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

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

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

Postby Boggy Man » Sun Nov 05, 2023 8:50 am

My September 9'th, 2023 Adventure, Part 5, The Conclusion (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!

All clean, I dried my hands in one of my clothes (hooded jacket? can't remember) before removing the camera from the stick it was mounted on with the Gorillapod. I removed the camera from the Gorillapod, changed the camera back to 4:3, and then checked it out. As it turned out, the camera DID run out of memory card space, with room only left for several photos, and 0 seconds left for recording! :shock: So, I played the video to see where it was cut off, playing it at its highest speed to go through it quickly. To my relief, the entire dramatic sinking scene was intact, and the video footage didn't get cut off until I was sitting on top of the thick mud on the top right of the screen, muddy legs partially to mostly out, with me in the process of smoothing the surface out! :) So, the good stuff was captured, with only the final non-dramatic part of my exit missing! 8-)

After putting the camera away in its case, I replaced the sticks, including the one used for the camera, around my treacherous patch of thick, sucking quagmire to once again cage in the "boggy beast"! :twisted: I then got dressed, put my Gorillapod, swim goggles (had to use my t-shirt to wipe remaining water drops from it) and swim cap (dried nicely) into their respective packages, and put things back into plastic bags. I had also taken one final photo of my "caged-in" bog, completely shaded off for the day:

2023 09 09 5S Crescent.jpg

I grabbed everything, and headed to the bog one last time, to jump on the grass and watch it quiver like jelly, knowing how treacherous it is! :twisted: Then I headed to the alder tree where I had hung things up earlier to make certain I didn't forget anything, and then one last look at my bog before finally returning to my bike, where I put everything away, walked my bike back to the sideroad, lifting it over two fallen trees, and then was on my way!

I headed back to Crescent Road, where I snacked on a Sweet & Salty cashew granola bar, seeing one grouse on the road (roughly same area my dad and I saw them earlier), which took off. I kept my eyes on the sides of the road, looking for Shaggy Mane mushrooms, not finding any until I was on the main road. There were only several in one area, with them on the right (south) side of the road all decimated, but with intact ones on the left (north) side of the road, which I picked. :) There were no more the rest of the way back, making me wonder if the grading of the road had disturbed them. :? I managed to get to the 7 km marker at around 7 pm again, where I contacted my dad. By the time I reached the valley and was hoping that this time the sun would be out in full, and not obscured by smoke this time, I had discovered that there was no sun at all! :shock: It had already set! :x I hate it when the days get shorter faster! :x My dad then picked me up in the valley, and we got home just as it was getting dark, ending my final adventure of the year!

My mom was happy with the small pick of shaggy mane mushrooms, and she cleaned them and cooked them up right away for a nice tasty treat! :)

This was quite an interesting day, with things that brought me great relief! 8-) No herds of cattle, just a few individuals, and no trucks/ranchers around, and no people on atv's and motorbikes on the sideroad, either. :) I was a bit disappointed at yet another morning marred by clouds, which delayed the heating. :x But, once the sun came out, it felt nicer, although I did get a fair bit chilled in my first sinking session, where I must have spent somewhere around 2 hours and 15 minutes in the mud, during which the sun spent a lot of time behind the broken clouds! It felt soooo goooood to be in the grip of that sucking quagmire, that not even a chilled feeling would make me leave! But then, I had a task to do, namely the mushing up and smoothing out of the surface to mix in the thicker top layer to make its consistency the same as that underneath, which greatly enhanced its jellylike movements! It took a while for me to warm up after that, which cost me valuable time. :(

I was glad that I was able to create a dramatic sinking scene in this much thicker muck, but once again, the dramatic struggling raised my heartrate, which kept me out of breath! :x It seemed as though whenever I go extremely deep into the mud with an elevated heartrate and being out of breath, I RETAIN the elevated heartrate and remain out of breath, even when I try to pause to relax, which spoils an otherwise dream/fantasy-like experience! :x What really put me over the edge was exhaling while submerged, so that the suffocating quagmire would pass my exhaled gas to the surface, where it would fart out for a final dramatic effect :twisted: , like putting the proverbial cherry on top - or like icing on the cake! 8-) But, that only made the problem even worse! :x The only way for me to go down deep without the increased heartrate and being out of breath is to sink at a more leisurely pace without vigorous struggling, something that takes more time and looks less dramatic on camera. :?

