My August 8'th, 2024 Adventure, Part 3, The Conclusion (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!I then returned to my things, and was ready to get all set up for the video!
I pulled out a couple of sticks from the northwest side of the bog for an entrance point, and then first set up one on the southeast corner, only to decide that it was too smooth for the Gorillapod to grab onto. So, I selected one stick from the west side that had a small stub of a branch sticking out, and decided to use that. I stuck it in the floating vegetation on the southeast side, pushing it well down into the muck underneath to make certain it was more stable. I also had to scrutinize my patch of quagmire to select where in the exposed mud on the north and west sides I wanted to sink into. After a fair bit of indecisiveness, I finally settled on the spot midway, among a tight clump of young bur reed plants, with their soft, flat, lime green tape-like leaves. I had my camera mounted on the stick with the Gorillapod, with its picture size set to 16:9 format to match that of the video, so that I could properly frame the area, zooming in what I hoped to be an appropriate amount.
Then, I headed back to my things, removed all my clothes, and changed into my junk shorts, and had to use a string to hold it up, since the elastic around the waist was too stretched. I put on my swim cap, making certain that all of my hair was inside it, and with my glasses still on, I had to return to the camera to make certain it was set right. As luck would have it, it had timed out and turned off, so I had to turn it back on again, reframe and re-zoom it in again. Once I was satisfied that I had the patch of bur reeds with some of the surrounding areas in proper view on the camera, I pressed the record button to initiate the recording, returned to my things to remove my glasses and put on my swim goggles, and headed back to begin my first sink/submersion video of the season!
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I started a little ways away from the bog, walking towards it from the north side. Upon reaching the northwestern edge of it, I started talking to myself, to set up the situation, before taking a large step onto the patch of bur reeds, the hungry ground eagerly gulping me down to my stomach!
I struggled and slowly sunk to my armpits with my arms resting on the surface before I finally plunged them down into the sucking mire. It was bubbling and farting around me, as I continued to struggle, slowly sinking deeper and deeper into the quaking ooze! As it rose up to my mouth, I had to tilt my head further and further back, eventually feeling the wet coolness on the top of my swim cap as it slowly consumed most of my head! I had to keep on spitting out the watery mud as it kept on oozing into my mouth, with some of the tasteless gritty material sticking to parts of the inside of my mouth, including my teeth, until I spat it out. Finally, I took a deep breath just before the bubbling quagmire completely closed over my head! I struggled beneath the surface, raising my arms briefly before getting them consumed by the gulping quagmire again. I paused briefly, before shooting my head back up to the surface to gasp for air, and continued to spit more of the tasteless grit out of my mouth, which seemed to be coating my teeth. Then, I slowly worked myself up, working my feet and legs higher through the thicker, gooier stuff below, and straightening up while pushing down with my arms, wiping mud off my body as I went. Then, I worked myself to the floating vegetation on the northwest edge, and continued to push the mud off my body, finally sitting back and pushing the really thick stuff off my legs and feet into the bog. I then headed to the water to quickly clean off my hands and wiped my the front of my swim goggles as well for clearer vision, before returning to the camera to turn off the recording. However, I could barely make out where the record button was supposed to be, and pressed the supposedly correct area a few times before turning the camera off. My first video of the season, with the sun going in and out from behind the clouds during the entire time, has now been shot, with a submersion!
I returned to the water to do the cleanup, moving further out into the deeper water to immerse my head to clean it off, after I swished the colder sediment-clouded water away to be replaced with clearer, slightly warmer water. I repeated all the steps I had done earlier cleaning up, including scraping off more tiny leeches off my skin with my fingernails. I also had to clean my swim goggles, swim cap and junk shorts as well, hanging my junk shorts and swim cap on some of the poles on the west side of my bog to dry, and the swim goggles on an alder, along with the string I had used as a belt for my junk shorts. I then air-dried, removing the some more tiny leeches from my body, retrieved my camera from the stick/pole, changed the picture size back to the original format, and took a picture of the area after my sink, with a newly flooded patch on the northwest side:
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I noticed that I had a second video shot that was several seconds long, likely from me fiddling around with the camera to make certain I had stopped the original recording. I deleted that recording, and made certain the other recording was still there. Once I got dried off, I got dressed, and decided to check out my video. Upon playing it, I was disappointed to discover that after I had started the recording, with my bog entry point (clump of young bur reeds) perfectly framed, that as soon as I left, the camera's view started to slowly shift to the right and slightly down, until the entry point was at the top left corner of the image!
