BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 11/5/'23!

Pictures that you took and want to share.
User avatar
Boggy Man
Posts: 2447
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:13 am
Location: The Sunny Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada

Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 5/4/'22!

Postby Boggy Man » Wed May 04, 2022 8:27 am

My August 29'th, 2021 Adventure, Part 7, The Conclusion (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!

2021 08 29 5ZB Crescent.jpg

2021 08 29 5ZC Crescent.jpg

After taking the photos, I FINALLY felt warm again!!!! :D My chills were gone!!! :D I guessed that perhaps having lunch helped with the warmup! I was now ready to prepare for my video!!!! :D

I returned to my things, and set my camera down. Then, I went to work, trying out my new idea of attaching the Gorillapod to the TOP of the belt in my makeshift head strap instead of in front of it. So, I used the shoestring to attach two of the longer* knobby tentacles to the top of the belt, and the short* tentacle to the nylon strap that went over the top of my head (*the tentacles have been breaking off over the years). Then, I attached the camera, and tried it on for size. After adjusting the camera's position, I noticed that I was hitting a limit to how far I could flex the Gorillapod over my eye. I did a test video, removing the apparatus, pressing the record button, and putting the head-strap with Gorillapod and camera back on my head. I adjusted the position of the camera, and then walked around with it, looking at my bog, holding my arms out to look at, and looking down at my shoulders, and the ground. Then, I returned to my things, removed my apparatus, and clicked the record button to stop the video. Then, in the shade of the alders, I watched the video, having to turn the camera upside down, since I had recorded it upside down. I was disappointed, because the view was the same as it was when I had the Gorillapod mounted in front of the belt, when I made my last video on my last adventure. While the results from last time were pretty good, I was determined to do better!

I then realized that perhaps if I could PIVOT the Gorillapod on the belt, it could allow the camera to face further downward! :idea: But, in order to do that, I had to untie the shoelaces holding the Gorillapod to the belt and overhead strap, and switch tentacles, such that one of the longer tentacles was on the overhead nylon strap. So, I had the second-longest tentacle attached to the overhead strap, and the short and longest tentacles on top of the belt. I attached the camera, and pressed the record button, and put the apparatus on my head, adjusting the position of the camera over my left eye. Sure enough, adjusting the top tentacle of the Gorillapod against the front of my head, the camera was pushed down against my eye socket, although there seemed to be some slight movement. But, making the tentacle press harder above my forehead helped keep that to a minimum. Then, I walked around to my bog, and looked around, down and holding out my arms and looking around more. I looked at my left and right shoulders, and around, before returning to my things, removing the apparatus from my head and pressing the record button to stop the recording. Then, in the shade of the alders, with the camera upside down, I watched the video. ***SUCCESS!!!!!!*** :D In the video, I could see most of my arms, and even part of my left shoulder, although I still couldn't see my right shoulder! :D This was the setup I had been looking for!!!!! :D

So now, all I had to do was get it ready for my video! I hoped that the new plastic wrap my mom had to replace the other stuff would work okay, but it was thinner, which concerned me. I wrapped it around the Gorillapod tentacles that were tied to the head-strap, but perhaps I had a bit too much wrap, because there seemed to be too much excess that was sticking out. However, the other stuff worked fine, and I hoped this would work out as well. I finally took a photo of what it looked like:

2021 08 29 5ZD Crescent.jpg

Before attaching the camera, I was concerned about some smears on the camera's lens window. So, I worked to try and clean it, licking it and using water from the pond. But, each time, I couldn't find anything to wipe it dry with without it still being smeared. :x Finally, I managed to get it clean with pond water, and wiped it clean with something (can't remember if it was my hoodie jacket). Then, I screwed my camera to my Gorillapod, and proceeded to wrap it up with the plastic wrap. But, it proved to be quite a frustrating task, because first, when I had the wrap nicely tight over the lens of the camera, and it looked like I could get it wrapped perfectly, the wrap in front of the lens fogged up! :x It must have been residual moisture from my cleaning! :x I had to remove the wrap and try another one. But, I kept on having trouble getting the wrap to stretch flat over the camera lens, and would find tears or holes in one spot or another, or the wrap would be open in another part of the camera! :x It seemed as though this different brand of wrap wasn't sticking together as well as the other stuff did, and seemed to come loose around the Gorillapod! :x I was getting frustrated, having to discard one piece of wrap after another, and was starting to notice that the heat was starting to subside, meaning that time was running out! It was getting close to 4 pm, my rough approximation for quitting time, and I had been watching for shadows moving in from the west, but it turned out that they had moved in from the SOUTHwest, and were starting to shade the bog! :x

Finally, I managed to get the plastic wrap nicely stretched over the camera lens, and it sealed nicely! Heart pounding with anticipation, I then pressed the record button, and put the apparatus on my head, and adjusted the camera position. But, the plastic wrap was unravelling from my Gorillapod, forcing me to abort the recording, fix the loose wrap, and then press the record button again, and finally putting the apparatus back on my head. I adjusted the position of the camera over my left eye, and made certain it was pressing hard against my eye socket. I then started walking to my bog for what I had hoped to be my best video yet! But, along the way, I was disappointed to notice that the plastic wrap on the camera was making annoying crinkling sounds when it rubbed against my face! :x So, I had to abort, and go back to my things, removing my apparatus and setting it down. I checked out the video, and did hear some extra noise. So, with no time left, I decided to give up on making a video this time. :(

But, I wasn't finished with my day yet! I decided to undress and have one final sink, this time a shorter one, before calling it a day. The bog was too spectacular to leave without one last struggle! :) So, walking over to the south side, facing north, I jumped into the middle of the bog, which was now covered with a tree's shadow, landing around or past my waist in the doughy mire, with it farting out gas again, and hugging my lower body so comfortably! :) Because it was already after 4 pm, I struggled to just a couple of inches past my belly button before my stimulation exploded, at which point, I lingered and struggled and enjoyed the feel of it for just a tiny bit longer, watching the sun start to move back into the western part of the bog. Finally, I began working myself backwards to the south shore, smoothing the mud I had disturbed as I went, then sitting on the grass on the edge, and using my hands to help pull my legs from the sucking quagmire, pushing the mud off my body back into the bog. I smoothed out the remaining disturbed areas, and was done!

I headed into the water in a spot to the northeast of the bog, and was surprised at how much the sun had finally warmed it up! :) Perhaps it could have been warm enough to clean my head in the late afternoon! It was definitely too cold earlier in the day! I cleaned myself off, having to rub extra hard to remove the brown film that was stuck in patches to my skin again, but since I hadn't sunk that deep, cleanup was easy. 8-)

All clean, I set out to replace all the sticks around my bog, something that was all the more crucial, given how close the cattle were getting the bog, directed there by my own path! But, as what happened with my previous stick placements, the odd stick would snap, making the resulting pieces shorter, often not as effective, and therefore discarded back in the pile. This time, after I had used up all the good sticks, I had to begin walking around the meadow and the higher ground adjacent to it, on the western side of the pond, from my bog northward, picking out more dead alders, and breaking them off, and then stripping any loose bark from them with my hands, before utilizing them. That took a little while, but eventually, I had several more new large sticks to use to keep the cattle away from the hazardous area. Once again, the south side was mostly open, since the floating grass there was too fragile outside the bog to begin with for cattle to even try going there. To be safe, I extended the wall of sticks on the west side further southward. I then returned to my things, and took a couple of photos:

2021 08 29 5ZE Crescent.jpg

2021 08 29 5ZF Crescent.jpg

I then returned to my things, got dressed, removed the plastic wrap from my Gorillapod, and untied it from the head-strap. But, when I bent the tentacles around to make it fit in my partially broken margarine container where I stored it, the medium sized tentacle broke off! :shock: :x So, now the Gorillapod has one longer tentacle, a stubby one and an even stubbier one! :x I just hope that it is still functional for my needs, or I might have to purchase a new one! :? It has been used for well over a decade, and has probably developed microfractures over the time to weaken it, or perhaps it has gotten brittle over the years. :? But, perhaps tying the shoestring around the tentacles could have put too much stress on the narrow neck between the knobby joints. :?

