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

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Boggy Man
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Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 9/21/'19!

Postby Boggy Man » Sun Sep 22, 2019 7:35 am

My September 6'th, 2019 Adventure, Part 3 (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!

I picked up one of my alder sticks, poked it through the floating vegetation at the western section of the south side of the bog, took the Gorillapod with the camera screwed onto it, and wrapped the tentacles, some of which had been partially broken off over the years, around the stick. I picked out the spot where the action was going to occur, centered just to the left and behind a small ridge in the mud, and properly framed the area. But, just when I was almost ready to start, I suddenly realized that I needed to change the camera's regular picture setting to 16:9 to match the video's aspect ratio so that I could frame it more properly. After making the necessary adjustments, and getting ready, I started the video recording, but still wasn't certain if the area was properly framed. So, I stopped it, deleted it, and made the final adjustments to get everything just right. Here is the final view I settled on:

2019 09 06 2I Crescent.jpg

What was really frustrating, was that each time I had to make adjustments to the camera, I had to grab my glasses from my things by a clump of alder trees in order to see the screen. Each time I thought I was ready to begin, I had to return my glasses back to my things again, winding up making several trips back and forth before I got everything right. Finally, with everything all set now, I returned my glasses to my things one last time, returned and pressed the record button, and was ready to feed myself to the voracious bog on camera for the first time this year! :D :twisted:

I did my usual "talking to myself"/"thinking out loud" monologue to set up the scene, and then plunged into the treacherous quagmire, struggling until I was eventually swallowed whole beneath the surface, struggling some more beneath the surface and then pausing and holding my breath, blowing bubbles, and then trying to pause again before resurfacing, and catching my breath. I then worked myself a little bit higher, struggled some more as the batterlike ooze sucked me back down again, and briefly relaxed with my head resting on the surface, really enjoying the experience I had waited so long for! :D I then took another deep breath, and let the gulping mire close over my head again, blowing some more bubbles before bringing my head back up to the surface to finally breathe again! I worked myself up a bit higher, turned around, and dragged myself out on the north side of the bog, the way I came in, pushing muck off my body back into the bog, especially from my legs, since the stuff deeper down was thicker and therefore coated my legs more thickly. I then headed towards the edge of the pond, cleaned my hands, returned to the camera, and (hopefully) stopped the recording. :? I was uncertain about whether it was stopped, because I had trouble seeing the screen through the muddy goggles, and without my glasses. My swim cap covering my ears also made it hard to hear the brief tone the camera made when pushing the button. I unwrapped the Gorillapod from the stick, and returned the camera, mounted on the Gorillapod, to my things. I think I might have tried sneaking a peek by lifting the goggles up, to make certain the camera was off, hoping that no mud would fall into my eye sockets.

I returned to the edge of the pond where I cleaned my head/swim cap/goggles in the water, again resting my left hand on a yellow waterlily rhizome for support. I rubbed my back on the edge of the floating meadow that sunk under the water, to help clean up, then splashing water over my back. Cleaning my front was easier, and cleanup was much more comfortable this time, thanks to the hot sun finally heating the water up. :) I cleaned my junk shorts inside and out, and wrung them out before hanging them, as well as my swim cap and goggles, on some alder branches to dry in the hot sun. I air-dried out, warming up much faster thanks to the sun warming the air, as well as my skin, better. :) While drying, I removed the alder stick that the camera/Gorillapod was previously mounted on, and returned it to the stick pile, to be returned to the edge of the bog later on. All dry, I got completely dressed to warm up faster. I took a few more photos of the bog, showing its state after the dramatic sink:

2019 09 06 2J Crescent.jpg

2019 09 06 2K Crescent.jpg

2019 09 06 2L Crescent.jpg

To Be Concluded...
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I sink, therefore I WAM!!!!

(((ioi)))

-The Boggy Man

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Boggy Man
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Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 9/21/'19!

Postby Boggy Man » Sun Sep 22, 2019 7:35 am

My September 6'th, 2019 Adventure, Part 4, The Conclusion (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!

Once I was finally heated up again, I was ready for some more personal sinks, including using the breathing hose for the first time in two years! :) But, it was partially plastered with some bleached organic matter, likely decayed grass that stuck and dried onto it, which I had to scrub off the mouth end in the water before placing it near where I was going to sink. Since it was getting late in the season, shadows from the forest to the west were already moving over the bog. Putting on my swim cap and goggles again, I plunged back into the middle of the bog facing south, working my feet and legs down into the thicker stuff below, the softer, looser surface of the batterlike quagmire slowly rising higher and higher until it covered my mouth and nose, trying to suffocate me, before I finally worked myself higher to take in air again, loving the feel of it! :D Working my way through the muck, I grabbed my breathing hose, and whipped it around several times until I had it laying in the best position. Facing south again, I then struggled in the center some more, and when the quivering surface of the suffocating ooze was threatening to rise over my mouth again, I placed the hose in my mouth. Continuing to struggle, my legs and feet penetrating deeper and deeper into the thicker stuff below, the batterlike surface slowly rose over my face and head, this time with me still able to breathe, inhaling through the hose and exhaling bubbles through my nose! I continued to struggle, slowly sinking deeper, feeling the flat surface of the mire that was above my head with my right hand. Yup, no sign of my head, just flat mud up there! :twisted: I wanted to continue letting the voracious quagmire suck me down even deeper, but the mud in that spot, which had been recently under a puddle that I had mixed into it, was so loose that watery mud kept leaking into my nose each time I inhaled through the hose, making me feel uncomfortable! :x So, I worked myself back up to the surface, tossed the breathing hose aside, wiped the mud from my swim goggles as much as I could, and moved to the west side where the mud was thicker due to there being no puddle there earlier in the day, again facing south. My view of the mire swallowing me was now a bit more washed out, and wiping mud away from my goggles wasn't helping. This time, without the breathing hose, I struggled vigorously in the sucking muck, with the surface of the soft, smothering morass trying to cover up my mouth and nose, enjoying a smaller "release". ;)

All finished with my sinks for the day, I dragged myself out of the batterlike quagmire, pushing stuff off my body back into the bog. My difficult time trying to see was because my goggles were fogged up on the inside, especially since my breathing hose submergence. I lifted the goggles up briefly to see around me to get oriented before putting them back down again, and heading to the edge of the pond, where I cleaned myself up the same way I did earlier, including my swim cap and goggles, which I hung on some alder branches. I also cleaned my breathing hose as well. I had also tried to push as much mud as I could off the grass where I had dragged myself out, back into the bog because I wanted to conserve it as much as possible. I air dried, and took photos of the hungry mire that had tried to make a meal out of me again:

2019 09 06 2M Crescent.jpg

2019 09 06 2N Crescent.jpg

2019 09 06 2O Crescent.jpg

2019 09 06 2P Crescent.jpg

I then put all the alder sticks back around the bog, sometimes having trouble finding the places where I had poked them through the floating vegetation previously. While poking sticks into the ground on the south side, the quivering patch of sucking ooze let out a fart, which beckoned me, but I knew it was too late in the day for any more sinks. :( Once I got the bog all caged in to prevent the hungry quagmire from feeding on any large 4-legged victims, I then took one last photo:

2019 09 06 2Q Crescent.jpg

I got all my things together, hid my breathing hose and pail I tried to wash from earlier, watched the video I made, and swapped video cards. With all my things in hand, I took one final look at the patch of "innocent" muddy ground that was in actuality treacherous and hungry, thinking that if I gave in to temptation and jumped in with my clothes on, it would take forever to clean back up and I would never get to the valley bottom before dark! :shock: I then returned to my bike, put away my things, and headed back, finding that it was later than I thought! :shock: It was after 7 pm and I was still in the mountains, a ways to go yet to reach the beginning of the area where I coast down into the valley! :shock: I was supposed to be almost IN the valley by then! :shock: As I coasted downhill into the valley, the light was also going downhill. :x Once I reached a spot where I knew I had cell service, I texted my brother that I was getting closer to the valley bottom. Once I was in Lavington, on asphalt, much closer to the valley bottom, daylight getting dimmer, the phone notified me that the text wasn't sent, so I had to turn on "data" and the text was sent, along with some more updated messages I then typed, just after my brother texted me if I was almost there (valley bottom). By the time I got to the valley bottom, it was getting dark, and I was starting to reach my limits of being able to see the road, which concerned me! I heard a sound, and in the diminishing daylight, I could make out a deer that had just leapt over a fence to the north of the road and was running through a field northeastward. My brother finally picked me up in my dad's truck after 8 pm, and my adventure was finally over!

I really enjoyed the day, although the cooler morning, due to the cloudcover, slowed down my warmup from my first sinks. But, once the sun had come out, the air and water warmed instantly, as well as the surface of the mud. :) The mud overall was less chilly, even at greater depths, due to the accumulation of all the heat from the season. While the bog was farting swamp gas, it wasn't quite as flatulent as last time, perhaps due to it being later in the season with less heat slowing down the bog's digestion (organic decomposition), or perhaps the lower water content of the slightly thicker mud reduced the rate of decomposition (it seemed as though when there was lots of water inside, there was a lot of gas as well). :? I noticed that while the mud was thicker than it was when I left it on my last adventure, it wasn't as thick as it was then where I took the first plunge in my previous adventure, showing the extent of the inconsistency of the bog's thickness before I stirred it up in my first outing. I was happy that I had only a minor leg cramp (or perhaps more), but it was rather brief. Perhaps the mud being slightly warmer helped. When the mud was looser last time, my legs moved more freely around, and I was able to wade all over the place, and the water in the mud was definitely colder. The thicker mud this time limited my movements, and perhaps increased the insulative properties of the mud. :? During cleanup, I did encounter a few leeches, one of which was attached to the crack on the tip of my penis, but no skin was broken yet when I removed it. I was also a little concerned when an airplane flew almost overhead during cleanup. Even though hunting season didn't start until (typically) the 10'th of September, I had heard gunshots coming from the north of me (up my sideroad :shock: , or another road further to the north? :? ), likely target practice. :? But, I saw no sign of anyone else on the road when I was there. :? I wish that I had checked out the south side of the pond/meadow, to see what things were like there, just in case there was anything interesting I could have explored, although I felt that given the high water levels this summer, there might not have really been anything of interest, but still, one never knows. :? Even though I saw signs of them all over the place, I was happy about the lack of cattle present around my pond, perhaps due to the access being restricted to narrower paths due to the fallen trees across the wider side-trail leading down to the small clearing north of the pond. :? Most of all, I was glad I finally got to capture my dramatic adventure in the bottomless quagmire on video to share with everybody! :D

I was happy that my neck pain didn't get worse, even though I submerged my head a few times (the looseness of the mire likely helped reduce any stress on my neck), and coasted down into the valley a bit faster than last time (had one brake working then, two working now). I think that the Thudbuster LT really made a difference! :D After my sore muscles recovered (happy my legs weren't sore this time, due to hardly any cramps at all), I found that my abdominal muscles have been feeling sensitive and irritated again, which concerns me, along with some other parts of my body, which may have been aggravated by other things beyond or in addition to my biking, hiking and sinking activities. :?

The following day was also warm, but with evening thunderstorms putting on quite a light show for the second time that week (first was Tuesday night, the system responsible for the puddle on my bog). Then it rained for a few days after that, and then the odd shower here and there after that, followed by another day or so of rain, and then more rain showers, giving us 14 straight days with some amount of precipitation, some rain, and some only brief showers, accumulating over 1 3/4 inches of rain at our place, and probably more in the mountains, meaning that my sinking spot should now be quite flooded! :x When the sun did start to come out, things would start to barely begin to warm up into the low 20's (high 60's to mid 70's) :) before the next system moved in, cooling things again back into the mid to high teens (low to mid 60's). :x I suspect that our cool wet July, and the recent cool wet weather in September, can be blamed on the eruption of Russian volcano Raikoke in the northwestern Pacific Ocean back in June, which apparently has resulted in sunsets with a purple hue due to all the particles/aerosols it spewed high into the atmosphere. :? There are some breaks in the showery weather coming up, with one that peaks on Saturday, September 21'st, but is still quite cool (low 20's˚C/high 60's˚F to low 70's˚F) before more rain Sunday, but I prefer to avoid weekends during Hunting Season, and my brother is unavailable that day, anyways. It looks like the next break (but a cooler peak in temperature) will be early the following week, perhaps around Tuesday September 24'th, if my brother is able to take me then. :? It will be too cool to sink, but at least I could FINALLY check out new areas to the south that look interesting, which is always exciting! :D

I should also mention that my dad is doing/feeling quite well, and has been doing things like mowing the lawn and continuing to do his favorite hobby - restoring a Camaro Z28 his sister gave us.
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I sink, therefore I WAM!!!!

(((ioi)))

-The Boggy Man

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Boggy Man
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Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 11/10/'19!

Postby Boggy Man » Sun Nov 10, 2019 9:44 am

My September 24'th, 2019 Adventure!

