But, up in the higher elevations, it would be quite nice, and it was time for me to start loosening the submerged mire at my Edwin Lakes area pond to get it ready for summer, a task I wasn't really totally looking forward to, but the end results would be worth it!
It was always a bit tedious, especially at the beginning when I had to first break through the stiff surface. I always had to try and block the tiny stream of cold water just south of the sinking spot from flowing over the area, and hoped that my movement of a floating clump of grass last year from the north side of my sinking spot over to beside the stream to the south would keep the stream separate, so that the water over the mud would warm up quickly.I kept on delaying my bikerides for several days, waiting for temperatures to get high enough for it to be decent enough to get into the water and cold mud for the loosening without getting too chilled too quickly. Finally, the forecast for Wednesday, June 3'rd was calling for sunshine, with a high of 31˚C, or 88˚F, sufficiently warm. I needed it to be really hot in the valley in order for it to be reasonably warm in the higher elevations, since it is always a little bit cooler up there, except in the autumn at times during inversions.
Once again, my dad gave me a lift into the mountains, saving me the time and effort. But, shortly after we left, I wondered if I should have taken any insect repellent, in case there were any mosquitoes out.
I hadn't encountered anything during my past few bikerides, and I was headed into higher elevations, where things start later. But, my dad did say that he encountered mosquitoes elsewhere recently.There had been a fatal accident on Aberdeen Lake Road recently, and I wondered if the location was where there were two long ribbons tied to bushes on the east, downhill side of the road, as we passed by, heading south. I would have to take a better look on the way back. My dad dropped me off after the main climb, and I was on my own at 9:04 am.
First, I wanted to check out the Crescent Road pond, since I wanted to check the water levels, which I assumed would be high at this time, and was also curious about how much of a difference my last year's late season mud addition to my sinking spot there had made.
When I got to the sidetrail and headed past the easternmost pond (the west pond had the sinking spot), I saw a family of Canada geese in the water, and wondered if I should have taken a picture of them. I dropped my bike off on a smaller trail north of the west pond, and immediately regretted not taking along any insect repellent! 
I saw more mosquitoes in 7 minutes than I had seen the past 7 months!!!! 
When I first saw the north side of the pond, it looked like the water was low, with some mud exposed on the edge, although I had a feeling it would just be stuff floating in the water.
When I headed into the meadow towards the pond, I discovered water was right up into the grass, and what I saw was indeed stuff floating on the water (algae and/or other stuff). 
But then, I would have been surprised if it was mud exposed, since water levels were always high at this time of year. I had seen some white violets in the alder bushes north of the pond, which I decided to take a picture of later.Because the water was so high, I had to take off my workboots and socks, leaving them behind, before continuing onward in bare feet. The water amongst the grass in the shade was a bit chilly. I headed southward along the west side, the sedge grasses just beginning to grow through last year's dead brown growth.
When I came across a gap in the grass, I had a feeling that was it! It was all underwater, including the surrounding ground/grass, and I carefully walked over to the north side and took a close look at it. Checking with my hand, there was around 3 to 4 inches of water over top of the mud. That was in contrast to around a foot of water over the mud last year. So, my addition of mud to that spot made a difference, and I hoped it would become exposed earlier this year because of it.
I headed further south a little bit to make certain that I wasn't looking at the wrong spot, just in case my sinking spot was further over. But, what I had looked at was indeed it, and so I headed back the way I came, since I felt it was pointless to walk along the pond any further.
On the way back, I cleaned my feet, and put my socks and workboots back on. I then got out my camera to take some pictures of the white violets. On my last bikeride, I had taken pix of yellow violets and violet violets. The white violets would make a good addition to those. When I took a picture of one clump, it was out of focus. So, I set my camera to super macro. But, when I did that, the camera shut off!