I finished getting organized, and with my things in hand, I took one last look at my bog, which I figured was going to be the last time I saw it this year. :( I returned to my bike, and put things away, and was back on the road before 6 pm, the time I was supposed to be in the valley phoning my dad! So, I had to really rush, really pushing things with my knees pedaling my bike faster than I usually did, to try and make it to the beginning of the big downhill descent for 6:15 pm, and reach cell range for 6:30! I made it to the beginning of the descent at 6:16 pm, and coasted downhill faster than usual, the bumps hitting me harder than they usually did, even with my Thudbuster LT seat suspension. I made it to cell reception at around 6:30, and was phoning my dad a minute later. With my dad on his way, I quickly got down the rest of the gravel road, and finally onto pavement. I finally reached the valley bottom, and as I got closer to where my dad usually met me, I felt a large insect hit into me. Concerned that it was a stinging insect, I looked down to my lower left to see if anything was on me. Then, pain suddenly hit the right side of the back of my neck! :o :x I was hoping that my neck sensitivity wouldn't get worse, especially since I never had any submergence sinks this time, but I guess that going down that gravel road a bit faster than I usually did was too much. :x My dad picked me up, and he told me that this time he wasn't worried like before. :)

Overall, it was both a productive and a disappointing day. I had such high hopes to get a first-person video of a submergence sink, this time with a lower camera view to capture the view closer to my body, but the new plastic wrap my mom bought wasn't of the same quality as the previous stuff. I noticed that it wasn't as sticky, so it kept coming loose, and was difficult to remove wrinkles from. But, at least I finally found the Gorillapod configuration that allowed me to get that closer view, and would use it in the future! 8-) I just hoped that the breaking off of another of the tentacles from the Gorillapod wouldn't affect my ability to connect it to the head-strap, or affect my ability to reproduce the latest successful Gorillapod configuration. :? I later realized that I could have at least made a non-submergence video without any protective plastic wrap, where I could have struggled as deep as I could without the mud touching my camera, and then struggling to escape! But, it was getting late, and the only thing that came to mind at the time was to just jump right in for a quick stimulating sink, and then get out to clean up and shut things down for the day, making a new first-person video some other time (or next year).

The day started off cool, and once again, I wound up wasting a lot of time trying to warm up before being ready for the next sink. :x It took until the late afternoon before the cleanup water was warm, and the shadows were already moving over my bog in the mid to late afternoon. I was surprised that it turned out that in the valley, we did get up to slightly above 30˚C (86˚F)!

I was happy that the horseflies, deerflies and mosquitoes were finally gone, but now they were replaced by bald-faced hornets, which were everywhere, and periodically pestering me throughout the day! :x So far this year, I encountered very few leeches, but I did find one large one in my bog, and also a smaller one on me during one of my cleanups.

In the grass west of my bog, I had noticed something small running through the grass, and wondered what it was. Then later, while I was sitting down and working on my head-strap and Gorillapod, a curious but timid chipmunk appeared, and approached me, but when I made the slightest movement, it would disappear, but stayed nearby among the grass and alders for a while. I also saw a white-tailed deer on the east side of the pond vanish into the woods, and saw some ducks in the water.

All in all, I really enjoyed the time I spent in the mire, and after this adventure, had been watching for any signs of warmer weather before the beginning of Hunting Season on September 10'th. And, it looked like there would be a peak in the weather in the days leading up to it, which I was keeping an eye on. But, my brother had my dad's truck (his truck broke down and they had to make produce deliveries), and I didn't know if we could get it back for the day (Sept 7'th or 8'th, preferably 8'th). :? I kept my fingers crossed, anyways. :?
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
I sink, therefore I WAM!!!!

(((ioi)))

-The Boggy Man

User avatar
Boggy Man
Posts: 2447
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:13 am
Location: The Sunny Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada

Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 7/5/'22!

Postby Boggy Man » Tue Jul 05, 2022 9:03 am

Well, it has been quite an adventure just trying to find time to finally finish my report of my final outing from last summer! :shock: That's what happens when you spend all winter cleaning up audio in pov videos, trying to get it done before posting the corresponding adventures, only to realize it was dragging on way too long, and finally posting the adventures before all the videos were done. Recently, spare time seems to have dwindled substantially, especially since I have been spending time in the evenings doing gardening, as well as watching tv before going on the computer. But, during the past couple of days, evening rain prevented me from doing outdoor work, finally allowing me to get on the computer at a reasonable time that wasn't close to midnight, and finally get this done! :) So, a few days short of 10 months after the actual adventure, here is the belated report. Enjoy! 8-)


My September 7'th, 2021 Adventure, Part 1!

On my previous adventure, I had spent a fair amount of (actually too much) time fiddling with my constructed head strap mount setup to try and get the camera mounted correctly, only to have lack-of-cling issues with the new plastic wrap that had replaced the other superior stuff we ran out of at home, forcing me to abort any video making! :x So, because of that I was totally obsessed with a do-over! I had previous thought that after my last outing, that that would be it for the season, but the weather forecast began to predict some warmer weather in September, thankfully before hunting season! :D So, I targeted Tuesday, September 7'th, a day that was supposed to have sunshine with a few clouds in the afternoon, and a high of around 28˚C (82˚F)! :D That meant that in the mountains where I was going, the air temperature would be around 21 to 23˚C (70 to 73˚F), my lower comfort range for sinking! :) Usually, I had been spacing my outings 2 weeks apart or more, but this time, they were 9 days apart! :) I had been concerned about my neck, but felt that if I was careful, then it might be okay, and I would have 10 1/2 months to recover from any increased neck pain/sensitivity, anyways. :? My dad brought back his truck from my brother's place the day before, so we were good to go! :D I also checked out our pantry, and found a different brand of plastic wrap there, and tore some sections of some of the cling-wrap that seemed to be stickier, folding them up and putting them in a grocery bag to be included with my things. :)

On the way up, my dad was happy that the road seemed not as rough, but once we got past the main climb, the road became bumpy again, with more washboard and potholes. We also passed a truck parked on a sideroad, and I hoped it wasn't any hunters, although Hunting season wasn't for a few more days, although I have encountered people target practicing in the past before Hunting Season. :? I just hoped no one would be doing any target practicing around my area! :? In terms of road conditions, Crescent Road was really bad, covered with potholes, with my dad going extra slow. He was saying that this was the last time he was taking me up there, and wanted to take me elsewhere from now on! :shock: I tried to convince him that this road led to the plateau that was the easiest to access, and that there were many places there for me to hike around, and that the alternatives were even worse! I just hoped that he would change his mind by next summer. :? Along the way, we saw two grouse on the west side of the road.

He dropped me off at the usual small clearing, where we offloaded my bike and things. I tested my bike to make certain it was working properly, and then loaded my stuff into my saddlebags and put on my helmet and camera case, and was on my way, with him heading back home. I was still wearing a jacket, because it was somewhere around 16˚C (61˚F), a little bit cool yet, but I knew that it was going to warm up quickly. The potholes in the road were wet at the bottom, and may have also had a tiny bit of water, from some rain we had a couple days earlier. I just hoped that there would be no water on my bog. :? I was happy to see that there was no one at the entrance to my sideroad, but when I entered it, there was a cow there that moved aside, but her two older calves took off up the road, with her eventually catching up with them once I moved my bike to the side trail leading to the small clearing north of the pond.

I walked my bike over and around some fallen trees, and then set it down in the shade on the west side of the "high and dry" clearing. I gathered all my things together, along with a partial bottle of Kool-Aid and Powerade, and my lunch. I headed straight to the area of my bog, and set my things down in the shadow of some alders. I didn't have to swap my memory cards, because my other memory card was already in the camera. So, I headed to the bog, and took my first photo of it's state, with the sticks surrounding most of it to keep animals out:

2021 09 07 6A Crescent.jpg


To Be Continued...
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Last edited by Boggy Man on Tue Jul 05, 2022 9:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
I sink, therefore I WAM!!!!

(((ioi)))

-The Boggy Man

User avatar
Boggy Man
Posts: 2447
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:13 am
Location: The Sunny Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada

Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 7/5/'22!

Postby Boggy Man » Tue Jul 05, 2022 9:06 am

My September 7'th, 2021 Adventure, Part 2 (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!

I was delighted to see that there was no water sitting on top of my exposed patch of hazardous muck, although some low spots looked flat, like water may have briefly puddled there before vanishing. I returned to my things to drop off my camera, and then removed my shoes and socks. Then, I proceeded to remove the sticks from around my bog, setting them in a pile further inland, to the southwest of my bog. I noticed some animal tracks in the mud, made by an animal that was not heavy enough to get sucked in! Perhaps it was a muskrat or beaver, although a beaver might tend to be a bit heavy. :? Then, I took some more photos of the mire, now all out in the open:

2021 09 07 6B Crescent.jpg

2021 09 07 6C Crescent.jpg

2021 09 07 6D Crescent.jpg

2021 09 07 6E Crescent.jpg

2021 09 07 6F Crescent.jpg

I then quickly headed over to the south end of the pond to see if things looked different from last time. I had worried that the mud would be a bit less extensive because of the rain we had recently, but fortunately, that was not the case! :D There was more mud exposed than last time, making it very tempting to try it out later on! :) Once again, it was all shaded early in the day. I looked at the exposed mud on the northwest corner of the tinier pond at the south end of the area as well, seeing that it was slightly more exposed as well. I had a closer look at the mud to the south of the main pond, and when jumping on the bouncing grass on the west side of the open mire, the bare muddy ground made undulating motions ALL the way to the grass on the other side, 18 feet away! :shock: I did that to another section of open ground closer to the pond, with similar results! :D I was REALLY tempted to try it out later on, if I had time! :D Closer to the pond, I noticed that the southeastern part of the mud had a patch with algae on it adjacent to the grass, perhaps a result of something disturbing the mire, leaving a low spot with water.