After my second adventure on September 6'th, I felt not quite ready to call it quits for the season. But, after that adventure, it rained/showered almost every day for close to two weeks, accumulating around 2 inches of rain at home, which I knew would ruin the dry conditions and reverse the lowering water levels! :x But, I figured that if my sinking spot could be underwater, and the weather was a little bit too cool for getting wet, I could finally take the opportunity to explore a new area I had my eyes on for several years, https://www.google.com/maps/@50.0240176 ... a=!3m1!1e3 ! I was reluctant to explore new areas while my bog was exposed, because I didn't want to miss out on any sinks in case new areas explored yielded nothing. :? I was eyeing Saturday, September 21'st for the day (was supposed to hit 23˚C or 73˚F in the valley), but was uncertain because of it being a weekend during hunting season. But, my brother couldn't give me a lift anyways, because he needed to attend his son's hockey game that evening. :( But, another decent, but slightly cooler, break in the weather was on Tuesday, September 24'th, just before the weather was going to go downhill! My last chance! I was also looking forward to searching for Shaggy Mane mushrooms on the roadside, which I figured would be out around that time, something my dad and I would go up into the mountains for each fall, but because he can't drive for 6 months, this would be our only chance to enjoy them. On the way back, I also wanted to connect the new area I was exploring with the old, by taking other trails to Crescent Road, and checking out the status of my sinking spot, to see the extent of the flooding.

My brother picked me up after 9 am, and I directed him through the forestry roads, which now were a bit muddy with multiple puddles. I hadn't been in that area in years, and there were new turnoffs, but I knew where to go, thanks to me studying Google Earth. :) My brother dropped me off near a large pond I knew about in the area just after 11 am. I tested my bike before he left, to make certain it was still functioning well after bouncing in the back of his truck, finding the bike was fine. He left, and I was on my way! :D

First, I walked eastward down the fence line of a barbed-wire fence (fences are present on Crown(government owned/public) land for open range cattle grazing) to the pond, to get a better look at the rockslide on its south side before heading back up to the road and my bike to head to the two side-by-side meadows south of that pond. The road first led me slightly further south, and then turned east. Heading eastward, I noticed that the west meadow/pond to the south of the road had high water into the grass, making me uncertain about whether it would be good for hiking. :? A tiny bit further east, on the south side of the road, I located the marshy grassy entrance to the boggy meadow to the east of other meadow. I then checked areas along the road for the optimum place for hiding my bike, finally choosing a small clearing north of the road, with a path heading north into the forest. Far enough down the path, I was out of sight of the road, and dropped off my bike. I removed my shoes, socks and jeans to be in shorts (which I wore under my jeans), because I needed to be able to walk through water without anything on most of my legs to get wet. I removed my heavy jacket (felt warm enough without it), got my food (2 Pizza Pops wrapped in plastic wrap), drink (Kool-Aid) and bear spray in a plastic shopping bag, and grabbed an extra bag for my shoes for when I needed to walk through water barefoot. With my shoes back on, I was finally all ready to explore new areas I had never been to before, but had been hiking close to in years past without knowing of their existence (was before Google Earth/Maps)! :D

I headed to the grassy area leading southward to the east boggy meadow. The water in the grass was a little high (ankle to calf deep), forcing me to take my shoes off right away and place them in the bag. I walked through the shallow cold water, and looked around the small grassy meadow there that extended eastward from the main entrance before heading back to the entrance, and heading south to the meadow, which was slightly higher than the grassy area. The meadow wasn't flooded, but was all peat bog with moss, but mostly sphagnum moss - some green, some red, with some other type of moss in places as well. The vegetation was mostly small and stunted, with small willows, swamp birch and cotton grass growing all over. The ground wasn't very soft, finding that I couldn't push my foot down very far (only a few inches) into the stiff peat. There were water-filled bare patches and channels a few inches lower than the surrounding ground, soft for a few inches, but I still couldn't push my feet down much, perhaps at most half a foot. :( It looked like this area was going to be a bust in terms of sinking potential. :( I snacked on a pizza pop and then some tiny wild cranberries growing there, walked around to the south end, picked more cranberries into the plastic wrap from my Pizza Pop, and snacked on my other pizza pop. I wondered if any sundews were growing there, but it was too late in the season, and they would have died back down to the ground by then (a substantially more extensive boggy meadow further to the west-northwest was full of them when I explored it years ago). But then, any plants would have left brown leaves sticking out of the moss/peat, just like in my bog garden at home. :?

I then headed to the east side of the meadow, where I followed a poorly defined marshy stream to a small boggy meadow I remembered seeing on Google Earth. I found some soft mud in the grass in the bushes before (west of) the smaller boggy meadow, where my foot sunk down around a foot. I then checked out the meadow, finding nothing interesting. I headed back, checking out the mud in the bushes again, which was only calf deep. I noticed that it was located where a tree had fallen over just to the east of it, facing eastwards, the patch of mud being where its roots used to sit on top. In the area, I also saw a hip bone, and a couple other leg bones sticking out of the muddy ground, possibly a deer. :? I glanced around for other bones, such as a skull, but found nothing.

I returned back to the larger boggy meadow, my feet feeling numb from the cold water. I headed to the west side, where I took a picture of a Western Bog-Laurel blossom:

2019 09 24 3A Western Bog-Laurel.jpg

When I saw two dead brown stalks/seed pods from white bog orchids that were finished for the year, I collected one dead brown seed head with seed pods on it and put it in my other plastic wrap from my other Pizza Pop, to later spread seed around my bog plants in my water garden at home to see if anything germinates. I had thought about taking photos of the boggy meadow, but didn't feel like taking the time to switch memory cards in the camera and go back into the meadow. My time was limited, because I had to leave the area around 2 pm if I wanted to get back to my Crescent Road pond to check out my flooded bog and then get back into the valley before dark. So, I didn't want to delay getting to the other adjacent meadow to the west.

I headed west through a marshy area in the forest, to where it ended in a slight uphill, followed by a steeper, larger downhill to the large grassy meadow below, which was obviously at a lower elevation than the boggy meadow to the east. Here is a map of the area, showing the meadow with the channel meandering to the long pond on its north end, as well as other meadows further upstream (northwest) of the meadow:

https://www.google.com/maps/@50.0260591 ... a=!3m1!1e3

Walking through the calf deep water in the meadow towards the channel, I felt a stinging sensation on my lower left leg, and discovered a scratch on my left calf that was bleeding. I noticed other scratches on my left leg too, something I had never felt, possibly because the cold water had numbed my lower legs. :? I walked around to the south end of the meadow finding nothing of interest, before heading back to the wide channel from the pond to the north that extended westward. I had to deviate southward away from the channel briefly to find a spot where I could cross a smaller side channel extending southward before returning back to the main channel, finally stopping at a beaver lodge. I wanted to follow the stream westward through the forest to other meadows to the northwest, but heard a rifle shot from that direction, although sounds do echo and get redirected :? Wanting to keep my distance from any hunters, I decided not to head that way, instead turning around and following the east side of the main channel northward to the pond, partially through the edge of the forest alongside the pond, wondering if the high water concealed any deep mud that could get exposed when water levels are lower. :? Just a short walk further northward, and the next thing I knew, the road was in front of me, much sooner than I had expected!