So, my right arm was completely cut off in the video!
But, at least the rest of my body getting sucked under was in view, so it was still a success
, although not perfect.
2024 08 08 1M Crescent.jpg
I wanted to warm up more for my third and final sinking session, where I would sink into the remaining exposed mud, and try and have another pleasurable sink, followed by mushing all the remaining weeds under the mud. So, I headed back to the sideroad again, once again going under the fallen tree, and walked northward first to where the seasonal stream from the ring bog pond passed southward through a culvert under the road, before heading back south, and going by the east pond, once again looking westward to see how much of the meadow on the west (my) pond was visible, noticing that there was still a little bit visible between the bushes. All warmed up, I headed back to my bike north of the pond.
I found that this time, after warming up, I was feeling overwhelmed with exhaustion and tiredness!
I felt like my body was ready to shut down for the day!
So, I just sat beside my bike, and rested for several minutes, before finally getting up and resuming my planned activity. I don't usually feel so overwhelmingly exhausted after warming up, although I do remember feeling sickish and weak for a while the previous year, also when I was warming up, but I attributed that to being active with wildfire smoke in the air, and this time, the air wasn't as smoky, although it was smoky in the valley.
I returned to my bog, removed my clothes, and put my swim cap back on, stuffing the hair on the back of my head inside it to make certain nothing dipped into the mud this time. I then plunged into the patch of exposed mud on the north side, where it gulped me down partways up my abdomen, farting and bubbling again. I struggled, with the thicker gooier stuff giving way beneath my feet, and just enjoyed the experience. I struggled until I was around armpit deep, but didn't go much deeper, because I wanted easier final cleanup. With all the struggling I couldn't get stimulated this time, probably because I didn't go as deep as earlier, and also the top part of the mud was looser and therefore wasn't hugging me tightly enough. So, after a while I then proceeded to mush up the surface around me, pushing all the plants under the surface, before moving clockwise, and mushing up more stuff there. Because the mud was softer, especially the looser upper couple of feet, I was able to move my legs and walk through the mire, even with nothing solid beneath my feet. On the south side, the residual mud from my exit point on the floating vegetation was thicker, and I was able to scrape it back into the bog. I moved around to the west side, and mushed up all the plants into the mud there as well. I also pushed a clod of sod down on the west side as well, and scraped the mud from the grass on the northwest exit point (video session) back into the bog as well. I moved around some more, stopping in the middle to struggle briefly. With all the mushing up of the mud, it was now all submerged under water, except for stuff around me or in front of me when I moved (bunched up in front of me) or when I lifted my arms. I had to keep pushing some plants under, because they would start to poke up above the surface again. Once I had it mushed up enough, I finally exited on the east side, wiping the mud off my body, and trying my best not to get too much mud on top of the grass. However, after I was out, I tried my best to push back the slurry-like mud back into the bog there.
I finally headed back into the pond one last time to clean up, repeating all my cleanup routines, including using "Nature's Scrub-brush" (floating mat of rushes/grass that sink a few inches under the water when I lay on it) to remove the scum that doesn't readily swish off otherwise. Then, I air-dried, which went faster each time I did it, due to it being later in the day, and warmer. However, it was getting late, and a lot more of the area was in shadows, including the bog. Once again, I had to scrape off tiny leeches from my lower body with my fingernails. There seemed to be a lot of leeches this year!
I took one last photo of the bog, after my final sinking session with surface mushing, now a pool of shallow water:
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Once I was dry, I got dressed. I also had the sticks/poles I pulled out put back into place around my bog. I gathered all my scattered things together, and returned to my bike, putting everything back in my saddlebags. I walked my bike up the side trail and dragged it diagonally under the fallen tree, which was faster than the other way. Then, it was up a small embankment, onto the sideroad, and back to Crescent Road, noticing some fresh cowpies lower down the road before a cattleguard. I had noticed that since my final sink, that I had felt more refreshed and energized!