I returned to my sinking area, and it was already after 11 am. Even though the air still felt slightly cool with an occasional light northerly breeze, the sun felt hot. I stripped down, and headed to my bog to sink and mush up the surface! :D I was hoping to get it done faster than last time, so I could get an earlier start at getting the head strap set up with the Gorallapod and camera for my video I had meant to make last time! I kept my glasses on, since I wasn't going to get my head muddy, and in fact, I was going to limit my sink to just past my belly button, so I wouldn't get too chilled this early in the day. I didn't want to waste as much time to warm up as I did last time. :?

I walked around the bare patch of ground that undulated when I disturbed the floating grass around it, deciding to jump in from the east side. I stood there, facing west, looking at the bog, thinking about how "dangerous" :twisted: it was, and "getting the courage(or was it stupidity) :P " to take the fateful leap! :twisted: Finally, I jumped into the middle, sinking immediately to just past my knees in the thick mire! It then steadily sucked me down to my waist, and I struggled, as it rose up to my stomach, where I then kept myself from sinking much deeper, since I didn't want to get too muddy too high while things were still cool. The feel of the doughy mire hugging my lower body was most intoxicating, really soft and gooey lower down, but with a thicker top layer that cracked and bent downward around me. I struggled, occasionally feeling the thick ooze passing gas upward along my body to fart at the surface! When I struggled, imagining that it was going to suck me under, my stimulation exploded, releasing a bunch of pent-up tension and anxiety that had been eating away at me for a while! :D

I began to mush up the mud around me, until all of the surface within reach was turned into a gooey doughy mess, matching the stuff underneath! I then began to smooth out the mud around me, reaching over to the water on the edge to wet my hands to make the smoothing work better without any sticking to my hands. I then slowly worked myself backwards to the eastern edge, where I was able to sit on the edge of the grass, work my legs out, and then smooth the rest of the disturbed surface out, wetting my hands with water from the edge to make things smoother. Then, I stepped back in, this time on the southeastern side, the hungry morass sucking my legs down and swallowing my waist! I then proceeded to do the same thing, mushing and churning the surface muck into the softer stuff below, and then smoothing the surface, with hands that I would wet with water from the outer edge. I worked myself out and smoothed it out again, and repeated the process in a clockwise direction. But, I found that I had trouble getting it done quickly enough, because I couldn't resist the temptation to just linger and struggle, and take it all in! 8-) I was also finding runners from the grass on the edge of the mire invading the edge of my bog, forcing me to remove them, or push them deeper under.

When I was on the southwest side, struggling, it was interesting seeing the surface to the north of me, with the animal tracks, undulating and heaving and pulsating up and down, and started to imagine that I got lured into deadly quicksand by following animal tracks, and was going to be sucked completely below the surface that contained the tracks in front of me (animal tracks on top of ground that would soon be above my head)! :twisted: Then, I heard the loud sound of an aircraft, and got concerned that they might see me from the air, so I quickly worked myself out, with leg cramps setting in as I did so! :x But then, the plane was gone, and the cramps quickly subsided, and I was able to jump back into the same spot on the southwest corner, and continue enjoying the mire and mushing up the surface and smoothing it out before exiting it again and smoothing the rest of that spot out.

When I jumped into the north side, it was nice and thick, sucking me down past my legs and up to my stomach, with it feeling sooo fantastic! :D I struggled like crazy, imagining that I was going to be sucked under, until my stimulation exploded again, for the second time! :D I then finished mushing up the surface and smoothed it out, noticing grass seed on the surface before I mushed it, something that I didn't want germinating on the surface. I finished up the last part on the northeast corner, and then exited the mire to clean up. I should mention that there had been other planes flying by while I was in the muck, but I felt that I had overreacted earlier, and so I didn't even flinch whenever I heard one after that.

To Be Continued...
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
I sink, therefore I WAM!!!!

(((ioi)))

-The Boggy Man

User avatar
Boggy Man
Posts: 2447
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:13 am
Location: The Sunny Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada

Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 7/5/'22!

Postby Boggy Man » Tue Jul 05, 2022 9:11 am

My September 7'th, 2021 Adventure, Part 3 (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!

The water was on the cool side, but I was able to get accustomed to it. Once again, it took a fair bit of rubbing to clean off the residue stuck to my skin, something that I have to accept from enjoying this type of muck when it is so thick. Thinner, looser stuff doesn't leave the residue, or little if any. I air-dried, and then checked the time. It was already close to 1:30 pm! So, once again, I had spent around 2 hours in the mud! :shock: Time sure flies when you are having fun! :mrgreen: I got fully dressed, including with my grey hooded jacket, to try and speed up my warmup. I then took photos of my freshly churned and smoothed out quagmire:

2021 09 07 6G Crescent.jpg

2021 09 07 6H Crescent.jpg

2021 09 07 6I Crescent.jpg

2021 09 07 6J Crescent.jpg


To Be Concluded...
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
I sink, therefore I WAM!!!!

(((ioi)))

-The Boggy Man

User avatar
Boggy Man
Posts: 2447
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:13 am
Location: The Sunny Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada

Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 7/5/'22!

Postby Boggy Man » Tue Jul 05, 2022 9:15 am

My September 7'th, 2021 Adventure, Part 4, The Conclusion (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!

I then set my camera down with my things, grabbed my lunch and bottle of Kool-Aid, and the empty bottle of Powerade, and headed back to the clearing north of the pond, where it was high and dry, with more heat, snacking on one Pizza Pop along the way. In the clearing, I put the empty bottle with my bike, and sat down on a rock in the sun to finish my lunch - 2 Pizza Pops total and a Sweet'n Salty nut bar. Then, the sun seemed to get duller! :shock: I looked up, and it was going behind a bunch of cirrus clouds (feathery high clouds) that were coming up from the south, stretching east to west, filtering out the sun! :x I wanted to warm up as quickly as possible, and was concerned that this might slow things down! :x I then returned to my things by my bog, grabbed my camera, and headed to the south side of the pond to take some more photos. This time, I only took photos of the mud along the south edge of the pond, since the other spots looked practically the same as before:

2021 09 07 6K Crescent.jpg

2021 09 07 6L Crescent.jpg

I then returned to my bog and things, still feeling a little bit chilled. Now was the time to work on mounting my Gorillapod to my head strap. But, to warm up more, I moved the necessary stuff further north to a part of the meadow that was still dry, but in the full sun, so I could warm up while working on it. I fumbled with the shoestring, trying to get the side of the Gorillapod where the longest tentacle had broken off completely fixed to the belt, but it was very awkward. :x I finally managed to get it attached, but when I tried to mount the camera, took off my glasses (I had to take off my glasses each time I put it on my head) and put the entire thing on my head, the camera was wiggling too much, and wasn't stable at all! :x So, I had to try and do it over again, but kept on having trouble with it! :x OF ALL THE TIMES FOR THAT TENTACLE TO COMPLETELY BREAK OFF, JUST AS I WAS PACKING THINGS AWAY LAST TIME!!!!! :evil: To top things off, the chin strap broke, forcing me to wrap it around the belt to keep it tucked away. :x Fortunately, the head strap still sat on my head securely. :) The nylon strap I was using with the belt for my head strap was found on the road, and was frayed and also very weak to begin with. Since it was too difficult to secure the Gorillapod to the belt with only one tentacle and one knob that the other tentacle used to be connected to, I decided to try and rotate it, and fasten the two remaining tentacles on the belt for stability, instead of having one pushing on my forehead to push the camera against my eye. While that made the camera more secure, each time I looked down, the camera would move away from my face! :x That wouldn't do, because I REALLY wanted to be able to capture a view of my feet, which would mean that the camera would get the close-to-body view of the mire that I had been striving for! Then, I had an idea! :idea: I could use the broken chin strap to hold the camera against my face, making it quite secure and stable! :D I removed the short piece that had torn away, and untied a knot holding the chin strap to the belt, releasing some excess strap, allowing me to make it whole again. :) I put the strap around the front of the camera, and over to the back of my head, taking notice of which part of the strap needed to be tied to the belt. I experimented with it, and found that initially, the camera seemed to be pinching into my left nostril. But, when rotated further to my left, and the camera appropriately adjusted, it felt like it was sitting perfectly! :D I had been making a few test videos as I went along, but when I tried it this time, SUCCESS!!!!! :D I was actually able to see my feet!!!! :D I HAD FINALLY FOUND THE ARRANGEMENT I HAD BEEN LOOKING FOR!!!!! :D

Now, it was time for me to try out that different plastic cling wrap to see if it worked better than the "No-Name" stuff. I wanted to keep the camera protected just in case I did want to go under, or at least if I wanted to adjust the camera position with muddy hands. Also, I was hoping to make a second POV video where I would test out all the patches of mire on the south end, some of which were very loose, and could splatter on the camera. So, I worked on wrapping the camera up, and was stretching it to remove the wrinkles over the lens, when I realized that sliding the chin strap over the camera would in high probability push the plastic wrap slightly to the right, causing it to wrinkle up over the lens! :? :x Since I didn't want any chances of wrinkles ruining the video, I removed the plastic wrap, and decided to just take a chance and have a non-submergence sink in the thick quagmire with the camera unprotected, hoping nothing gets on the camera.