I still had a bit of time left, so I headed across the road, and continued to follow the stream northward on the east side through the forest, past some small beaver ponds surrounded by bushes such as willows, all with high water as well. I checked below at least one beaver dam to see if any mud was exposed, but nothing. :( It would have been too cold to sink anyways. Then, I finally reached the clearing, with the stream becoming a wider channel, shallow with a gravel bottom at first, before becoming deeper with a muddy bottom as it approached the main pond I had visited in the past, with a rockslide on its south shore. On the southeast side of the pond, the grassy meadow was floating/bouncing, which was a very promising sign. :) It was a shame the water was so high, but it was too cold for sinking anyways. :( I wanted to continue hiking further, but had to turn around because it was getting close to 2 pm, and I needed to get back to my bike. I thought about crossing the stream and then heading across the rockslide on the south end of the pond back to the road there, but decided on heading back roughly the way I came, but on a different path. I first headed back southward, up that channel to where it was shallow enough to cross, where it was gravelly. Crossing to the west side of the stream, I then headed back upstream, before heading towards what looked like a cutblock to the southwest, taking a picture of some coral fungi before heading away from the stream:

2019 09 24 3B Coral Fungi.jpg

I put my shoes back on, and then had to make my way over an obstacle course consisting of lots of fallen trees. When I got to where I thought was the clearcut, it turned out to be the stream again. But, the road was now just a short distance away. I was back at my bike shortly after 2 pm, perhaps around 2:06 pm, put my things away, put my long pants back on, and was on my way back down the road, headed for my Crescent Road pond!

Along the way, I kept my eyes open for shaggy mane mushrooms, picking any that I came across. I was taking it easy, because I didn't know how my knees would react to cycling such a long distance compared to what I have limited myself to over the past several years, and especially with the climbs! I had long forgotten how long it took to get through the road, because in my memory, most landmarks got squashed closer together than they actually were, and things looked much different from when I was last there, with more turnoffs and larger regrown trees in the clearcuts that the road used to go through. I spotted a black cow and a smaller brown one, with lots of cattle tracks on the road, with some shaggy mane mushrooms being trampled. The clay road was a little soft on the surface, with lots of puddles from all the rain.

It took a while, but I finally reached the main road! :D The easiest thing to do would have been to just turn east, and head back the way my brother drove me, and all the way down into the valley. But, I was determined to get back to my Crescent Road pond to check out the extent of the flooding, and I didn't want to take the steep Crescent Road turnoff that I was usually driven up, because it would be hard on my knees. Instead, I was eager to take a small road between Wilma Lake and Min Lake to get there (Min Lake is the lake directly north of Wilma Lake: https://www.google.com/maps/@50.1294086 ... a=!3m1!1e3 ), avoiding the steeper road access from the other side because I was already higher up in elevation where I was! I hadn't gone that complete route in many, many years, and had made one attempt in the other direction back in mid July of 2017 (looking for a tiny pond containing a certain kind of snails), but turned around then because the road was going on and on for too long and I wanted to get back to my Crescent Road pond sinking spot.

So, hoping I wasn't going to get lost or get back into the valley too late, I headed westward up the main road, the opposite direction from where it would have taken me into the valley. I kept on watching for the northward turnoff to Wilma Lake, something that I hadn't seen in years, and was hoping that I could recognize. :? I passed by a smaller road, but it didn't look right, with no stream to the east of it, and it seemed to go up a hill to the northeast. I finally came across another road heading to the north that looked the most obvious, since it was the first decent looking road that looked like it had been there for a long time, and I had passed a stream a ways back, which I had hoped was the one that flowed into Wilma Lake. Hoping that I had found the correct road, I turned onto it, and heading northward up that road, I came across a clearcut and a fork in the road that matched what I had seen on Google Earth, and figured that it was the right one! I had to remember all the turnoffs I had to take to get to Crescent Road from recent scrutinization of imagery from Google Earth. I took the left fork at the bottom of the clearcut as I remembered, but an expected subsequent right fork turned out to be further up the road than I thought, way past the clearcut instead of in it, making me question whether I was on the right track (I had apparently forgotten that Google Earth showed it past the clearcut, in the woods). :? The thought crossed my mind to go back and take the right fork past Wilma lake, which would have connected to the correct road further up, but it would have cost me more time, and I wasn't certain of the condition of part of the road. I kept hoping that I was on the right series of roads, because if I was on a wild goose chase, I would be stranded in the mountains in the dark! :? :shock: I kept my faith in my intuition, and kept on going, having to walk my bike around lots of large puddles across the road. I eventually reached a fork in the road that I had expected, where I knew that I had to keep left, which made me feel a little more relieved that perhaps I was on the right track. Finally, I reached Crescent Road, I hoped (or was it Min Lake Road at that part :? ), and headed eastward, concerned about how late it was getting. My legs were aching from the various short climbs I made up the rough connecting road to get to where I was. Normally, at the time I usually traversed these roads (summer), they would be a bright sandy color and powdery. But now, the roads looked totally different in appearance, because they were darker from being wet, and were full of puddles, some of which stretched across the roads. Finally, I reached the branch where it joined with the main Crescent Road, where I turned right, and finally headed down the road through more familiar areas, much to my relief, recognizing turnoffs that I knew exactly where they went! :D I found some more shaggy manes on the roadside along the way, which I picked. I noticed that there was more water in a pond south of the road that was usually mostly empty (often the first place I would check out on most of my outings).

Finally, I reached the turnoff to my pond and headed up that sideroad! :D But, it was already around 5:45 pm, and it got dark shortly after 7! :shock: Nevertheless, I still wanted to check things out there before calling an end to my outings, especially since I went through all the trouble to get there! I walked my bike around the fallen trees down the cattle path to get to the sidetrail, and to save time, dropped it off on the upper part of the sidetrail this time, but out of sight of the sideroad. In the open area, there were a lot more trampled vegetation all over the place from cattle than last time, but no cattle. I sat on a rock and switched memory cards in my camera before heading to my sinking spot. Sure enough, it was once again underwater, a whole month of dropping water levels undone in a couple of weeks! :x But, it wasn't warm enough to go sinking anyways, and too late in the day as well. I snapped a picture of the flooded bog:

2019 09 24 3C Crescent.jpg

With the area checked out, I quickly headed back to my bike, sat on a log, switched memory cards in my camera, and headed back to Crescent Road, the time being already after 6 pm! While heading down Crescent Road, I had some slight initial uphill climbing to do before the downhill coasting to the main road, and during the brief climb, cramps suddenly started up in my right leg! :x But fortunately, it didn't last long, and before I knew it I was back on the main road, and heading back, picking more shaggy mane mushrooms along the way, even though it was getting late. It was 6:30 pm, and I was STILL in mountains, but I was half an hour earlier than last time, but back then, it was dark around 8 pm, but now it got dark just after 7 pm! I got worried about the light levels starting to go down, and I hadn't reached the big descent into the valley yet! When I finally began my main descent towards and into the valley, the lowering light levels prompted me to coast a bit faster, but still within my comfort level. The coasting also helped to relieve my aching legs. Normally, I would contact my ride as soon as I got a signal on the cell phone. But this time, I never bothered to text my brother until I reached pavement close to the valley bottom, because darkness was closing fast and I wanted to get off of the dirt/gravel road before it got too dark! My brother, with my dad along for the ride, picked me up some time around 7:30 pm, when it was really dark, but at least my night vision helped me. That evening, my mom had one nice grocery bag of shaggy mane mushrooms to clean and cook for a couple of nice meals.

