Quicksand and Sinking Basics

[Nessie]

If it wasn't for that alkali on top, it would have been the ultimate quicksander's playground (although I wouldn't trust it in my eyes even then, unless the area was a more neutral ph)!

Whoahh!

Thank you very much, Boggy Man! I'm sorry you had to go through that. But it is good to share! You even had a photo of it. So that's what it looks like! Ya know what...I WOULD be attracted to that. You betcha I would. Especially since I did in fact sink in a mudpit that had dunes of white stuff scattered around the edges and on top of its crusty dried clay surfaces. But that was way down South. My mud partner, who is generally right about anything to do with mud, sand, dirt and the Earth in general, told me that it was kaolin sand.

Kaolin sand is totally benign! And it's pretty too! So I'd probably go, "White stuff! Looks just like kaolin sand! Goodieeeeee!"

I'm not sure as I would care to try to take a snow shovel to it now that I know exactly what it is and what it can do to you. I'm not what you call a risky sinker. By the way...at long last...

3) Take a friend or at least a water-tight cellphone. This doesn't strike me as something you want to get caught in.

At long, long last, Nessie has joined the Cell Phone Revolution. As per what I posted some time back, yes, it is coming to the mudpits and yes, it will be charged up when I take it and in a Ziplock baggie when necessary. I really can't spend much money on a phone when I really do not need one for anything else so it is an extremely cheap pay-as-you-go plan and it'll cost me around $3 a month.

Probably, the truth is that it will be used to call road service. Every time I've ever been forced to find a phone after mud, it's been because for some reason or another, the car won't move.

Nessie

[nachtjaeger]

Oh yeah. I saw something big and black go off through the brush near one of my sinking spots, and then got to watch a fresh bear track fill up with water. We also have a pack of Eastern Coyotes here- they have crossbred with wolves and have bred up to fill the same ecological niche. Big kitty-cats, too, according to legend and firsthand sightings. Although there are probably more sightings and tracks of a large primate than of cougars.

Up here in the Big Bad North...we've got...these!

They don't live in mud but they can get you on the way in and out.

I don't think the big kitty is too commonly met by humans around here although since I took the photo myself in a local nature center, they don't stuff anything for display that lives somewhere else. That means we've got the kitties.

This particular bear won't be a bother since I took that photo in a sporting-goods store, but yup, the bears are listed in my book of local mammals!

I wonder what happened to my snapping turtle picture? But all you can lose to that critter is a toe.

Nessie

[Mynock]

Maybe it's just because I'm used to seeing them, but bears really don't frighten me (Black Bears that is). Generrally all you have to do is yell that them, maybe chuck a rock or two and they run off.
We don't have wild pigs here....but having grown up rural around dozens of farms I've learned to have great respect for their domesticated cousins. Generally an easy going animal, but piss it off and you better find something tall and sturdy to climb up on.

[Boggy Man]

Alkali is a sort of opposite of acid, but it winds up burning in much the same way. If I remember right, that white stuff is described as "caustic". Not the same as acidic, the chemical reaction is a bit different, but the end result is just as painful. It's almost as if something sufficiently alkali can cause your skin to act as an acid, dissolving both skin and alkali cake at the same time. (Again, that is all assuming I remember my chemistry from 20 years ago well enough)

Actually, they burn in different ways. Acid burns are painful and fast acting, and tan the flesh, which then creates a barrier which slows down further damage. Alkali burns are mostly painless and slower acting, but just steadily eats away at flesh, deeper and deeper.

I *think* the white cake on top of the mud is the result of the alkali leeching to the surface and drying.

I know that in the dry areas, the alkali from the surrounding soil gets concentrated in the water at the surface of the mud, and when it evaporates, it leaves behind the white crust/powder.

I have suggestions:

1) Take with you (of all things!) a snow shovel. That wide, flat pan should be pretty wonderful for getting the cake out of your way. (as well as something wide and flat to help you move through faster/easier.

It could be rather tricky trying to smuggle one with me on a family camping trip, if we ever go to that area again, or to another area with similar alkali sloughs.

2) Take along several 2 or 3 liter bottles of the absolute cheapest diet soda you can find, and use it to rinse off with next time. My bet is that it will fizz rather a lot as you use it.

I read that rinsing alkali off with acidic solutions could result in chemical reactions which could cause worse burns. I had thought about rinsing off in the water in a sphagnum bog that had a small pond in it, which is slightly acidic, after the cleanup in the other ponds near the alkali lake, but it was getting late, and I was in a hurry to get back to camp before it got too dark, since my parents were always worried if I never returned to camp before a certain time. I then made up a story that I was so hasty heading back, that while running over the ground with my bike to cross a clearcut to get from one road to another, I had scraped my legs on logs multiple times, which was why I had all the "scrapes" in my skin.

3) Take a friend or at least a water-tight cellphone. This doesn't strike me as something you want to get caught in.

I have yet to find a bog that I couldn't get out of by myself, although I did get myself stuck up to the top of my legs in solidly set sand that was once quick, which took a long time to dig myself out of, but I did get out on my own. I thought it was all quickclaysilt, and lingered there for some time, until after I found that I couldn't budge my feet, discovered that it was actually quicksand a foot beneath the quickclaysilt, which had set! I just kept at the digging, and escaped. But, I know that there is the danger where a similar situation may be inescapable on my own, but I try to be very careful, and always make certain not to stay in pure quicksand for too long.

Since we have only one cell phone, it wouldn't work, since my parents wouldn't have another phone at camp. Cell reception in a number of wilderness areas is rather poor to non-existent, as well. But, I have thought about walkie talkies, so that I could let them know I was on my way back, if they were worried, and were about to call a search party!

[Boggy Man]

Oh yeah. I saw something big and black go off through the brush near one of my sinking spots, and then got to watch a fresh bear track fill up with water. We also have a pack of Eastern Coyotes here- they have crossbred with wolves and have bred up to fill the same ecological niche. Big kitty-cats, too, according to legend and firsthand sightings. Although there are probably more sightings and tracks of a large primate than of cougars.

I know that there is a brown bear in the vicinity of my Edwin Lakes area pond, since I have seen it on occasion most years while biking down the road, on the way to or from the area. Once after being at my sinking spot at the pond, I returned to my bike and discovered all my lunch in my saddlebag was gone, and there was plastic wrap and bags scattered around! The rest of the day, I felt extremely drained, since I spent the day biking up and down hills/mountains, hiking, and sinking, with only nourishment from my morning breakfast (and a slight snack on some chocolate chip cookies when I first reached the site, the smell of which probably attracted the bear in the first place) to tide me until I got home that evening.

On the third day of the MPV recon back in 2009, Dave took pix of some animal tracks in the exposed mud of a beaver pond where the water levels had dropped quite a bit:

mpvcanreconday3-39.jpg

We have coyotes all over the place. One was ahead of me on a gravel road, running away as I biked up the road. At home, there were times when a bunch of them were howling so loud that I thought they were outside my window! From time to time, whenever an emergency vehicle went down the highway or other road, with its sirens blaring, the coyotes would start howling.

[Boggy Man]

I wonder what happened to my snapping turtle picture? But all you can lose to that critter is a toe.

Nessie

After locating the picture of interest in my "Nessie" directory, I compared the download date on that pic with the dates of the various postings, and found this thread on dangerous wildlife.

[bart1997]

.

[Mynock]

The left is deer, at least I hope it is, because if it's moose that was one big fucking cat following it around.

[kham]

Uh, we gonna need a bigger boat

[Fred588]

HA! What we have here is photographic PROOF that families of Bigfoots keep feline pets.