While I had been fiddling with getting the camera/gorillapod stably mounted on my head strap, I not only lost my chills, but I finally had to remove my hooded jacket because I became overheated! :D The sun was out from behind the clouds, which warmed things up more! :D So, nice and warm, I removed the remainder of my clothes, and then put on my junk shorts. But, because it was getting loose (elastic stretching?), I had to take an orange string I had with my things and tie it around my waist to hold it up (I had a loop on one side, and tied it together with a slip knot), inserting the excess string in my right pocket. I put the head strap with Gorillapod and camera on my head, and put the chin strap over the camera. I then turned the camera on and pressed the record button (I was able to work the controls for the camera while it was mounted on my head, instead of before I put it on), and everything was a go! :D

I had to make some slight adjustments, and once again the camera was digging into my left nostril. I tried to make a slight adjustment, and things seemed better. However, I found that I needed to keep my mouth open to hold the chin strap tight against the camera to keep it against my face. I just hoped that it was okay, since I couldn't see anything on the screen with it so close, pressing against my eye socket. :? I walked over to the patch of quagmire that was going to suck me down almost to my camera, making some more adjustments on the way. The first of the shadows from the trees to the southwest had begun to move over the bog, a sign that it was getting late in the afternoon. At the west edge, facing east, I jumped into the middle of the quagmire, and began to sink into the thick doughy ooze. I made one last slight adjustment with my left hand while they were still clean. Once the hungry morass sucked my body down far enough, I began to push my hands down into it, breaking the smooth surface, which heaved and pulsated around me. I had to continue to keep my mouth open to hold the camera against my face with the chin strap, which resulted in me breathing through my mouth the entire time. I mushed and churned the doughy quagmire, and looked around a bit, the mire slowly rising higher and higher. I would claw at the surface in front of me, and push my arms down into the thick ooze, and then lift them up, with my arms lifting a thick layer of muck on top of them! I glanced over at my shoulders when the mud was rising up their sides, and then afterwards, I glanced at my shoulders when they were completely sucked under! The mud was rising higher and higher, the churned-up doughy surface heaving and pulsating around me. Then, when the sucking mire rose up to kiss my chin (oh, how I sooooo badly wanted to go deeper), I decided I had sunk deep enough, and quickly began to fight my way back upwards again. I would stop to rest for a few seconds, the mire slowly sucking me downward again, before fighting my way back higher again, resting, only to be sucked down again! I worked myself as high as I could go, before I began to sit back and slowly work myself backwards towards the western shore. However, I noticed that the excess string that I had put in my right pocket had come out, and was being pulled along as I worked myself back. I tried to put the string back in the pocket, but things were just too sticky. So, I just continued with my extraction, finally working myself over far enough to finally sit on the grass on the western edge, where I pulled my legs out and pushed the mud off them, back into the mire. I then stood up, and looked down at the patch of muddy ground that had sucked me down to my chin, without any bottom, before heading to the water to wash my hands, and then returning to my things to dry one hand in one of my clothes so that I could stop the recording, turn the camera off and remove my head strap with the Gorillapod and camera.

However, during my sink, there was one thing I was concerned with. :? During my struggles in the mire, the camera started to shift down my face! :shock: I couldn't touch anything with muddy hands at the time, so I let it be, and kept my mouth open to hold the camera in place. I just hoped that I still had decent footage! :?

I headed to the pond to finish up the cleanup, cleaning my front and arms, having to rub hard to remove the brown film that was stuck to my skin, happy that the water was feeling warmer now, since it was later in the day. I then laid back on the mat of floating grass which submerged under my weight (nature's scrub brush) and rubbed my back side to side over and over again, until I was certain that it would be free of that brown film that stuck to my skin when the mud was thick. In the pond, I splashed water over my back, and finished my cleanup job. I cleaned my junk shorts and the string, and hung the shorts on a dead alder in the sun to dry.

It was already getting close to 4 pm, quitting time! :shock: I couldn't believe how quickly time flied! :x There was no time left for a POV video of me trying out the mud on the south side! :x It was 4 years since the last time it was exposed, and I missed out on it! :x Hopefully, it wouldn't be another 4 year wait. :? But, there was just enough time for one last sink in my well-groomed sinking spot! :D

I headed over to the north side, and facing south, I jumped into the sucking quagmire, where I struggled down to my stomach in the doughy morass. I struggled until my stimulation exploded, and enjoyed the feel of being held in the grip of the thick muck, before smoothing the surface around me, and slowly working myself backward to the north shore, smoothing the surface as I went. However, it was a fast smoothing job without wetting my hands, so the smoothing wasn't the best. Once I sat on the grass and worked out my legs, and pushed all mud back in, I smoothed the remaining surface and headed to the water for cleanup.

After I was clean, while drying out, I replaced the sticks around the bog again, making certain that no cattle would be fed to the hungry mire. I also discovered why the camera had shifted down my face during my sink! It was because the belt buckle came undone, causing it to loosen! :x I took a photo of the head strap setup I had used, which I hung on an alder branch:

2021 09 07 6M Crescent.jpg

I gathered my thing together, and watched my video to see what it looked like. It was a major disappointment! :x The view wasn't centred, but shifted more to the left, and wasn't as low as I had it during the test video, although it was still capturing a lot of the mud churning action! Also, because I was keeping my mouth open to hold the chin strap tighter against the camera, the audio was full of my heavy breathing! :x To top it all off, there was a lot of clicking sounds, likely from the chin strap rubbing against the camera! :x So, this time, there was no improvement over the previous video, with added noise! :(

After watching the video, I then took a photo of my bog surrounded by sticks:

2021 09 07 6N Crescent.jpg

I got my things together, as well as detaching the Gorillapod from my head strap, and putting things away. Not wanting to have cattle led directly to my bog by the path I had worn, I added the broken sticks that used to go around the bog to the path as sort of a small block. I also tried to pull up the flattened grass to try and make my worn path less distinct, but it was too worn down. I loaded up my bike, and was back on the road, slightly later than I had hoped. :? Heading back down Crescent Road, I saw a rabbit and two grouse, all in the same area where my dad and I saw two grouse while coming up in the morning. I didn't have time to stop, change memory cards, and take any photos, because it was getting late.

On the way back, I had to stop occasionally to pick some Shaggy Mane mushrooms, an autumn delight! :) I kept on hearing gunshots in the distance. When I passed the turnoff where a truck was parked earlier in the morning, I heard gunshots coming from up that sideroad, likely target practicing. I was just glad no one was target practicing around my sideroad! I dread this time of year! :x

This time, I was heading back more slowly, because I didn't want to miss any of those shaggy mane mushrooms, and when I passed the last area that had them and was heading down the main descent, I still went down not as fast as last time, because I didn't want to make my neck pain worse. I had originally promised to be phoning home around 6:30 pm, but I never got into cell range until after 7! But, this time, my dad wasn't as concerned, and found out that my mom told him that I would probably be a bit later, because this was my last bikeride of the season. 8-)

Overall, it was a fairly nice day, and I enjoyed a lengthy sink and a shorter one, as well as one with the camera mounted on my face. The feel of the thick mud was totally intoxicating, making me wish I could return there every day, but it wasn't possible. The air started off cool, but warmed up nicely, along with the water. :) There were a few flies this time, but once again, the main problem were the annoying bald-faced hornets that were buzzing me occasionally. :x

My neck seemed to become more sensitive a few days after the outing, but had around 10 1/4 months to recover before the next outing, which should be more than enough time (hoped I would recover within several weeks). While I was churning the mire and moving around in it, I was a bit concerned about my knees clicking, but they weren't too much more sensitive after that. My abdominal muscles weren't sore this time, which I was happy about. Perhaps it was because I was mushing the mud by standing vertical in the mire and mushing it up around me, where in the past, I would crawl over the top and push it down, which was much faster, but probably put more stress on my abdomen. :?