For a day that was too cold for sinking, with high water levels and not enough hours of daylight to check out everything, with all its disappointments, it was still a fairly fulfilling day. I managed to finally check out much of an area that I had my eyes on for years, but had been reluctant to, due to uncertainty of what amount of stress my knees could take. I was disappointed I never had a chance to explore a couple of other meadows further to the west due to hearing a rifle shot in that direction (as it turns out there is another forking road in that direction, according to Google Earth/Maps), and I noticed that on Google Earth/Maps, there was a "V" shaped meadow through the trees just east of the small grassy meadow by the entrance to the north end of the large boggy meadow, something I had seen on the imagery, but had forgotten about. But, if I had checked out all those other places, I would have never had time to go back to my Crescent Road pond to see it one last time this season. I was disappointed that water levels were so high, because I couldn't determine whether the large pond and channel in the west meadow contained any deep mud. I was also disappointed that I had no time to check out my mud lake pond and large meadow east of Grizzly Hill to the northeast, since I was in the area, and they were not too far away. Too many places, and not enough daylight, one of the problems of going on outings so late in the year! :( But, I also surprised myself, finding that my knees were able to handle cycling longer distances without knee pain, although there was some aching, and perhaps some burning. I was also happy to find that my neck wasn't bothered much by the outing, meaning that the Thudbuster LT was still making a difference! :D Looking back, I kind of regret not taking photos of the meadows, even though there was nothing there. :? I could have at least provided pictures to go with the descriptions and Google Earth/Maps imagery. But, I wanted to save time and move on to other areas at the time, and as it was, I still didn't get down into the valley until after dark. :?

Weather-wise, it was a fairly decent day, with some clouds and sunshine, and apparently, I missed out on some rain that fell in places just to the north, especially north of Vernon. The temperature in Vernon that day hit 21.8˚C or 71.2˚F, which was fairly decent, with it being cooler up in the mountains. I was glad to get up there when I did, because a few days afterward, an early cold spell brought SNOW into the higher elevations, with the weather being an up-down roller-coaster ride edging ever closer towards winter since then!

So now, I wait for next season, and hope that I don't get any new injuries, or worsening older injuries to hold me back. My dad will be able to drive by then, and he is a lot more available for taking me than my brother. :) But, he is suspicious about me always wanting him to drop me off in the same area each time. But, perhaps I could start having him drop me off in an older dropoff area where things are more open in terms of destinations (although it would delay the time for me to reach my sinking area), since I discovered my knees aren't as sensitive as I had been worried about, although I might have him drop me off closer again for the first outing or two. :?
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Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 8/22/'20!

Postby Boggy Man » Sun Aug 23, 2020 7:40 am

My August 4'th, 2020 Adventure, Part 1!

After a dismal year last year, complicated by my dad's heart scare forcing me to rely on my brother to give me a lift for my adventures when his busy schedule allowed him to, I hoped it would be better this year, since come March, my dad was able to drive again, and things were finally getting back to normal! :) But, in late March, his implanted defibrillator zapped him in his sleep, starting a brand new 6-month driving prohibition which ends in the beginning of October. :( But this time he was put on medication for his atrial fibrillation (finally found out what his condition really was), which really made a difference, and no more episodes so far! :) Then there was Covid-19 on top of that, which had me and my elderly parents staying isolated on the farm for several months, with tons of things to keep me occupied, before we finally started getting out, with precautions. As for my bikerides, I had hoped to visit Harris Creek in June for the first time in years, but because of the circumstances, I decided to put that off until next year. Luckily my brother was happy to give me a lift when things were convenient for the both of us. :)

But, we had a very cool wet June (termed "June-uary" when conditions are like that), followed by a cool wet first half of July (termed "July-tober" when conditions are like that), delaying the drop in water levels in the mountains, before a warm spell finally arrived in the later part of July, finally! :D But, I needed to wait through much of that heat wave for it to do its job and drop water levels enough so things wouldn't be flooded. Finally, after a couple of weeks of hot dry weather, the day that worked best for me was Tuesday, August 4'th, although I preferred the next day, which would have been warmer (we had a brief cooldown but transitioning back to hot briefly), but had an eye appointment then, and after that, a cold front would drop temperatures substantially for the short term.

My brother was happy to give me a lift, and dropped me off a short distance away from my Crescent Road pond turnoff. :) The air felt cool at first, but I knew things would warm up nicely (if I had been able to go the next day, it might have been warmer earlier). First, before heading to my area, I headed up Crescent Road a little to take a look at a couple of ponds by the road to see what the water levels were. The first pond was full, but it was always like that. The second pond had a small mud bank exposed, and the south half of that shallow pond seemed to have turned into an extension of the stream, and the mudbank was where the extended stream entered the pond (unless the pond was broken into two parts, the southern part which was hidden). Anxious to get to my sinking area, I never bothered to drop my bike to head down to take any pix of that spot, and instead turned around and headed back to the Crescent Road pond side road.

There were signs of cattle being on the road and trails because of what they left behind, and I hoped that they weren't anywhere near my area. On the sideroad, heading north, I was happy to see that there were no sign of any vehicles going through there, meaning that things were nice and secluded there. :) When I got to the part where the road ran along the east side of the east pond (my area is in the west pond), I got off my bike and walked it for a little ways down the stretch where my west pond had been previously uncomfortably in view. To my delight, the bushes/trees that were growing between the two ponds had now blocked most of my sight of my west pond, giving only tiny glimpses of part of it, and I couldn't see any sign of the wall of sticks I had put around my sinking spot! :D So, it looks like my sinking spot is getting more well hidden from that road! :D I biked to the entrance to the trail to my pond, walked my bike through the trail around some fallen trees (which may have reduced the amount of access of cattle to that spot by blocking an old road leading down there), and reached my usual bike dropoff area, with the pond to the south through the alder bushes. I gathered my things out of my saddlebags, and was on my way to finally check out the condition of my sinking area for the first time since last year! :D

As I got closer to the pond, I noticed that after all the heat and dryness we had, some water was still up into the grass in the meadow. :( When I got to my sinking spot, I discovered that part of the mud was exposed, mostly on the west side, with one third still covered with water, mostly on the east side. As I walked around the patch of quagmire, the floating grass beneath my feet wobbled and bubbled like crazy, filling the air with the smell of swamp gas! I took some initial photos of my bog surrounded by sticks to keep any large animals from getting gulped down by the hungry earth. You can see a trail left by something swimming through there in the past, perhaps a duck when the water was higher:

2020 08 04 1A Crescent.jpg

2020 08 04 1B Crescent.jpg

2020 08 04 1C Crescent.jpg

2020 08 04 1D Crescent.jpg

To Be Continued...
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Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 8/22/'20!

