Escape methods

[lafin]

Hey guys, long time no see (almost 10 years )

I finally found a sinking spot that has potential. I managed to sink, almost unintentionally to my waist in very thick mud/clay. I was looking for sinking spots in a dried up reservoir and had found a few knee/thigh deep spots before this but this spot was super creamy and I basically slowly sunk down without trying. I felt no bottom, but the clay was even thicker below my feet so I'm thinking it would take a bit of effort to get deeper, which I don't mind trying to do lol

But at waist deep I had quite a bit of trouble getting out. I couldn't really move my legs at all other than up and down which basically only brought me an inch deeper at a time. I'd normally be okay with that except I wanted out not down! I eventually managed to get my legs out by laying on my back and very slowly pulling my legs up, which took about 10 minutes and all of my strength.

So I'm wondering what the proper procedure for escaping is? I'd love to return and try and get deeper, but going deeper when waist deep was enough to almost get me trapped sounds pretty foolish. There are no trees to anchor too, or anything at all really as I was about 80 feet into the reservoir. I was thinking of bringing something to push up on like a couple of pieces of plywood that would fit in my backpack and a shovel? My dream is to essentially get up to my armpits vertically in mud but now I'm worried that I'll get legitimately stuck as this mud is pretty thick and sticky (it's a mixture of clay/sand from what I can tell). I've been looking for 10 years for a spot deeper than my thighs though so I can't just walk away from it.

[Boggy Man]

Basically, in thick mud, you can work your feet up, bending your legs in the process, and then wiggle yourself straight, and then work your feet up again, and then wiggle yourself straight again, repeating until you can't get much higher, which may be around waist deep. Then, you sit back and work your knees up gradually, like riding a bicycle, until your knees come up to the surface. Then, still sitting back, you can work the rest of your legs out and lay them on top of the mire. Then, you can lean further back to free yourself completely from the mire, roll over, and then crawl/roll to solid ground.

[bogbud]

Boggymans method may work when the mud is not that thick or you are sinking barefoot. With boots there is little chance this may work.
I do always suggest (and use) long wooden sticks from some tree that I find. You can lay them in front of you and you can push yourself up until you are able to get into a more sitting-like position until you're finally able to pull your legs out and kind of roll out of the soft spot.

Your story reminds me of my sinking adventures in thick tidal mud when there is nothing around me than just more mud. The stick needs to be longer then or you need two to create enough leverage.

[maria]

Boggymans method may work when the mud is not that thick or you are sinking barefoot. With boots there is little chance this may work.
I do always suggest (and use) long wooden sticks from some tree that I find. You can lay them in front of you and you can push yourself up until you are able to get into a more sitting-like position until you're finally able to pull your legs out and kind of roll out of the soft spot.

Your story reminds me of my sinking adventures in thick tidal mud when there is nothing around me than just more mud. The stick needs to be longer then or you need two to create enough leverage.

Have to agree with bogbud here. A combination of clay and fine sand will do a good job of limiting your movements and make moving your legs difficult. You should experience a nice feeling of being stuck!

Carry strong stick or sticks and remember, the farther you are away from solid ground, the longer your escape will be. If the ground starts to liquefy around you, you'll probably have to double up on the surface area of your sticks. The plywood board would be your saviour if it gets too soft around you. Take care.

[lafin]

I work in trailer maintenance so I have basically an unlimited supply of plywood and saws so I think I'll cut a few pieces about the same size as the backing of my bag and bring them with me.

I was looking at the satellite images of the reservoir on Google and realized I hadn't gotten nearly as far as I had intended to so I definitely want to go back and try. There were some pretty interesting spots I totally forgot about.

I'm going to head out there early on Saturday (it's about 3 hours away) and hopefully get some good sinking in.

[cbqdbq]

i would use a large mat to dispurse my downward pressure over a larger area than just the size of my hand. i would have it right in front of me. maybe a foot by two feet at least. plastic probably. larger if i wanted to end up kneeling on it once I get up that far. pushing is easyer than pulling like with a rope, even a notted rope.

[Sinkman61]

Be glad that there wasn’t any salt in the mixture of quicksand that you’re dealing with or it’d be ten times harder. If you had Welles or waders on, your chance of getting out would’ve been even less. Much less. True tidal quicksand is about the hardest stuff to get out of that there is. Your best bet is to leave the really heavy soled footwear behind and buy yourself some sturdy neoprene booties just like those used by scuba divers. Your feet will be well protected while you’ll be less likely to find yourself completely stuck. You definitely never want to get yourself completely stuck in a tidal estuary because the tide will eventually come back in and drown you. That’s definitely happened to people before. Waders simply create too much suction.

You need to learn to escape even the stickiest mud and quicksand there is without ever having to rely on someone else. The suction created by tidal quicksand is equivalent to the weight of a medium sized car. This mud is particularly dangerous because you won’t just magically stop sinking as soon as you reach your buoyancy point. Any downward thrust of a boot, intentional or not, will cause you to sink even deeper. While your body maintains an equilibrium with the quicksand at your buoyancy point, the downward pull of the suction can exceed a ton. That’s why you’ll continue to sink in past your buoyancy point...but only IF you mange to drive a foot deeper down into the quicksand. You’ll continue to keep right on sinking until the pressure from the quicksand is enough that you can no longer move your legs at all. Of course, to stop sinking, just stop shoving a foot further down. Getting out isn’t going to be easy. You can work your legs upward, but this is going to be an extremely slow process. It could take hours, because the suction holding your feet in place is really hard. I literally had the suction pull the heels and soles completely off an old pair of military jump boots. What you really need to do is to learn to dig yourself out. If you use your arms like it’s shovel, you’ll find that you can remove an amazing amount of sand and mud from both sides of your body in a short period of time. You should be able to dig yourself out in just about an hour. Trying to work your legs up with really heavy soled boots on will take 2 or more. Getting out of typical bog mud shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes to completely escape. Bog mud tends to be rather lumpy with sticks and other crap all throughout. It also tends to have much more water as well. I no longer even bother sinking in such places as they’re not much of a challenge.