Once again, I wished that I could have done the day over again, because I would have then shifted the camera further to my left when it was poking into my left nostril, which would have resulted in me being able to turn the camera further inward into my eye socket, resulting in the camera view being centred and lowered, which would have made all the difference! But, there would have likely still been the clicking from the chin strap rubbing against the camera, and the camera would have still slid down my face because of the belt buckle coming apart. I would have perhaps still kept my mouth open to keep tension on the chin strap holding the camera against my eye, unless shifting the camera to the left would have taken up the slack, making it unnecessary to keep my mouth open. :? I was disappointed that I wasn't able to make a POV video of me testing out the mud on the south side, either. I also had an idea for a regular video, but it would have to wait for another year where the sucking mire gets nice and thick. I also wished I could have had videoed a breathing hose sink in the very thick mud, to see/hear how my escaping breath would fart out. So many things I wanted to do, but so little time to do it in a shortened late season day, where there have been long waits between opportunities. Having the longest tentacle (knobby ball joint connected to knobby ball joint connected to knobby ball joint...) on my Gorillapod break off while putting it away last time really threw a wrench into the gears, since I had a system that seemed to be working last time, only to be back to square one, having to overhaul it this time, with more trial and error. :x I am going to have to crazy glue my Gorillapod, or get a new Gorillapod or some other tripod with flexible/prehensile legs for the 2022 sinking season, and perhaps even purchase a head strap instead of trying to MacGyver one out of junky parts that are falling/tearing apart. :? I could then privately experiment with the setup at home when no one is around so that I could perfect it and would be ready for next season. :roll:

The weather stayed warm for several days afterward, which drove me crazy, thinking about that beautiful quagmire just sitting there, and I couldn't access it! A few days after my outing, hunting season began anyways, and I didn't want to take any chances, since due to COVID, there could possibly be more people getting out there with loaded firearms! :shock: A week after my outing, the weather turned colder, with even forecast for snow in some of the higher elevations! :shock: The weather was going to turn rainier as well, which could raise water levels, but then I need the bog to reset, and get flooded over and loosen before next summer. Just as long as we don't get a wet summer like in 2020, when things stayed flooded right up until hunting season (mud was exposed initially but sunk under water after first sink)! This has been a season of experimentation, and hopefully, after looking over all my mistakes, I will be able to finally get some much more successful point-of-view videos in summer 2022, if I do make any (I want to do more of the conventional videos again), provided the weather cooperates.


BTW, it will be a while before the videos from this outing and the previous one will be released. Work has stalled on the one from the previous adventure, and the one from this adventure won't be worked on until the previous one is finished. It is likely that they won't be ready until this fall/winter, after regular videos from the upcoming 2022 season (yet to begin) are released.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
I sink, therefore I WAM!!!!

(((ioi)))

-The Boggy Man

User avatar
Boggy Man
Posts: 2447
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:13 am
Location: The Sunny Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada

Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 9/8/'22!

Postby Boggy Man » Thu Sep 08, 2022 8:09 am

My August 18'th, 2022 Adventure, Part 1!

Since my final outing last year, I had been looking forward to this year. I had hoped to either replace my broken Gorillapod, or try gluing it back together. I also had planned on doing regular videos, with the odd first-person videos on occasion, to be saved for the last videoed sink of a day. I was happy to have found a configuration that worked last year :D , if only the Gorillapod wasn't broken, and I hadn't botched up the configuration for the final video. :x

However, things haven't been working out the way I had hoped. I had never gotten the chance to fix or replace my Gorillapod, so I just hoped that it would work out okay the way it was. :? The clicking in my neck from last season still hadn't completely subsided yet, which also concerned me. :? Thanks to a persistent La Niña, we had an unseasonably cold winter, and a late spring and a late start to summer. Our mid-April felt like early March. Our May felt like April. Our cool, rainy June (June-uary) felt like April/May, and our early July felt like June, with lots of rainy cool weather. It was so cold that we had no peaches or nectarines, and very few apricots, and lots of peach orchards also had crop failures. Plants that normally bloomed in June were blooming in July. Our raspberry season usually ran from mid to late June to mid July, but this year it never started until mid July! Our cherries, which were usually ready in June/July, were finally ready in mid July, and even lasting into August! :shock: Everything was so late this year, that in the spring, when we normally had snowmelt in the higher elevations with risk of flooding, the snow was still accumulating up there! :shock: All this meant that when the cold weather finally broke in mid-July, and we suddenly went from cool and wet to hot and dry, I knew that the water levels would take forever to drop to the point of exposing mud. :x I had also gotten behind in my weeding, and I wanted to get to a certain point before taking off on my adventures. So, I waited through weeks of hot weather through the second half of July and a good part of August, with temperatures in the low to high 30's˚C (mid 80's˚F to high 90's˚F), with some places cracking 40˚C (104˚F) a few times, for the best time to go. Finally, I chose Thursday, August 18'th to be the day of my first adventure of the year! :D It was supposed to be mainly sunny with a high of 35˚C (95˚F), with it being a bit cooler in the mountains, but still nice and hot, such that I should not have to worry about past problems of post-sink chills that took forever to get rid of, wasting precious time during my outings before I could sink again. When I first talked to my dad, he kinda protested at first, but eventually, he gave in, hoping that Crescent Road would be in better condition than last year, since he was concerned about shaking the hell out of his truck on that rough gravel/dirt road.

So, that morning, I was all set, and he drove me up into the mountains. Along the way, I was disgusted by all the new clearcuts scalping the hillsides in places. :x I noticed that a corner that he used to drop me off was now surrounded by clearcuts as well! But, past that, no more new clearcuts, which was a relief, but then we found that the MAIN gravel road was extensively covered in large and small potholes! :shock: My dad had to slow down to a snail's pace, and cursed each time the truck hit any and bounced. :x I had never seen the road so bad before! :shock: My guess is that it must have been from all the rain in June and first half of July! :? But, we made it to Crescent Road, and while it wasn't full of potholes like the main road, it was still rough like last year. The temperature indicator on the truck was a steady 24˚C (75˚F) practically all the way, a good morning temperature to start my adventure! :D My dad dropped me off at a clearing on the south side of the road like always, with me relieved that there hadn't been any work there, since it had been marked with blue (and perhaps other color, such as pink) ribbons. I tested my bike out to make certain it was okay, and loaded my stuff into the saddlebags, and promised my dad that I would try and phone him by 7:30 pm, less than half an hour before sunset. He took off, and I was on my way, hoping that all the weeks of heat we had up to this point exposed my patch of hungry quagmire! :D

I turned up my side road, and walked my bike up the initial hill, before riding the rest of the way. I could smell cattle, or manure, but didn't see anything on the road. I reached my side trail that had been blocked by fallen trees, and walked my bike down the winding path, lifting it over two smaller trunks of fallen trees, to get to the rest of that trail, and to the clearing. I parked my bike against a small tree in the shade, and got all my things out of my saddlebags, and was just starting on my way, when I had remembered that I needed to remove my socks before they could get plastered with grass (and other weed) seed, and so had to go back briefly to take them off before finally heading on my way.

Walking southward through the grass among the alders, I noticed that the white bog orchids were still blooming, but the flowers were turning brown, with green seed pods developing. I took a couple of photos of one that was a bit newer, and continued on my way. Here is the one in better focus:

2022 08 18 1A White Bog Orchid.jpg

In the alders, I noticed that there was some water sitting in the seasonal stream channel, something which was usually dry by now, which concerned me. :? I headed on through the meadow on the west side of the pond, and briefly walked towards the pond to get a better feel of the water levels. Water was still into the grass, and a path was partially in the water, forcing me to head back westward again, further away to higher ground in the meadow, where I then headed the rest of the way southward to my sinking spot, uncertain of what I would find. :?

When I reached the spot, I set my stuff down by some alders, and then went to check things out. I had to carefully step onto high patches of grass so as not to get my shoes wet, and when I approached the patch of open grass-free ground that had swallowed me whole numerous times, I noticed that it was exposed in the middle and the west side, with it submerged on the north, south and east sides. I went and got my camera, switched memory cards, and took a photo of the patch surrounded by the sticks I used to keep animals out:

2022 08 18 1B Crescent.jpg

Next, I had to remove my shoes, and proceeded to remove the sticks from around the west side, north side, and east side of the bog, with nothing really on the south side. But while in the process of removing the sticks, I noticed a frog on the north side, which slowly made its way across the bog. I grabbed my camera, and took a couple of photos from the west side as it got closer to me:

2022 08 18 1C Crescent Bog Frog.jpg

2022 08 18 1D Crescent Bog Frog.jpg


To Be Continued...
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
I sink, therefore I WAM!!!!

(((ioi)))

-The Boggy Man

User avatar
Boggy Man
Posts: 2447
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:13 am
Location: The Sunny Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada

Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 9/8/'22!

Postby Boggy Man » Thu Sep 08, 2022 8:10 am

My August 18'th, 2022 Adventure, Part 2 (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!

I returned my camera to my things, finished removing the sticks, leaving in some across the west side of the grass south of the bog, where I was blocking animal access from a very loose, fragile mat of vegetation. I then grabbed my camera again and took photos of the patch of mud from all four sides and the top:

2022 08 18 1E Crescent.jpg

2022 08 18 1F Crescent.jpg

2022 08 18 1G Crescent.jpg

2022 08 18 1H Crescent.jpg

2022 08 18 1I Crescent.jpg


To Be Concluded...
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
I sink, therefore I WAM!!!!

(((ioi)))

-The Boggy Man

User avatar
Boggy Man
Posts: 2447
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:13 am
Location: The Sunny Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada

Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 9/8/'22!

Postby Boggy Man » Thu Sep 08, 2022 8:11 am

My August 18'th, 2022 Adventure, Part 3, The Conclusion (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!