Postby Boggy Man » Sun Aug 23, 2020 7:41 am

My August 4'th, 2020 Adventure, Part 2 (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!

I then removed the sticks, and probed the mud with one stick to see if it was thick below, or if there were any water pockets underneath. It seemed to be all mud all the way down, which was encouraging. :) I took some more pix of the now open patch of gulping quagmire, and if you look carefully, you can spot the round depression where I had probed it with the stick on the north side:

2020 08 04 1E Crescent.jpg

2020 08 04 1F Crescent.jpg

2020 08 04 1G Crescent.jpg

2020 08 04 1H Crescent.jpg

2020 08 04 1I Crescent.jpg

While I was there, a helicopter flew by, heading west to east, just to the north of me, which would have made me nervous if I had been sinking at the time! :shock: But, it was gone, and things were quiet again. :) Then, shortly afterwards, ANOTHER helicopter moved from west to east, this time further to the north of me! :shock: I was hoping that this wasn't going to go on all day! :shock:

To Be Continued...
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Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 8/22/'20!

Postby Boggy Man » Sun Aug 23, 2020 7:41 am

My August 4'th, 2020 Adventure, Part 3 (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!

Since it was still feeling cool, I decided to wait until it warmed up more before doing a sink. So, with my drink, I headed back to my bike, and on the way, took a photo of a nearby White Bog Orchid:

2020 08 04 1J White Bog Orchid.jpg

I got out my lunch from one of my saddlebags, and snacked on a couple of Deluxe Pizza Pops while going for a walk further down that sideroad. I looked at the clay deposited in the ruts in one spot, and wished that it was more extensive and deeper, although I would be leery of doing any mudplay on a road, even if it is a sideroad that is rarely used! :? I glanced at the other pond further to the north, with a ring bog. I walked up to the western edge, noticing that it was full of high water, with likely no mud exposed. So, I never checked it out any further. I continued further down the road to a clearcut, a logging activity several years ago that had me very concerned, stopping in the clearcut at a tiny debris filled pond that had a tiny bit of loose clay on the western edge, but in between the branches on the ground it was too small to accommodate an adult human body, and would be too shallow, anyways. :( I headed back, seeing a couple of cattle on the road, and more in the bush, and then made a circle around the ones on the road so as not to disturb them. I took a picture of another plant on the road, which I later identified to be a Heart-Leaved Arnica:

2020 08 04 1K Heart-leaved Arnica.jpg

I got back to my bike, where I took a photo of one of the Monk's Hoods that were growing around the area (didn't realize the camera focused on the background instead of the plant):

2020 08 04 1L Out Of Focus Monk's Hood.jpg

With it nice and hot (perhaps I shouldn't have gone hiking so long), I headed back to my sinking spot, all ready for my first sink/video of the season! :D I changed into my junk shorts, my swim cap to keep mud out of my hair and ears (the folded vinyl cap was all stuck together and it took a while to get unstuck, and there was a tiny tear started in it from last year), and swim goggles to keep mud out of my eyes. I grabbed one of the large branches from the pile of branches I had removed from around my sinking spot earlier, picked a spot on the south side where it wouldn't cast a shadow in my shot, and pushed it through the wobbly layer of grass, which was floating on top of loose mud, until I felt it was reasonably stable. I set the aspect ratio of my camera to 16:9 to match that of the video, so that I could properly frame the scene. I screwed the Gorillapod onto my camera, and wrapped what remained of its knobby tentacles (one was still intact, but the second had broke shorter, and the third was very tiny from breaking off over the years) around the stick. I tried to make the camera as stable as possible with the grass so wobbly and sagging under my feet, and zoomed in slightly and framed the chosen area I planned on plunging into. I was concerned that the stick with the camera might tilt one way when I was near it and tilt back another way when I moved away, but it appeared to hardly move at all, which seemed encouraging. I put my glasses with my other things further away, where the ground was high and dry, made certain everything was all set, and I was finally ready for my first video of the season! :D

Here is a snapshot of the camera's view just after the video recording started, but before the fun :twisted: began! If you look carefully at the photo, you will notice the dark spot in the upper left, which is where I probed the ground with a stick earlier, while the smaller dark blotches lower down and to the right are where swamp gas bubbled to the surface as it quivered from me being in the area setting things up!

2020 08 04 1M Crescent.jpg

I pressed the record button, walked around to the north side, and after a brief monologue of me talking to myself (thinking out loud), which I stumbled slightly in my words, I took my plunge, and struggled and sunk underneath the surface of the bubbling, farting ooze for the first time this year! :D I tried to hold my breath for as long as I could, exhaled some air out to bubble up to the surface, and then hastily scrambled back up to the surface to eagerly deeply inhale precious lungfuls of air! I worked myself up higher (it was thicker deeper down and looser on top), and exited the bubbling, farting ooze on the north side. Hardly able to see through the muddy goggles, I clumsily made my way to the edge of the pond, cleaned my hands, and then clumsily found my bog and the camera, where I stopped the recording, or did I? I couldn't tell. :? So I pushed the button again, removed the camera and Gorillapod from the stick and turned the camera off, moving it to my things further away.

