other time in the future. I mushed the entire patch of mud into a really nice, doughy, sticky consistency. But, while moving and twisting around in the mud to reposition myself, I was disappointed to feel some strong soreness in my right knee occasionally when certain stress was put on it in a certain way in the mud. But, it was only momentary, with the knee being mainly pain-free. During my fun in the mud, I found that it helped me to keep from being too chilled by laying low whenever the wind started to come up so that I would be sheltered, or at least partially sheltered, from it.

Once I finished turning the surface into the same sticky gooey consistency as the stuff below it and freed it of weeds, I stood up in the middle of the patch of quivering sticky goo, facing west, out of reach of any solid ground, standing around stomach deep in the bottomless morass. Then I began to struggle, pushing my hands down on the doughy surface lightly to slow down my sinking. It was thick enough to allow me to keep from sinking much by repeatedly placing my hands down on the doughy surface around me, which would then sag under my hands, but had enough resistance to allow me to stay roughly at that height, until I struggled, and let it suck my hands down with my body. I slowly sunk deeper and deeper in the sticky ooze, just savoring the experience. I wasn't feeling warm enough to bother doing any underbog sinks, but it was getting too late to start that, anyways. I just struggled, pretending to be trying to reach for solid ground, which was out of reach, pushed my hands/arms under and then worked them back up again, slowly sinking deeper until the voracious muck rose to my upper chest. I just loved how thick and gooey it was! But, shadows from the trees to the southwest were starting to lengthen and move across the area. One had passed over me and the mud already and was gone, which was good, because it had been making me feel a bit cooler until the sun once again shone on me. But when another one was creeping towards me from the west, I decided to call it quits before it reached me. Not wanting to exit in the now shady west side, I instead worked and stretched myself over the thick quagmire to the sunny east side, grabbing onto the grass there and pulling myself out, wiping the mud off as I went, until I was finally totally free of the sticky, doughy, bottomless ooze!

I headed to the western edge of the pond, this time further north than last time, searching for a good spot to clean up in. Once again, the floating mat of rushes sagged down under my weight, allowing around a foot of water to flood over it, and around me as I sat down. But, I had a bit of trouble finding a comfortable position, because I was having some trouble with leg cramps. I also had to swish over clearer water from the pond to around me, because sediment was being stirred up by the mat being pressed down, forcing water out from underneath. I had to finally pause and wait for the sediment to settle a bit. I leaned over, and cleaned my lower face of the mud, which had been drying, and then proceeded to clean myself from the chest down, happy that the water was feeling more comfortable after the day of sunshine. I then kneeled up higher, cleaning myself lower, and then stood up, cleaning myself completely. I had kept an eye out for leeches, but was surprised that I hadn't seen any yet on this trip. I then had to clean my feet off in a different spot in the grass, before heading to my things. But, I looked at my left shoulder, and there was a large leech! I removed it, and tossed it into the water. I air-dried, and then took a few final pictures of the mushed up bog:




I got dressed, putting on my sweater as well to help with my warming, jumped on the grass beside the bog to see it quiver one last time, grabbed my things, and started heading back towards my bike, picking up my junk shorts along the way. While still in the meadow, I dropped things off at the north side briefly to return the breathing hose to its hiding spot in the hidden old beaver lodge (got my left shoe/sock wet and muddy by stepping into a soft spot) in the alders on the east side of the northern part of the pond before picking the stuff up and returning to my bike. I put everything away and was on my way, some time around 5 pm, happy that some high clouds that were around during the day weren't much of a problem.

But, once I began heading back on my bike, I immediately felt the soreness in my right knee again, which had me concerned, since so much rest from biking didn't diminish it at all! I took it easy heading home, snacking on a couple of Pizza Pops, some chocolate chunk cookies, and salt'n vinegar chips along the way. Coasting down the mountain road was no problem, but once I reached the valley bottom and had to pedal continuously again, the soreness came back. I tried to keep pressure below the pain threshold, but the soreness still turned into a constant burning pain of varying degrees, with the occasional shock of intense pain. I did my best to keep in low gear, taking it easy, but I did have to climb a hillside to get back home.