Then, I put my camera away, and headed to the pond's edge to feel the water. It was a little cool, but warming up, so I figured that if I gave it a bit more time, it would be more comfortable for cleanup. So, I returned to my bike, grabbed my lunch, and walked northward up the sideroad, snacking on a couple of Pizza Pops for lunch. I stopped at a spot on the dirt road where there were some deep ruts, two of which had clay in them, with the east rut stiffer and the west rut softer, both with large cattle hoof prints in them. The mud was only an inch or two deep, and I wished that I had a deep pit of that :roll: . I dipped my shoe tip in it slightly, before wiping the mud off it on the ground. I felt tempted to just gather it up into a nice, gooey clump to wallow in, but there wasn't enough there, and it would be a rather embarrassing situation if anyone came up that road while I was in the "act"! :oops: I continued on northward to where the road passed the pond with the ring bog to the east through the trees. Glancing through the trees, I could tell that the water level was high there as well, so I never bothered to go there, instead deciding to follow the road to the east (right) fork north of the pond, and follow it eastward to the clearcut, where it passed by a depression with water in it and clay on the edge, on the east side of the road. I wanted to see what it looked like this year. When I finally got there, it had water, but very little clay on the edge, and it was full of logs, something I had forgotten about. Nothing of interest there, so I headed back.

When I reached the fork, I started to wonder if I should take the north (left) fork and head to the entrance to animal trails leading to the extensive meadows to the north, and check out the quaking bog there. :? I started heading a little ways up that trail, but then changed my mind. I felt that I had spent enough time waiting for things to warm up, and it was time for me to have my first sink of the season! :D So, I headed back southward, stopping again at the clay in the ruts to take a look at it again, knowing that there was too little in a too risky place. :? I returned to my bike, put my lunch bag away in my saddlebag, and headed back to my sinking spot, ready to get set up! Ever since I had started my day, I noticed that my thighs felt kinda tight hiking around, making me worry about leg cramps. I just hoped things would be all right. :? But, finally, I was feeling ready enough for my first sink of the season! :D I had given the sun enough time to warm things up enough to avoid getting chilled, and although there were some thin clouds that had been filtering the sun on and off, it was not too bad, and I was hoping that the hot sun would finally stay out!

I hoped that the extra time would allow the water to drop ever so slightly, but couldn't really tell if it did or not. :? It was a shame that the water was so high, because that meant that I couldn't use my breathing hose for an extended submersion as long as there was any surface water in or around the mud. The last thing I would want is to be deep beneath the surface, the hose being the only thing keeping me alive, only to have water start pouring through the hose into my throat! :shock: So, any breathing hose sinks were out of the question.

Given the situation, I knew that this sink would be basically one shot, after which water would flood over the surface. So, I had a choice to either have a very tempting stimulating off-camera sink to enjoy the first sink of the season to its fullest, or to do a dramatic video, which would be something for everyone to enjoy over and over. I opted for making the video. So, I changed into my junk shorts, and since its waist elastic was stretched, I had to tie a red string around it to hold it on.

I was originally planning on setting up the pole with the camera on the east side of the bog, where it was more stable than the more thinly matted south side, but the sun's position had progressed too far westward to make it work. So, instead, I chose to stick a pole into the southwest side of the bog, where the vegetation mat was reasonable thick, without movements rocking the stick too much. Then, I went back to my things and set my camera's picture mode to 16:9 to match the video format, which allowed for more accurate setup - proper framing of the spot that was going to suck me down beneath the surface! I attached the camera onto what was left of my Gorillapod, which had its longest leg break off last year, and was left with only a medium leg that had half broken off years before, and a shorter stubby leg where parts had broken off over the years. I hoped that it would still work. But, when I tried to attach it to the stick, I just couldn't get it to hold on properly. I tried all sorts of things, but it refused to get secured! :x I then tried using a shoelace to help, but that still didn't work! Each time it seemed to be close, the top part of the Gorillapod with the camera would then flop downward, as if the ball joint that the camera was on had become too loose. I then decided to try a different stick, with more side branches to see if I could get it better secured. But, still no luck. :( In fact, when I tried to tie the legs with the shoelace, I had trouble holding the camera in place while trying to tie the shoelace, and the camera/Gorillapod would flip over, and I would catch it on time, at least for a couple of times when that happened. Then, it flipped over and fell to the wet muddy ground on the edge of the bog! :shock: Fortunately, there was hardly any water/mud on it, a reason why I got a waterproof camera in the first place (the other reason is if I get caught in a rainstorm with the camera). After fiddling around a bit more, I finally gave up on trying to get the camera mounted, meaning I was also giving up on taking my first video of the season. :(

I returned to my things with the camera and Gorillapod, removing the stick as well. I took off my junk shorts, and put on my new swim cap, which fit tightly over my hair and ears, which would keep them nice and clean and dry. I put on my swim goggles, which would keep the mud out of my eyes, and headed back to the bog, to finally have my first sink/submersion of the season! :D

Standing on the west side facing east, without clothes, except for my swim cap and goggles, I jumped on the grass to see the wet ground in front of me quiver, and chased the "resident" frog to the water on the south side of the bog so that it would be out of the way. I was imagining that there were stories about patches of deadly quicksand in the area where the only thing that ever escaped from the mire's deadly grip were bog farts, and I was skeptical that this would be one such patch. :? Then, I jumped into the middle of the patch of wet ground, immediately getting gulped down up to my chest in the gooey muck, feeling the slight shock of the coolness of it initially, with swamp gas starting to bubble and fart around me! I lingered there, feeling the mire warming up to me where it was in contact with my skin. It was loose on top, but thicker and gooier deeper down, but still very soft. I very gently rested my arms on the surface skin of the hungry muck, and just savored the feel of finally standing in practically bottomless farting ooze! :D Without breaking my arms through the to skin on the surface, I struggled, slowly sinking deeper and deeper into the sucking morass, the surface quivering all around me! Because of the fact that there was water around the outer edge, I didn't want to stir and churn the mud around me for fear that water might come up and flood things around me, and I wanted to preserve the brown surface of the surrounding muck as much as possible, especially for my submersion! I moved my feet, and made digging motions with them to help the hungry mire to suck me down even deeper, swamp gas still farting around me. I reached out with my hands in all directions, twisting around as well to try reaching behind me, pressing lightly on the surface skin without breaking it, finding that it was firmer behind me, where it was slightly more raised, and mushiest to my front-left, where it was closer to water level, and just soft but held together the rest of the way around me. As my foot digging movements continued, I slowly sunk deeper into the hungry quagmire, the surface slowly starting to close over my shoulders. I had to keep looking away to my left, so that I wouldn't stare towards the sun, which was nice and hot. Finally, with my arms laying on the surface in front of me, I slowly increased the downward pressure, until the farting surface slowly yielded and sucked closed over them, leaving only my hands sticking out in front of me, the disturbance releasing even more farts of swamp gas. Then, I plunged my arms down deeper, my hands getting sucked under the surface as well, making the mire fart even more! With my arms and hands sucked under the surface, my struggles allowed the voracious ooze to suck me down even deeper! I pushed my arms straight down, feeling the chilliness of the mire on them briefly before it then warmed up around them like a muddy form of insulation. The voracious quagmire rose up my neck to my chin, and then to my mouth. As it slowly rose even higher, it was starting to partially restrict my breathing through my mouth, but not completely. I could still suck in air past the mud, but then it rose enough for it to partially ooze into my mouth, forcing me to spit/blow it out, and turn my head up higher to keep breathing out of my mouth, even though my nose was freer from being higher. The mud was covering over much of my mouth, but I was still able to suck air through it, and spit/blow out any mud that tried oozing in, loving the experience of being on the verge of "suffocating" in the hungry quagmire, a danger that increased the deeper I got sucked down! :twisted: Then, struggling, head facing upwards, trying to keep breathing through my mouth with the mud closing in on it, my stimulation exploded a few feet beneath the surface! :D

After the great release, I felt my body temperature suddenly drop, like a bunch of heat was instantly sucked out of my body! :x But, I wasn't finished yet with my sink, because I had yet to completely submerge! So, facing upwards, I took several deep breaths, and then held it, before finally bending my legs and pulling my upper body completely under, and then straightening my legs, plunging my feet deeper down into the gulping mire, and then straightening my head to face forward. For around quarter of a minute, I was totally engulfed in suffocating softness and darkness, listening to the underbog gurgling sounds of the mire passing swamp gas around me to the surface above me. I wished that I could have stayed down longer, but I had to come back up for air. So, I quickly climbed back up to the surface, and started wiping gooey mud from my face/head, my swim goggles getting displaced slightly, forcing me to reposition them. I noticed that the parts where I wiped the mud from started to feel cold quickly. But, I knew that I would quickly warm up again. I worked myself up higher, turned around and started to crawl through the mud to the west side, where I grabbed the grass, and pulled myself out the rest of the way, wiping the mud off me as I went. Just as I had expected, water was flowing over top of the spot I had just sunk into.

When exiting the quagmire, I realized that the hot sun was absent! :shock: I looked up to see that it had completely vanished behind thicker clouds that seemed to have come out of nowhere, and it was all thicker overcast, with all of the blue skies to the north, and moving away! :x I was relying on the sun to dry me off and heat me up quickly, but now I only had the warm air to do that!