Now, it was time to have some off-camera sinking enjoyment! :) But first, I had to return to the water to clean my head before the mud dried on, since I wasn't going to submerge this time. I removed my goggles, and my swim cap snapped off my head sooner than I wanted during cleaning, noticing that the tear was getting larger. I also removed my junk shorts and cleaned them off as well. With my head cleaned off, I tossed my things into the grass, and was ready to have another sink! :D

The place where I had previously sunk and exited was now a wide ribbon of water, extending from the middle to the north side. To the west of that, it was still all exposed, with some small clods of decaying sod on top, with tiny sedge grass seedlings sprouting on top. I stepped into the mud on the west side of those clods of sod, facing south, immediately sinking up to my chest, with the mud farting and bubbling around me, with the farts sounding quite genuine, which added to the experience. :) I was happy that water wasn't bubbling up around me, just swamp gas. It was a little bit thicker and gooier around my legs and beneath my feet, but was looser above that. I enjoyed a stimulating ;) struggle to my neck, where I then lingered, chin deep, with the mud continuing to bubble and fart around me. I just loved the soft gentle feel of the bottomless quagmire surrounding me from my neck down, cushioning around my arms and hands, which I could feel when I moved them slightly. Every once in a while, I would get a whiff of the swamp gas that farted out of the quagmire, and periodically, I would move my arms back and forth around me beneath the surface to greatly increase the amount of bubbling and farting. A couple of times, it was interesting feeling the bog slowly pass swamp gas up through five feet of mud along my body, starting around one of my feet, and working itself upward along my leg and the back of my body to bubble/fart at the surface. :) I believe there were also other bubbles starting higher up my body and working their way to the surface as well. I was feeling a little bit chilled, but the addictive feel of the mire I was suspended in made me reluctant to leave. Some water was slowly oozing from the east side onto the mud around me, with a very thin film of water around my neck, although the mud was still mostly exposed around me. I found that moving my legs too much would start to initiate leg cramps, but staying still eased them. Finally, after a distant plane passed by (I think it was to the north), I finally worked myself higher, and proceeded to mush the clods of sod into the mud, breaking some up so they would decay in smaller pieces spread around underneath. I had to pull off some mud from the grass on the west edge of the bog, which had covered it when I had tried pushing the grass down, thinking it was a detached clod, which it wasn't. Unfortunately, moving around in the bog caused more leg cramps, forcing me to try and be careful and relax to allow them to ease. In the center of the water-covered mire, I lifted some thicker stuff from below to the surface to mix with watery stuff and mushed what little plants there were in the patch of mire under the surface. By then, all of the bog was under water, and I badly wanted to mix the thicker stuff below into the water even more, but the soreness in my right leg and both hips, that I have been having trouble with for some time, made it too uncomfortable to use my feet/legs to raise the thicker stuff high enough for me to reach with my hands, and then there were the recurring leg cramps. :x

So finally, after making a mixing/mushing round around the bog, I finally exited to relieve the leg cramps, especially my calf cramps, which got better once I was able to push my foot flat on more solid ground (or even floating mat of sedge grass), bringing relief to something that was quite painful when my foot was stiffly locked in a downward pointing position! :o I headed to the water and cleaned up, sitting on a yellow waterlily rhizome, using my junk shorts as a wash cloth to reach my back, and removing a couple of large leeches from me during the cleanup before they had a chance to break the skin. I headed further to shore to clean off the lower parts of my body in grass that sagged down under my weight, and then my legs and feet in shallower water in the grass, which sagged down less into the water under my weight. I then air-dried off, and headed to my things, to watch my newly created video. I discovered that there were TWO videos on there, the second of which that captured some footage of grass and stuff when I was removing the camera from the stick. I guess that the recording did stop when I first pressed the button, and started again when I pressed the button again, stopping when I turned the camera off. I deleted that unintentional video, and then watched the actual video, finding that the camera had shifted slightly to the right, causing me to be off center, closer to the left side of the screen, but still mostly in the picture. Aside from being off-center, it seemed to be all right. :) I reset the camera back to 4:3 aspect ratio, and took a picture of my water covered bog:

2020 08 04 1N Crescent.jpg

The bog was so badly flooded again likely because of a combination of things. One reason was the fact that the mire was so bloated with swamp gas initially, that when I disturbed it, all the swamp gas it farted and bubbled out deflated it, causing the surface to sink below the water level. Also, there might have been small pockets of water in the mud that also bubbled up to the surface with the swamp gas, to help deflate the mire and add to the water on top. Then, the disturbance also smoothed out the level of the mud, with higher spots settling down and low spots rising up.

To Be Concluded...
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Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 8/22/'20!

Postby Boggy Man » Sun Aug 23, 2020 7:42 am

My August 4'th, 2020 Adventure, Part 4, The Conclusion (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!

I snapped a photo of a Lady's Tresses orchid which was growing on the north side of my path between my things and my bog:

2020 08 04 1O Ladys Tresses Orchid.jpg

I then headed to the south end of the meadow, south of the main pond, to the northwest corner of a tinier pond (they used to be merged years ago when the water was higher), and snapped a picture of the area that usually had mud with clay closer to shore, but was now a patch of algae due to the high water (or at least I think it was submerged), and with some new sticks laying on it:

2020 08 04 1P Crescent.jpg

I then returned to my sinking area and things. Feeling warmer again, I wished that I had more time to go back in to mix the mud better, but I didn't want to get back home too late, since I had an eye appointment the following morning. So, I proceeded to move the sticks back around the outside of my bog. While doing that, I noticed that there was a frog sitting in the center of it. By the time I had all the sticks in place and took another picture, the frog was gone:

2020 08 04 1Q Crescent.jpg

I then got all my things organized, returned to my bike, put everything away in the saddlebags, and headed back to the valley to be picked up by my brother, snacking on some chocolate chunk cookies and cheezies along the way while still in the mountains.

It was a great start to the season, especially since I managed to get both a video and a subsequent enjoyable stimulating sink in mud that stayed exposed for the important stuff. It was a good thing I did the video first before mushing up the surface, since it was all under water after that, just like on the first bikeride last year, which resulted in no videos for the first outing. I found that the mosquitoes were a bit annoying, and there were some deerflies, but when I did put on insect repellent, their buzzing/whining would fade away. So, hopefully, waiting a couple of weeks would hopefully see the water level dropping enough to re-expose my quagmire, allowing for higher quality sinks in the middle to latter part of August, hopefully. :roll:
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Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 9/3/'20!

Postby Boggy Man » Fri Sep 04, 2020 7:32 am

My August 18'th, 2020 Adventure, Part 1!

After my last adventure, the weather turned cooler briefly, before heating up again, with a vengeance! :twisted: The day before my outing, temperatures here in Vernon climbed just over 37˚C, or 99˚F, with some places even hotter! That made my target day, Tuesday, August 18'th, a beautiful day to get some sinking done starting earlier in the day! :D The weather forecast was calling for 30% of showers and a risk of thunderstorms with gusty winds, but the day before also had that same forecast, and things were nice, although I did see convective activity to the southeast in the direction of my biking and hiking areas. It was supposed to be sunnier the following day, but slightly cooler, but still warm. So, to be safe, I felt Tuesday was the day! 8-) I just hoped that the two week wait, combined with the recent heat wave, would finally re-expose my patch of deep, treacherous quagmire, allowing for more high quality sinks! :roll:

My brother picked me up half an hour earlier this time, just after 8 am, because he needed to make a road trip to pick up some produce after dropping me off. We stopped at a Tim Horton's drive-thru for him to get a bite, and he bought me a Bavarian Cream pastry with chocolate topping. On the way up the mountain, we saw a couple of rabbits in an area I used to frequently see them. He took me up Crescent Road, and dropped me off at the same grassy clearing on the south side of the road, just a short distance away from my turnoff to my area to the north. Just like previous times, I would check to make certain my bike was functioning okay before he left. Just as I had hoped, the air felt nice and warm in the morning, warmer than last time. I noticed a blue ribbon tied to a tree on the southwest side of the dropoff clearing, saying "Tolko Road", making me think that they might make a new logging road heading through there. But it is headed to the south, and my sideroad was to the north, just further up Crescent road. So, my area is safe, but that would also mean a lot more activity on Crescent Road.