When my chest was starting to feel sore during my shallow, rapid breathing, I was starting to be concerned about whether or not it could be my heart, because as I get older (58 at the time of this adventure, 59 two months and one day after this adventure), I keep looking for any signs of any beginning of any deterioration in the health of my heart, evaluating any discomfort I feel in my chest! :? My heart has always been in great shape, with my only condition being a slight heart murmur I have had all my life. :? When I was younger, when I sometimes sprinted to the point of being out of breath, my chest would also hurt. :? But anyways, rising up higher to take the extra pressure off my chest made me feel better right away. 8-)

I was glad to see that my dramatic sink was intact, and the camera didn't run out of card memory until I was close to the edge of the mud during my exit! :D But, if I hadn't had so much trouble locating the shaded depression in the mud, I wouldn't have wasted around 3 and a half minutes beforehand (according to the video footage), and could have possibly been able to capture the rest of my escape! :x I think that next year, I am going to start using an olive-green oval-shaped pondweed leaf from the pond as a marker, which looks natural in that setting. 8-) I was also glad that I was sucked under deep enough for the top of my head NOT to be partially exposed during the brief air pocket that formed over top of it. 8-)

I had debated about whether to have another breathing hose sink that day, but had decided that a dramatic sink was in order, since I had a breathing hose sink last time. But, I kinda wished that I had a dramatic sink last time and a breathing hose sink this time, because of the wonderful thickness of this mud this time, where my exhaled air created a brief air pocket over the top of my head before deflating, with the bog passing the gas up to the surface! Or, I wished that I had more time in the day, and more heat, to do both this time, but unfortunately, it turned out that there wouldn't have been enough room left on the memory card. :? I had thought about having the breathing hose nearby, and with the camera still rolling after the dramatic scene, would reach over to grab the breathing hose, bury it in the mud, and then proceed with the breathing hose sink. But, my exhaustion would have made it too difficult, and the memory shortage in the camera was an issue. :(

I was tempted at times to explore the shoreline on the south end of the pond, because it was a place that looked like a lot of fun to traverse again, like I did back in 2017! But, my main bog was just too "captivating" :twisted: to go anywhere else! :mrgreen:

It was nice to have seen some animals, such as grouse, white-tail deer, ducks and a green frog, which was croaking from the edge of the pond some time afterwards in the day. I never got sucked on by leeches, although perhaps some tiny baby ones may have come into contact with me. :? This late in the season, I only encountered a few mosquitoes, and the bald-faced hornets weren't as annoying this time.

After all that stress on my neck from the day's activities, it seems that my neck sensitivity hasn't gotten much worse than it has the previous times, meaning things get slightly elevated but then stabilizes and then improves over the course of a week or so. :) Perhaps my neck muscles were getting stronger, which reduced the stress on my neck. :? My back was sore for a while, but after several days, felt like it was settling down. I guess that I didn't really strain my body in the mire as much as I was worried about. :)

That day, Vernon hit 29˚C (84.2˚F), not too bad, but still felt cooler in the mountains than last time. The following day, the first day of Hunting Season, it was pure blue skies, with no annoying clouds, and the temperature hit 31.2˚C (88˚F) in the valley, which would have meant that it would have been also slightly warmer in the mountains, perhaps like a week before! It was a shame the peak didn't happen one day earlier! My dad said that after he dropped me off, on his way back home, he started encountering a lot more trucks heading up into the mountains, meaning a number of people WERE heading into the backcountry in preparation for Hunting Season the next day! :shock: There was another brief bit of nice warm weather the following Friday and Saturday (would have been the perfect opportunity for my extremely thick bog breathing hose sink that I so strongly desired), but unfortunately I didn't want to risk it, and my parents' anniversary was on that Friday, and then Saturday was part of a weekend during Hunting Season! :?

Because of El Niño, there is a chance that next year, my bog might become exposed and thicken earlier in the season, which might allow for more sinks during each outing due to the longer days, with less warmup/recovery time! :D But, on the other hand, it might stiffen too much by the end of the season as well, and start to dry out on top, creating chunks of hard dirt that will take a long time to break up!:? I will just have to wait and see! :?
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I sink, therefore I WAM!!!!

(((ioi)))

-The Boggy Man


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