When I finally got home, it was close to 8:30 pm, just before it started to get dark, happy that the stress on my knee was over for now, and I could start to heal. But, when I got off the bike, I discovered that things had changed! My knee was hurting, even when I was walking! To make matters worse, each time I walked downhill, or down the stairs, the pain got really intense! Walking uphill or up the stairs, or on level ground had diminished soreness, making me think it was getting better, until I walked downhill or down the stairs again, and was hit with pain again!

This knee pain was something that I thought that I had put behind me long ago, and I felt devastated to get hit with it again, during a season that I relied on my body alone to get me to and from my sinking areas! It was the cause of many lost opportunities/inhibitions for my bikerides back in the 90's, although while recovering from the same injury in my left leg resulted in me exploring some new lower elevation areas for the first time, and that resulted in me discovering my Harris Creek silt slide! It seems that whenever I felt more confident in my fitness, it would always hit! The last time was back in 2008, after biking every day on a camping trip and feeling in such great shape, the weather turned cooler, forcing me to wait a few weeks before biking again, at which time the pain hit me. But, I remember a week or so later, my dad gave me a lift into the mountains, and I was able to carefully bike and hike without pain for the rest of the day, and things improved from there. Because my dad is recovering from a concussion, I currently have no such luxury, so if I am to resume my sinking, I have to be able to spend 5 hours of biking with a couple of hours of steady climbing included to get to my destination, before biking home for another 4 hours after my day of hiking/sinking is done. And to think that this happened just when my fractured toe has healed enough for me to hike again with very little irritation! I exchanged one injury for another! On my previous adventure, I could bike to the areas, but couldn't hike without pain. Now, I can hike without pain (did feel some soreness when excessive force was accidentally put on the toe, but it was brief, and not that bad), but can't bike without increasing pain and lengthening recovery time, so I now can't access my areas to begin with! But, if I had done some short bikerides down and up the hillside for a few days before my bikeride, then I would have kept my legs conditioned, and the knee pain wouldn't have materialized, unless the really long bikeride on my previous adventure had set the stage for the knee pain without the pain that time, to be finally triggered on this one.

The temperature in Vernon was 29.7˚C (85.5˚F) at our place, while Environment Canada recorded 32.4˚C (90.3˚F). Another station reported 31˚C (87.8˚F) for Vernon. At the Elkhart Lodge, a high elevation location between the Okanagan and the west coast which is my gauge for higher elevation weather, hit 24˚C (75.2˚F), not bad for up in the mountains, the reason I chose that day to go sinking in the mountains. It still got hot after that, and perhaps if I had waited a couple more days, I might not have had the trouble with the wind ruining the audio. An interesting thing is that while we had a horrible start to summer, with an extremely cool and unsettled July, our August was hotter than average, with a mean temperature of 20.6˚C (69.1˚F) compared to 18.7˚C (65.7˚F), and drier than average, with 14 mm (0.55") of rain compared to 42.8 mm (1.685"). It was a shame I have had very few opportunities to take advantage of that thanks to a foot injury, followed by a knee injury after the foot improved enough to resume activity.

Thanks to my knee re-injury, I let some really hot days go by, including August 27'th, the warmest air mass and the hottest day in the Okanagan we have had this year! But, with the shorter days and longer nights and lower sun now, it wasn't as hot as it would have been a month earlier in the same airmass (low to mid 30's (high 80's to mid 90's)in the valley (warmest temps closer to the Washington border) instead of mid 30's to around 40 (mid 90's to low 100's) had it been June/July). Because of the really hot weather and the approach of colder weather, I really wanted to go back on Monday, August 29'th, but wasn't certain about it, instead opting for a half hour of biking in the evening just to "test the waters", and to try and maintain some level of biking activity. I still felt some slight irritation and sensitivity on and off, but no intense pain. I figured that if I had tried going on an adventurous bikeride, I wouldn't even make it halfway to the beginning of the climb before the pain would return, with the return trip home causing a major setback in my recovery, back to where it was when I got home from this bikeride, or worse! So, starting the next day (Aug 30'th), the weather turned cooler, and then after that, snow started falling in the morning/overnight or two in the higher elevations along the Alberta/BC border, and the foothills of the Rockies, in western Alberta (Lake Louise, Jasper, Kananaskis Country)! But, not around here, thankfully. On Friday, September 2'nd, my knee started to feel normal again, and I tried going for a 30 to 40 minute bikeride around the area, with some slight climbing, and my knee felt a bit stronger, but 2 1/2 hours after I got back home, my knee starting getting tickling sensations, and after that, it seemed more sensitive again, although various aches and feeling of pressure weren't coinciding with activity, but when my knee was more idle.