When I reached the sideroad heading north, I noticed tire indentations in the vegetation on the road for the first time! I was certain it was tire tracks, and not just cattle tramping the vegetation. But thankfully, further up the road, there was no sign of any disturbances by tires. :) I walked my bike down the trail from the sideroad to the grassy clearing north of the pond and walked my bike to its usual shaded spot on the north side of some conifers. I wanted to take another photo of one of the Monk's hoods in that area, this time in focus, but they were finished blooming, although there was the odd leftover flower, but nothing worth snapping a photo of. I dropped my bike off, gathered my things from my saddlebags, and headed through a grassy path through the alders to my pond to the south.

I noticed that I could get a little bit closer to the pond this time, before the ground got wet/spongy, which looked promising. :) I reached my sinking area, put my things down in the usual shaded area of some alders, and took a look at my sinking spot, only to be disappointed that it was still a large pool of water, with some tiny fringes of mud on the north and western edge, and some in the southern eastern finger. :( This spot was definitely not worthy of any videos! :( Two weeks of drying, and the water drop was sluggishly slow! :x But, there was a drop at least! I removed my shoes and socks, and took a photo of the disappointing patch of flooded quagmire:

2020 08 18 2A Crescent.jpg

I removed the sticks from around the bog, setting them in the grass further inland to the southwest, and took more photos:

2020 08 18 2B Crescent.jpg

2020 08 18 2C Crescent.jpg

2020 08 18 2D Crescent.jpg

2020 08 18 2E Crescent.jpg

To Be Continued...
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Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 9/3/'20!

Postby Boggy Man » Fri Sep 04, 2020 7:32 am

My August 18'th, 2020 Adventure, Part 2 (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!

I then took a couple photos of tiny exposed patches of mud several feet to the south of the main bog, as well as some closeup photos of what little mud was exposed in the main bog:

2020 08 18 2F Crescent.jpg

2020 08 18 2G Crescent.jpg

2020 08 18 2H Crescent.jpg

2020 08 18 2I Crescent.jpg

2020 08 18 2J Crescent.jpg

To Be Continued...
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Re: BM's Boggy Adventure & BG Pix! Updated 9/3/'20!

Postby Boggy Man » Fri Sep 04, 2020 7:33 am

My August 18'th, 2020 Adventure, Part 3 (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!

Now, with the initial photos done, I was ready to try and enjoy what little bit of mud that was exposed there, as well as try to mix the water into the mud to see if I could eliminate most of the surface water. I got undressed, and slowly lowered myself, facing south, into the narrow margin of exposed mud on the west side. The mud bubbled swamp gas like crazy, as I slowly sunk to my chest. Some mud that was submerged to the left (east) of me rose up to the surface from my body displacing the mud. I then had a nice stimulating ;) struggle, and then enjoyed the feel of the mud for a bit, before beginning to mush up the mud around me. I tore up a decaying piece of sod under the mud with my hands to make it decay faster, and started moving around clockwise, all the mud disappearing under the water. I proceeded to mix the water into the mud, and pulling up all the thicker mud below that I could reach to the surface to mix with the water. Swamp gas bubbled to the surface as I worked at it, the mud thicker and gooier around my legs and feet, but looser higher up. I went all around, trying to mix it to eliminate the water on the surface, but it seemed like the only area where I was able to get the mud to rise to the surface of the water was what was surrounding me within a few feet of where I was working at, and when I moved to a different spot, that mud would submerge again. I worked all around to get the upper part loosened, but my legs were too sore to raise the thicker deeper stuff to within hand's reach. :( If only I could have been able to get stuff from down deeper, but with what I was able to do, no matter how hard I tried churning the mud to the surface, it wouldn't stay there. :( Then I started to feel a slight cramp in the side of my left leg (can't remember if it was the left side), forcing me to slow down. I tried doing some more mixing, but was feeling a bit chilled, and with some slight discomfort in my leg from being on the verge of cramps, I finally decided to quit for the time being. I exited on the north side, dragging up thicker stuff with my lower body, which I then pushed off my body back into the mud, causing it to be closer to the surface there, with some tiny pieces barely sticking up at the water's surface.

I headed to the water to clean up, removing a small leech from my body before it could break the skin. I air-dried, and took a picture of the post-mixed area:

2020 08 18 2K Crescent.jpg

I got dressed, and decided to try and mix the mud again later on in the afternoon once things warmed up more. In the meantime, I decided to check out the boggy area in a large meadow further to the north, that I hadn't been to in a few years (turned out to be 2017). So, I packed my things in my saddlebag, and took off on my bike, further up the sideroad. I never bothered to check out the pond to the north with the ring bog, since I knew there wouldn't be anything of interest there at this time. Instead, I biked further north to where the road turned east, but an old overgrown road with fallen trees across continued further north. I dropped my bike off to the west side of the entrance to that older road, grabbed my things, and snacked on a couple of Deluxe Pizza Pops on my way down the abandoned overgrown road. I reached the spot where the old overgrown road turned westward, with a dry grassy seasonal pond bed on the north side, where animal (cattle) trails lead off to the meadows to the north. But, I found that the usual entrance to the east path was blocked with stinging nettle growing everywhere, so I backtracked on the road slightly, and headed eastward into the forest a short distance to the south of the original entrance, and quickly found my way to the trail (or one of the trails), past the stinging nettles. I passed a band of marshy area that was free of water, and further to the east, was a familiar clearing on a rocky hill, which extended northwards, and overlooked the meadows there to the west of it and to the north of it. As I approached the clearing, I happened upon some Orange Hawkweed, so I switched memory cards, and took a photo of one (I was planning on taking a photo of one along the sideroad last time, but coming back, cattle were in the area, so I just passed it by):

2020 08 18 2L Orange Hawkweed.jpg

I headed northward along the top of the rocky hill until the south arm of the sprawling meadow was to the west below me. I headed down the hill to the meadow, and headed northward along the edge of the meadow, happy to see that it was dry. I came across a clump of Sickletop Louseworts and a little further down, a clump of Indian Paintbrush, stopping briefly to take photos of them:

2020 08 18 2M Sickletop Lousewort.jpg

2020 08 18 2N Indian Paintbrush.jpg

To Be Continued...
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I sink, therefore I WAM!!!!

(((ioi)))

-The Boggy Man


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