But, anyways, I just hoped that the water had warmed up enough while the sun was out for a comfortable cleanup. So, I used the yellow waterlily rhizomes for support in the pond, since the bottom was the same kind of mud that sucked me under on shore. There was a decent warm layer of water on top, but chilly deeper down, especially where it was mixed in with sediment. I would swish the stirred sediment-filled colder water away to bring in clearer warmer water, before cleaning my head, and upper body, removing my swim goggles and setting then on a yellow waterlily leaf after cleaning them, and then continuing to clean myself. I then headed to the shore, and onto the mat of small floating rushes, to clean up myself further, laying my back on the rushes to rub my back on them (Nature's scrub brush), before continuing to wash myself off in the pond, splashing water on my back before going back to the floating vegetation mat to clean my lower body parts, swishing sediment-filled water away to get cleaner water around me for cleanup. Once I got myself cleaned up, I had to wait to dry off, removing my swim cap, and placing it and my goggles on some alder branches to dry off. My hair was mostly dry, although it did feel slightly damp. But, I was happy that my eyes and ears were clean as well. I took a photo of the patch of ground that I had been sucked under and escaped from:

2022 08 18 1J Crescent.jpg

Once I was dry enough, I got dressed in my clothes, and had to spend some time waiting to warm up again, something that I had hoped wouldn't have been a problem this time, since the sun, combined with the unseasonably hot airmass, should have cooked me instantly! But, for a day that was supposed to be mainly sunny, the arrival of thick cloud cover earlier than forecast spoiled my fast warmup. :x So, I headed back to my bike, grabbed my granola bars, and snacked on them while walking northward up that sideroad again, checking out that bit of clay again, probing the peanut buttery goo with a stick (can't remember if I had did that earlier or not), wishing that I had a deep pit of it. I continued down the road past the other pond to the north with the ring bog, to a small clearing, and then stopped at the fork. I then turned around to head back, briefly searching for the entrance to the trail that completed a loop from a left trail in the fork to the north. After finding that, I headed back, with a couple pieces of junk (beer can and pen cap) that I decided to pick up to discard at home. I looked at the patch of clay with some cattle hoof prints again in the deep ruts (west rut having the softest stuff), once again, a bit disappointed it wasn't extensive enough or deep enough for a wallow, but then, as mentioned earlier, would be a major source of embarrassment if someone had came up that road and saw me in the act! :oops: I dipped a finger into the smooth clay to get a feel of it, before wiping it off on the ground, and letting the residue dry white on my finger until I would clean it off later at my pond. I then returned to my things, put my lunch bag away, and was finally feeling warm enough to have my final sink of the day, since I wanted to even out the surface, instead of having a low spot in the center and outer edges with a raised ring in between. I just wished that the sun would come out, but the cloud cover wouldn't allow it. :(

Back at my things, I got undressed, but since I wasn't going to submerge myself, I didn't need swim goggles or cap. I also took off my glasses, since they were sunglasses, and I wanted to see things more brightly (I would have brought along regular glasses if I had known that it was going to cloud over). I headed over to my bog, and was ready for my final sink of the day!

I chose to start with the southwest patch of exposed mud, because it was raised the highest. So, facing east, I carefully lowered myself into it, sinking to my chest in the farting bubbling ooze. But, with a little bit of struggling, the surface broke up, and then water started to move over. I churned the mud, and faced west, pulling up mud from deeper down, and struggled, with mud surrounding me, but it would be just barely at water level. The mud would settle and water would move in, and I would try lifting it up around me to keep it at the surface. I struggled, with some thicker stuff beneath pulled over to my lower body, but I wasn't feeling warm enough for stimulation. I struggled and churned the mud with my hands, lifting up more of the gooier stuff to the surface to mix in with the waterier looser stuff, but it wasn't enough to eliminate the surface water, and I didn't want to reach down any further to bring up thicker stuff deeper down, because things were feeling cool, and I didn't want to get my underarms and shoulders muddy this time. I could feel strain on my arms and shoulders when stretching my arms out while churning the mud around me, and I hoped that it would not be problematic. I then made my way counterclockwise around the bog, able to move my legs to walk through the loose mud and wiggling my upper body forward, mushing up the exposed mud with my hands. Before I mushed up the surface on the south and east side, I struggled, with the mire bubbling and farting around me. Facing east, the swamp gas farting out of the undisturbed surface in front of me was oozing yellow bubbly suds out onto the surface, likely from the higher water content in the mud just below the surface skin there, especially on the east side. I finally worked my way around to the north and then west side again. As I went around, I was also mushing under all plants that were sprouting up, as well as clumps of sod, which fortunately wasn't very many (one was on the south side). All the time swamp gas was bubbling up out of the water that was covering the mud like crazy, and occasionally, I could feel some larger bubbles rise along my body. But, I felt that no amount of struggling would give me total stimulation, especially since having water over the mud spoils the effect, and I couldn't pull sufficient mud up to the surface around me to be surrounded. So, making certain that the frog, which had been in the grass on the edge of the west side, was out of my way, I finally made my way to the west and then northwest side, dragging myself out of the mud, pushing off the mud sticking to my body, which was mostly my legs and feet, since they were in thicker mud, and my upper body was in looser waterier mud. I needed to preserve as much mud as possible in the bog, and not walk away with much on my body each time.

I finally headed back to the water to repeat my cleanup, using yellow water lily rhizomes as support for part of my body and then the floating mat of vegetation on the edge of the pond for support for cleaning my lower body. Then, I had noticed that it was already around 5:30 pm, much later than I had anticipated! I took a photo of the bog all mushed up and submerged:

2022 08 18 1K Crescent.jpg

While waiting to dry, I replaced all the sticks around the bog to keep animals out of it, and then took another photo:

2022 08 18 1L Crescent.jpg

I grabbed all my things, and put it into my saddlebags in my bike, made my way back to the sideroad, lifting my bike over a couple fallen small tree trunks. I was back on the road after 6 pm, and managed to get to a location almost all the way into the valley where I knew I had cell service at 7:33 pm, where I turned back on the iphone, and phoned my dad, who then picked me up in the valley, just before it was getting dark.

My dad told me that he had hurt himself heading back home after dropping me off! :shock: He had hit a pothole that locked up his wheels, throwing him forward, hurting his left arm and shoulder, which felt sore! :shock: He was concerned about his wheel alignment, as well as his implanted defibrillator/pacemaker. But he already had a scheduled hospital appointment the next day, and it turned out to be okay. So, it looks like he won't be taking me all the way up Crescent Road again this year, unless they regrade the road. :( That means that I will wind up being dropped off at a corner that he used to drop me off years ago on the main road, before all the potholes begin. This will delay my arrival to my Crescent Road Pond by perhaps an hour, and will put excess stress on my legs, which could increase the risk of knee pain, and definitely leg cramps! I was surprised that I never suffered from any leg cramps at all this time, on my first outing of the season, although while in the mud, I did feel some soreness coming on in my left foot/lower leg, but fortunately it vanished!

This time, my dad wasn't concerned about me, since I gave him a later contact time (half an hour before sunset) than in other years, which was around supper time. While the day was warm, I was disappointed about the lack of sunshine upon exiting the mud after the first sink of the day, which resulted in another lengthy, time-wasting warmup period, again! :x The water level was high, but not quite as high as it was on my first visit to this spot last year, on July 5'th, where breaking the surface of the mud caused water to bubble up from underneath, something that didn't happen this year, although it did flood over from the sides. On July 30'th of last year, I had my first submersion with lower water levels than now, with the mud all exposed and thick. There is quite a contrast between last year when we had the heat dome in June, with hot dry weather extending through the summer months, and this year, with the cool, wet June and early July delaying the water level drop, and so, even with the subsequent heat and dryness and this late start to my outings, the bog STILL flooded over after being fully disturbed! :x But, at least I had my first vertical submersion sink of the season, with stimulation! :D

I was quite a bit disappointed that the Gorillapod was unable to hold onto the stick with its one remaining partially functional tentacle (the second tentacle was too short to wrap around anything and the third tentacle was completely broken off), forcing me to give up on taking a video of my first sink, something I soooo badly wanted to share! :( Here is a photo taken at home, 11 days later, of the Gorillapod, which has seen better days, showing what I had to try to work with now:

2022 08 29 1M Fragmented Gorillapod.jpg

Until the breaking off of the longest tentacle last year, this Gorillpod had been serving me well for 14 years or more, back when the Deep Sinking forum was the main area of activity, before Quicksand Fans even existed! I can't remember the exact year I bought it, but I was using it in 2008 at the shallow lake south of Bridge Lake, which had one area with really treacherously :twisted: soft bottomless mud! I was a bit split between deciding to try gluing it back together, or to bite the bullet and shell out around $60 for a brand new one. :? I also thought about perhaps using stiff flexible wires to replace two tentacles, wrapping one end around the knobs of where the two most broken tentacles were. :?