I had been thinking that perhaps the reason for feeling so worn down each time I warmed up was due to the fact that my core temperature had only just warmed up, so I was at a point where my body hadn't begun to sweat yet, and that caused me to overheat, and cooling my body back down made me feel better!
I snacked on a sweet and salty bar, and continued down to the main road, and then down into the valley. I forgot the exact spot where I began getting cell reception, so I kept my eyes on the bars on the iphone, finally deciding to wait until I reached the guaranteed spot before calling my dad to pick me up. We got home before dark.
It was a fairly nice day, although there were some cumulus clouds that the sun was going behind a number of times. But, at least it was nice and warm. It was really great to finally touch base with my treacherous quagmire, and see that everything was still intact, and that the mud was exposed!
Usually, I would have a first sink, followed by mushing everything up, which during higher water levels, rendered everything submerged. But, by saving mushing everything up, especially pushing the invading plants under, for the very end of the day, I was able to preserve undisturbed exposed mud for three sinking sessions - one stimulating sink to my mouth, one submersion sink on video, and one other sink, which included the mushing of everything. However, I think that my first sink released so much gas that my sink for the video wasn't farting/bubbling as much as it would have if I had never done any sinking beforehand.
I was also happy that the mud wasn't very cold, which resulted in no leg cramps!
I figured that the July heatwave really helped take the chill off the mire, but it was too bad that it couldn't speed up the water level drop. Having a wet spring really made a substantial difference compared to last year, when we had a dry spring. The resulting much higher water levels relative to last year really delayed the exposure of the mud.
The temperature in the valley got up to 31˚C (88˚F), which meant that the relatively cooler temperature in the higher elevations was still nice and warm.
I was a bit disappointing that the camera had to shift its view to the right and slightly downward after I had it framed so perfectly.
But, at least I was still mostly visible, except for my right arm. It was shifting first quickly, then more slowly, for a little over 2 minutes, before I plunged in, at which point, it stopped moving. But, at least I managed to capture a submergence sink in bubbling, farting quagmire!
I couldn't believe how many leeches there were this time!
I had to repeatedly scrape the tiny little booger-like/sized bloodsuckers off my skin after each cleanup!
In fact, while in that area, I found that a slightly bigger leech had been inside my left leg, resulting in blood on the edge of my dark blue undershorts, and on the white inner liner of my shorts on the left side!
I was happy that my neck felt okay that day, thinking that perhaps my neck problems were over, only to have it starting to click with some slight sensitivity a day or so later, and linger on and off for the next week. My back has been also in pain, from lifting my bike. I hope things settle down in time for my next adventure.
Now, I have to wait a few weeks for the water levels to drop further, so that the mud would become exposed again, but I get concerned each time I see developing thunderheads to the south and southeast, which could hinder the water level drop.
We have had a full day of rain since, which might have raised water levels by half an inch, and there are some more days with risk of showers and thunderstorms ahead. The weather is also cooling down a bit, with an end to the heatwaves we had in July. So, I will have to keep an eye on the weather and hope to find an opportunity for my next adventure.
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So, I headed back, stopping at the pond with the newly exposed mudflat, got out my camera, swapped memory cards, and went to take a photo of the mudflat there. But, the easier access point had a fence, which ended at thicker bushes lining that meadow/willows to the west, so I took a photo from the road through the trees, at a part of the mudflat that an animal (cow?) had slogged a thick trail through the mud:
I noticed that on the eastern part of the south side, were a pair of holes in the edge of the mud, indicating that something had set foot on the edge and pulled away, another animal that came close to being eaten by the bog! 
)! I just enjoyed a perpetual gooooood feeling. 
), limiting the amount of sunlight hitting the ground there. 
I dug away the mud at an angle so that I could continue to get a view of the camera through the mud, knowing that the camera would still get a view of my face as it got sucked in deeper below the surface! 