I then turned the camera on, and it powered up, and then immediately powered down! I tried repeatedly to get it to stay on, but it wouldn't! I couldn't get it to stay on long enough for me to take it off super macro! It looked like I wasn't going to be able to use my camera on this trip, and the future (including videos) was uncertain as well. I put my camera away, returned to my bike and headed onward, back to the road. The family of Canada geese, this time by the road, quickly took back to the water as I passed by, honking excitedly. Too bad the camera was malfunctioning, since I could have taken a picture of them. I returned to the main road, and then headed back to Aberdeen Road turnoff. I noticed other ribbons by the road, but they were only marking newly installed culverts. The lower gears on my new bike made it much easier heading up the steep hill leading up to the Edwin Lakes turnoff, as well as the steep early part of the Edwin Lakes road. I was almost expecting to see the resident brown bear in the clearing it frequented, but nothing.
My dad had been looking for nice rocks for my aunt's, and her boyfriend's, home. I vaguely remembered that further up the Edwin Lake road, there was a steeper area where there were lots of rocks. So, I passed the turnoff I would have taken to my pond, in favor of checking out the rocks first, while I waited for things to warm up more. When I got to the area, sure enough, there were nice rocks that were white, white with black spots of lichens, white with gray specks, white with purple specks, and reddish brown sparkly. I took a sample of a few small ones, and headed back to the turnoff to my pond.
I was happy to see that the road didn't look like it was travelled recently, since I was concerned about anyone using the area for hiding marijuana plants, as they did a number of years ago. The paper sign I had put up helped keep them away, since no one would want to hide illegal plants where it looked like people would be hiking. I had taken along a new piece of cardboard from a "Pizza Minis" box, and a marker for a new sign. I turned up another sideroad, and then reached the corner where the trail led down to the pond. I was happy to see that the sign was still intact, although it was a little warped and the stuff on it was all faded.
I dropped my bike off down the trail and got out my lunch, since it was after 12 noon. But, I couldn't stay in that spot while eating lunch, because I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes!
So, I walked further up the sideroad, while I snacked on a Pizza Mini on the way up, and a Pizza Pop on the way back.Next, I had to search the bushes along the west side of the pond and the north side of the stream leaving the pond for morel mushrooms. It must have been some time around 12:30 pm. I took along my junk shorts in a bag and a plastic pop container of Kool-Aid, since they were going to be taken to my sinking area. But, unfortunately, I found no mushrooms.
I noticed how the smaller hidden pond west of the main pond was all high water, as was the main pond to the east.I set my things down behind a bush on the north side of the pond, and headed back to my bike to take care of some other business. It was time for me to make like a bear, and take a dump in the woods. I went a bit further uphill, hopefully further away from the mosquitoes, but they were still swarming me a fair bit. Once I was relieved, I returned to my things I had left northwest of the pond, and continued onward, checking the forest on the north side of the main pond for morels, and finding nothing. It must have been around 1 pm.
On the east side of the pond, when I crossed the tiny stream that entered the pond to get to its south side, the plastic bag I had in my pocket for any mushrooms I might find fell right into the water.
I picked it up and put it aside to dry. I dropped off my things on the south side of the stream, amongst the willows there.I then headed northward, into the bushes to retrieve my junk sweater and junk parka, which I was going to wear to keep me a little bit insulated during the mud loosening. My breathing tube (shop vac hose), which wasn't going to be used for some time yet, was still laying on the ground behind (west side of) a juniper. But, on the tree to the west of that, my sweater was gone from the tree branch I had it hung on!
Only my junk parka was there! I looked around, and found the junk gray sweater to the north or northeast of where I had originally hung it. It was probably carried off by an animal. I took the two items back with me, and set them down with my things.I walked over in the direction of the pond and my sinking spot, only to have some shallow mud start to engulf my workboots, forcing me to back off. I didn't want to get my workboots all muddy. I took my workboots and socks off, removed my shorts and undershorts, and then put on my junk shorts. I was still wearing my t-shirt, but would take it off too once I was ready to begin the mud loosening.
I then took a look around, noticing how there was fresh mud deposited on the north side of the stream in the meadow, over where there was an animal path. I checked out the water on the south side of the clump of willows growing on the south side of the stream where it entered the pond, and it seemed mild, not cold.
For a moment, I watched the "dance of the mayflies", which were quite graceful. The adults don't live for very long. In fact, they were designed without any mouthparts, or digestive system. Just living off whatever they stored in their bodies from when they were nymphs.There were a few baby toads hopping around on the ground. I noticed that my dike of mud and grass helped keep the stream separate from my sinking spot this time, with the sinking spot completely isolated from the colder flowing water of the stream!
I also noticed that in my submerged sinking spot, the bottom there looked like it was pushed down in a couple of places, with rings of where it was pushed up, as if something had been in it in those two spots. There were a lot more grass sprouts appearing as well, which I was going to have to get rid of. The high water over top of my sinking spot was connected to the pond to the east, so there wasn't any mudbank (soft and shallow on top but stiff deeper down) exposed between my sinking spot and the pond, just open water.I removed my t-shirt and put on just the ragged junk parka, since I was uncertain about wearing the sweater, which I didn't feel like having to pull over my head after it was wet at the end of my task.
I tried zipping the parka up, but the zipper wouldn't fasten at all. Instead, I clipped it on, but knew that cold mud and water would still quickly move through. So, I decided to put on the junk sweater after all, finding it rather itchy, followed by the junk parka on top, which I clipped the snap buttons to close it. I also removed some twigs stuck to the stuffing exposed on my parka, since I didn't want any to get in the mud. With me all dressed up, I was all ready to get to work! I approached the east side and stepped in, sinking up to my waist rather quickly!
The mud on top wasn't stiff at all, but loose! It looked like the extra blockage of the mat of grass, which I had moved from the north side of the sinkhole to the south side, along the north side of the stream, did the trick, as well as the mud dike I had worked on!!! It kept the stream from depositing fresh material on top of my sinking spot, which would have compressed the mud! Also, because the water over top of the sinking spot was isolated from the stream, it was able to warm up nicely right from the very beginning, allowing the mud to undergo more organic decomposition, resulting in lots of swamp gas building up in the mud, making it porous, allowing water to seep in, keeping it loose! But, it wasn't that loose deeper down, and so I still had a bit of mud loosening to do.Even though the surface was warmer, it was still chilly deeper down, so when I got in, I had to wait a moment to get used to the temperature. Even deeper down, it was aching cold on my feet. There was shrimp swimming around me, and lots of swamp gas bubbling up vigorously through the mud and water. I slogged around my underwater sinkhole, with my feet and legs poking holes in the thicker mud and mushing it up, sending up even more swamp gas. One problem that I had discovered with the surface being warmer and not covered over with fresh mud was that sedge grass seeds were germinating all over the place rather quickly, forcing me to uproot them as I loosened the muck. But, that was a minor problem, and the benefits outweighed that problem substantially.
Eventually, I began to mush the mud with my hands, dislodging globs of thicker muck with one foot, lifting it up with my hands, setting it down on my knee underwater, and then rubbing chunks of it between my hands to make it dissolve into the water. I found that if I stayed put in one spot as I did that all around me, I could warm up a little more than when I moved around a lot. Once I had a certain amount of mud loosened around me, I would then move to another spot to loosen that mud. The mud I brought up with my feet was quite cold, but bringing it up to the surface and mixing it with the surface water with the sun beating down helped to warm it up a bit. I found that on the north side, on the east and mainly west sides of a yellow waterlily, it was a bit stiffer all the way through, resulting in me having to work it a bit more.
Occasionally, I watched the mayflies as a small swarm of them started dancing in the air near me, with alternating ones inside the swarm moving down while others were moving up during their bobbing up and down. With their threadlike tails resembling long, slender legs, they looked almost like fairies dancing before me. Magic was in the air!
I kept on pushing the mat of dislodged sedge grass seedlings to the side, mostly westward onto the water overtop the submerged mudbank (stiffer mud below it) between the sinking spot and the pond, and some off to the east side past the eastern edge of the sinkhole as well. But, sometimes the wind would make the ones to the west float back in, forcing me to push them further out. I also had to remove a few sedge grass runners as well, mostly from the northwest side where there was a clump of grass they were growing from.
I continued loosening the mud all around the sinkhole, with the water on the surface up to my stomach to lower chest, the deepest I was comfortable with, since I was starting to feel a bit chilled. I just continued on, regardless of the discomfort the coolness was giving me. I was happy that there were no clouds in the sky, the air was fairly warm, and the hot sun was able to beat down on the part of my body above the water/mud, maintaining a certain amount of balance between warm and cold, but a balance a bit short of being comfortable. I kept close to the sides, where I was able to stand slightly higher, since closer to the middle, I would sink lower, and become more chilled. Eventually, I got much of the mud loosened in the main part down to around 4 feet, although that included the few inches of water that was on top. I had to get back to the part on the north side, between a yellow waterlily to the east and a clump of grass to the west, since I hadn't loosened it as thoroughly as the rest of the area.