I had a few biting flies, but they weren't too much of a problem, and I never encountered any leeches in the water during cleanup. My left knee felt sore biking back, but after coasting down the hill, it got better, although it may have been slightly irritated again once in the valley, but vanished after that. :) I was concerned about my neck clicking getting worse, and after my adventure, I noticed that a more "knuckle-cracking" type of clicking had returned, something which I had forgotten about that I had last year as well, and had vanished since last year, until now. But, at least there has been no pain with it. :?

I never checked out the clay on the far south end to see if it was exposed, although it was shallow with a rocky bottom. I had thought about trying out the spot on the north end of the pond, where I had worked a chest deep soft spot in the stiffer muck there, but never got the chance, because I was too preoccupied with either sinking in my main spot, trying to warm up, or mushing the mud there as it flooded with water. I also had forgotten the exact spot where I used to put my things near my sinking spot, and wound up putting things in two places, the correct place given away by the Lady's Tresses orchids (they were larger this year, and I never got around to taking a photo of them) on the path leading from there to the bog.

So, now, I wait for my next opportunity for an outing. Given the amount of water on the surface of the bog when I left it, waiting a week would be insufficient, and a week later, the weather has been hot, but also with thunderstorms in the higher elevations in the afternoons. So, I will likely wait until around the beginning of September for my next adventure (eyeing Friday, September 2'nd), when the mud should finally be fully exposed, and the weather hot! :D
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
I sink, therefore I WAM!!!!

(((ioi)))

-The Boggy Man

User avatar
Boggy Man
Posts: 2447
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:13 am
Location: The Sunny Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada

Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 9/20/'22!

Postby Boggy Man » Wed Sep 21, 2022 7:39 am

My September 2'nd, 2022 Adventure, Part 1!

After waiting over 2 weeks, I was finally ready to go on my second adventure of the season! :D But first, on Tuesday, August 30'th, my parents and I went shopping in Kelowna, and while I was at Best Buy, I happened to check out their camera accessories, and lo and behold, they had a Gorillapod on for $24.99! :D The last time I had looked at one, the lowest price I could find was around $60! So, I decided to take advantage of that, and buy it! :D I then had to keep it hidden from my parents by first stuffing the sales receipt inside the box (they never gave me a bag), and then stuffing the long narrow box in my right front pocket, and holding my shirt out a little with my right hand to eliminate a suspicious-looking box-shaped bulge. When I got back into the car, I snuck it under the car seat in front of me, and shortly afterward, stuffed a towel there to keep it from moving out. When we got home that evening, I later went back in the car and retrieved it, and moved it into the saddlebag of my bike. 8-) So, no more trying to fiddle around with trying to get a broken Gorillapod to work, no more trying to find any workarounds, or repairs. I am starting with a fresh, brand-new Gorillapod, which means I am back in business, regarding making videos that work! :D

When I first asked my dad about taking me, I started with saying about how he would likely drop me off at a corner that he used to drop me off at years ago, since there were too many large potholes beyond that point, and he had locked his tires when hitting one coming back last time, throwing him forward into the seatbelt, hurting his left arm and shoulder! :shock: He wasn't protesting as much as I had expected, which was good. :) I targeted Friday, September 2'nd, the day before the Labour Day long weekend, because the temperature was going to be the highest that week, and I wanted to wait as long as possible before going, to let water levels drop even lower! The forecast was calling for nothing but sunshine, with a high for Vernon of 34˚C (94˚F), with it being perhaps 5˚C cooler (9˚F cooler) in the mountains, which would still be quite hot. 8-) So, this time, there would be no clouds to obscure the sun, which should make for a faster warmup after each sink, and warmer water as well! 8-) I couldn't wait, because I figured that by the time I get there, the mud should be fully exposed, like it was in late July of last year! :D However, I was a little concerned that even though the weather had been hot since my last outing, we did have thunderstorms in the mountains on some days, which could have added to the water levels. :? But still, I felt confident that this would be the day I had been waiting for since last fall! :D I planned on videoing my first sink before lunch, recreating the first sink I had on my last outing. I would follow that by my own personal sinks after lunch, and then finishing it off by trying a first-person sink, using my makeshift headstrap, and taking all I have learned from last year's experiments and making it a success (shifting camera further to the left allows it to bend to a lower angle in my left eye socket)! :D

The evening before, I adjusted my front brake, which had a pad that needed an adjustment with an Allen key, because it wasn't out far enough to work. I also put air in the tires and oiled the chain, to make certain everything was ready. That night, I had a very restless sleep, nodding off into brief dreams before waking up again, laying awake at 4 am, before finally getting up at 5 am this time to make certain I was going to be able to leave earlier, to compensate for the extra time it would take me to reach my area, since I had to do extra biking so my dad could avoid the potholes. I wasn't certain whether things would work out for a first-person sink video, but I had to try and make preparations anyways. I tore off several pieces of plastic wrap, folded them up and put them in a grocery bag which I took with me. I was a bit uncertain whether the wrap would work, because it didn't always seem to stick good enough to things, although it did seem to be hard to unstick from itself. It also seemed to tear quite easily. But, I wouldn't know if something works until I try. :?

We left around 8:30 am, and to my surprise, my dad was actually willing to take me a little further past the planned drop-off corner, enduring some potholes, before finally dropping me off, which saved me some biking! :D I checked my bike to make certain it was functional before he left, and I was on my way around 9:30 am! :D After heading the rest of the way up the main road, I had to walk my bike up the steep hill of the first part of Crescent Road, before finally biking the rest of the way. There were signs of cattle being in the vicinity, but I just hoped they weren't at my pond. At the sideroad, the grass looked trampled down, and as I headed up it, I did see some cowpies on the sideroad. When I reached the part of the road that passed by the first (east) pond, I got off my bike and walked it for a little ways, staring hard through the trees and bushes in the direction of my sinking spot, to see how visible it was from the road. I noticed that there was only one brief spot where I could barely see the tops of the sticks around my bog (blink and you would miss it). But, other than that, only some glimpses of the grassy areas north of my bog, which could make me visible from the road briefly during cleanup, or walking between my bike and the bog, which could mean that if I went during hunting season, I should clean off south of the bog instead of to the north of it. :? Slowly but surely, growing bushes are hiding things more and more, making things increasingly hidden. 8-) I continued on, walking my bike down the side (animal) trail over two fallen trees (a bit of an annoyance to get through, but any reduction in apparent accessibility can help with privacy), to the more open trail heading down to the clearing north of my pond (the grass was trampled all over the place from cattle), where I leaned my bike against a small tree in the shade (grass there was also trampled). I got all my stuff together, removed my socks and put them in my saddlebag so I would be barefoot in my shoes without getting seeds in my socks, and was on my way to my sinking spot! :D

I headed down the path to the pond, taking care not to step in any cowpies that were hidden in the grass. I briefly glanced at the north side of the pond, and could definitely see that some of the mud there was getting exposed, a sign that the water levels were indeed lower than last time! :D However, the water still seemed a bit far into the grass. :? I dropped off my things at my regular spot, looking for the Lady's Tresses orchid that marked the path to the bog, but was unable to find it (was it eaten by the cattle?). :? I then took a look at my sinking spot, and was hit with a major disappointment! :shock: There was less mud exposed than when I first arrived last time! :( The west side, which I had thought would be the most exposed, instead had a deeper puddle there (looked like some creature moved through there, leaving a trail), with mud exposed towards the middle and some on the east side, but it was all barely above the water! :x All this waiting, and the water levels ***STILL*** never dropped enough to get it all completely exposed! :x I then grabbed my camera, swapped memory cards, and took a photo of it:

2022 09 02 2A Crescent.jpg

I then headed to the south end, where the patch of organic and clay muck was, located on the northwest corner of a tinier pond, to take a picture of it in the morning before it was shaded by the trees. But, as it turned out, it was already partially shaded, with too much dappling and stuff for a decent background pic, so I decided to wait until later on in the day, for more full, solid shade. So, I returned back to my sinking spot, and with bare feet, I walked around, snapping photos of the bog, from the other 3 sides:

2022 09 02 2B Crescent.jpg

2022 09 02 2C Crescent.jpg

2022 09 02 2D Crescent.jpg


To Be Continued...
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
I sink, therefore I WAM!!!!

(((ioi)))

-The Boggy Man

User avatar
Boggy Man
Posts: 2447
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:13 am
Location: The Sunny Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada

Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 9/20/'22!

Postby Boggy Man » Wed Sep 21, 2022 7:40 am

My September 2'nd, 2022 Adventure, Part 2 (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!

I then took photos of my brand new Gorillapod, including its box (just the front and two sides, because the back didn't have anything interesting):

2022 09 02 2E Gorillapod.jpg

2022 09 02 2F Gorillapod.jpg

2022 09 02 2G Gorillapod.jpg

2022 09 02 2H Gorillapod.jpg

I highly recommend it for making sinking videos, and you can get ones with special attachments for smartphones, and larger ones for DSLR and mirrorless cameras as well! 8-)


To Be Continued...
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
I sink, therefore I WAM!!!!

(((ioi)))

-The Boggy Man


Return to “Photos”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest