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!
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! So, it looks like my sinking spot is getting more well hidden from that road! 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! 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:To Be Continued...
But, it was gone, and things were quiet again. 
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. 
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!
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 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 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! 
I stepped out, cleaned off my legs on the floating grass in the north side of the tiny pond, stripped, and set my clothes in a high dry spot among the alders, a bit concerned about how my shorts did have a little bit of mud splatter. I was all ready for my final, unexpected, bonus bit of mudplay! 