After a few cool days, the summer heat has returned! In fact, we are in the equivalent of a September "heat wave", with no end in sight! Nothing but sunshine, and temperatures lingering somewhere around the 30˚C (86˚F) mark, give or take a degree or so! If it was late spring or early to mid summer, we would have been much hotter yet, like the temperature range I mentioned in the previous paragraph just above! The longer nights, shorter days and lower sun is going to make it increasingly hard to maintain the heat for too long, but so long as it is here, I would love to take advantage of it! But, there is the issue of HUNTING SEASON! However, according to the hunting synopsis, the regular hunting season here doesn't begin until September 10'th, the weekend after the Labor Day long weekend! So, I am giving my right knee until Friday, September 9'th, before I try biking, hiking and sinking (if I can make it there, knee permitting). I am planning on taking anti-inflammatories to see if that can suppress any irritation, and I am thinking of wrapping an elastic bandage around my knee to see if the extra support can help it. If I can't make it up the main climb (or can't make it to the beginning of the climb) before the pain returns, then I will turn around and call it a day, and perhaps call my brother for a ride home to prevent any further aggravation of the knee problem. But, if I do manage to get to the top of the mountain before the soreness starts, then I can walk up any remaining steep hills to my sinking spot, and then at the end of the day, after coasting down into the valley, call my brother to pick me up to prevent things from getting any worse, unless my parents get back early enough from a 4-day trip the went on (my mom would have to drive, and my dad give directions). But, while main hunting season doesn't start until the 10'th, hunting season for bow hunters, and for hunters under the age of 18 began on September 1'st, which is a minority, especially in terms of children during weekdays, now that school began.

But, ignoring my new recurring injury in the top of my fibula in my right knee, it was a pretty good day! My toe felt comfortable while walking in bare feet in the meadow, the few high clouds we did get didn't really mask the sun much or for any great period of time, the mud was nice and thick and full of farting gas, I got to shoot a video of me sinking and escaping, and did some mushing up of the surface and enjoyed it until it was time to go home. The undisturbed surface of the mud was stiffer and was almost rubbery, which made it look very quicksandish, while below that layer, it was all sticky, doughy, clinging ooze! Once I mushed it all up, eliminating the plants that were trying to invade the muck, it was all sticky, doughy, clinging ooze over the surface! The wind was quite annoying, since it interfered with the audio in my video, masking out all the wonderful sounds the bog made. I wished that I had more time that day, since I so badly wanted to put on my swim goggles and go under with my breathing hose, and remain submerged for as long as I felt like it. I am anxious to do that next time, if my knee will allow me, perhaps first doing the underbog lingering, followed by mushing up the surface, then cleaning off, warming up and the shooting a video of me sinking and struggling in the sticky, doughy, clinging ooze. For my first sink, I think I would put a plastic bag over my hair/ears to keep them clean and dry, to reduce the amount of my head that would get wet, muddy and cold and to be cleaned off. That would speed up my warmup so that I could have the second on-camera sink into the mushed up gooey stuff! But, if the mud had thickened too much, then I might not be able to mush the surface up easily, and would therefore go for shooting a video of me sinking into the thicker mud first. So, I am keeping my fingers crossed for Friday, September 9'th, and hope my knee doesn't give me any problems, since after that, I am uncertain about whether I can get another shot at any underbog sinks this year, since I would have to wait another couple weeks at least, to allow my knee to recover, and for the initial rush of eager hunters to taper off, and by that time, the cleanup water and the surface of the mud would be too chilly to expose my head to it, even if the weather was to stay warm and doesn't turn chilly at that time. The conditions then go downhill from there.