But, before I could do that, it wasn't the chilliness that got me out, but a full bladder.
So, I had to exit the watery sinkhole, and "water" the grass near the edge of a line of willows to the east. But, when I was finished, I just didn't feel like going back in, since I was so loving the feel of the heat of the sun on my body. So, I decided that would be it for now. The circumstances had taken care of some of the work for me before I even got there, making my progress a bit more advanced than my usual first mud loosening session of the year! I headed to the water to clean up, choosing the part of the pond west of the sinking spot, so that I could move the mat of floating sedge grass seedlings to the west side of the clump of grass that had the north part of my sinking spot to the east side of it. A west wind wouldn't be able to blow those seedlings back into my sinking spot now, only into the grass.
I cleaned up just the lower muddy part of my junk parka and sweater, and then exited the pond. I removed the parka and tried squeezing the water out, but it was heavy, and so I set it onto a branch/small stump to start drying. I then returned to the water, this time to the south of the stream, south of a clump of willows, to clean the lower part of the sweater there before rolling it up carefully so that I could pull it over my head with as little contact to my head as possible. I also cleaned my junk shorts as well and removed them, wringing them out and also hanging them to dry. I went back in to clean myself a bit more, although I wasn't as thorough with my chest, since I was planning on trying for a stimulating horizontal struggle in one of the patches of shallow muck that was exposed.I air-dried in the sun so that I could get rid of my chills, walking around the east side of the pond a little. During my wait, I took my junk parka and junk sweater, and returned them back to the forest, hanging them on a low branch. I then headed back, but stopped in a small dry clearing to sit down and lay back a little in the hot sunshine to continue warming up for several minutes. Once I felt a little bit warmer, I got up and headed back to my things. After a little bit more warming up in the sun, I then finally decided that I was ready enough to try for a stimulating horizontal sink!
There was one place where there was a shallow layer of soft mud which I had horizontal struggles in, in past years. It was just west of my things, on the south side of the stream, where I had accidentally stepped earlier in my workboot before quickly withdrawing. There were also some spots where fresh organic muck was deposited by the stream. One was on the north side of the stream, just across from the other spot to the south I had just mentioned, covering the end of where there was an animal trail. Another spot was on the northwest side of a small clump of willows that were growing on the south side of the stream where it entered the pond. There was also one spot along the north side of the stream, also towards the end, but was kinda part of the dike I had constructed to keep the cold stream water away from the sinking area.
I first decided to try out the mudbank on the northwest side of the clump of willows, south of the stream where it entered the pond. I kneeled down facing southeast, and put my hands down on the part closest into the willows. The mud felt rather coarse and grainy, not quite what I wanted. So, I got up and tried the stuff deposited on the north side of the stream over the animal trail, across from where I had my horizontal struggles last year. It was kinda stiff and shallow, and just didn't feel right, either. So, I decided to settle with the place on the south side of the stream, where I had mushed it up and had stimulating horizontal struggles last year.
I first checked the spot over, with a sw-ne oriented part looking promising, but unfortunately, a cow had left a little something there last year.
So, I chose the e-w oriented part just north of that sw-ne oriented spot. After laying down facing east to test it out, I decided to walk all over it and mush it up with my feet to make it all nice and soft. With it all loosened but only several inches deep, I laid down in the doughy slime and began to struggle, facing east. As I struggled, air was getting trapped under me and then farting out, and my arms were slowly getting sucked in horizontally by the blackish brown muck in front of me, with it making interesting sucking sounds. The feel of the slimy mud around my front, holding my arms, the struggle, and imagining that I was slowly being sucked down to my death in this mire, brought my stimulation to the exploding point!I got up, smoothed out all the impressions left by my body, and returned to the water on the south side of the clump of willows south of the stream to clean myself off, this time more thoroughly. I then air-dried, but had to return to the water again a few more times each time I had discovered I had missed a spot.
With myself all clean and dry, I got dressed. I was going to take one more look at my sinking spot, but decided not to, since I didn't want to get my workboots wet/muddy. It was some time after 4 pm. I gathered my things, and put the junk shorts over top of my hat on my head to help them dry off better during the trip back to my bike.
On my way back to my bike, I kept an eye open for morels, but still nothing. Perhaps it was still too early, and after a bit of rain, they should pop up all over the place.
As I was walking through the bushes west of the pond, I took off the junk shorts from my head to reposition it. Then, I saw a brown blob of what I had thought was mud, but it turned out to be a leech!
I thought I had successfully made it through the day there without any leech encounters, only to find one on the way back, with no telling how long it had been there! I took it off my shorts, and threw it into the stream to the south. I wondered if it had been feeding on me while I had been wearing the shorts earlier. I did notice some welts just above the top of my right leg, and wondered if they were from something biting me, such as a water beetle or shrimp. I noticed that there were some itchy spots around the bottom of my back as well. But, with all the mosquito bites, I wasn't certain whether any itchy spots were from the leech. Back at my bike I took out my marker, and headed over to the paper sign, which I was happy to see still intact. That saved me the trouble of taking down the old one and putting up a new one.
All I had to do was retrace the faded brown images of stick figure hikers with my black marker, and do the same with the year, replacing the faded brown "8" with a sharp black "9". I had to also straighten the thin cardboard a bit, since it was a little bit warped. So now, I had once again marked my territory, and anyone wanting to hide marijuana plants there would have to look somewhere else, or risk having their crop discovered by hikers. I was on my way around 5 pm, and as I was heading back down the Edwin Lake Road, I saw a bear disappear into the western edge of a clearing. It disappeared too quickly for me to tell if it was the resident brown bear, a bear which I have seen in that clearing from time to time.
It was still fairly early, since I had a little over an hour before I really needed to head back home. But, all the other places I would have been interested in were too far away, so I decided to head home early, while it was still quite warm.
I stopped at the spot where I saw two ribbons on the side of the road, and studied the hillside down below. There wasn't too much evidence of any vehicle crashing there, but there was what appeared to be a dead brown goat.
Feeling the heat in the valley, I got back home just after 7:45 pm, happy not to get any flats this time. That evening, while my dad was fiddling with my camera, it finally started to work again, and so I can use it again, until the next time it decides to go on strike.
It was a rather productive day. I checked out my Crescent Road pond sinking spot, which as I had anticipated, was submerged, but not as much as in the past. I found a location with rocks that my dad may be interested in getting for my aunt and her boyfriend for landscaping. I determined that the morel season hadn't started there yet. And last, but not least, I found that my blocking of the stream from my sinking spot had resulted in it being looser on top, giving me a head start in my mud loosening!
I had some leg cramps during the mud loosening, but they went away, thankfully. I was a bit annoyed at the mosquitoes, and will be certain to bring along insect repellent from now on. But, I was happy that the noseeums (midges) aren't in season just yet, for they produce the itchiest bites. But, I have been itchy enough just from the mosquito bites!
Glad that West Nile hasn't reached BC yet (or to be more precise, hasn't crossed the Rockies yet)! That day, the temperature at our place hit 28.8˚C or 83.8˚F, while the official reading was 31.3˚C or 88.3˚F. The temperature in the mountains wasn't as hot, but still fairly nice, although I wished that it was a little bit warmer yet.
Now, we have been getting a stronger windflow from the northeast and east, bringing in cooler air and gusty east, northeast, and southeast winds of varying strength for a few days (blew down/over, and torn up, some large tarp shelters used for our neighbour's horses on Sunday June 7'th). Things are expected to get cloudier and unsettled over the next while, something that the month of June is known for here.
Because of that, my next bikeride will probably be to my Harris Creek slide area, since the coming wet weather will feed the quicksilt there, making it softer again, and refilling my cleanup basins. But, I have to wait until we get a good rain first, followed by sunshine before I head to Harris Creek. Then, I will have to wait until the next time we get some even hotter weather before I return to the higher elevations to check out other bogs, and resume the mud loosening. Hopefully the mud and water will be a little bit warmer by then.