How far are your sinkings spots away?

[enerj29]

That’s great some of you have stuff 10-15 mins away. I’m in a city, and my spots are all 40-55 minutes away. But trying to get to these spots in the afternoon rush hour takes an extra 20-30 minutes unfortunately. I’m sure I could find things further away, but haven’t.

[Sinkman61]

Bogbud, you sound like you’re up here in NE Florida along the coast. I can go sinking in a different spot everyday for the next 10 years and never have to hit the same spot twice. There’s that much mud and quicksand around here. We’ve got thousands and thousands of acres of the stuff. It’s not so much about finding mud around here as it is privacy. That’s in a much shorter supply. However, the human eye looses details relatively quickly at distance, so sinking still isn’t a big issue. Just go further up the waterway and you’re good to go. Or, just sink completely under the mud as boats get close. They’ll never see you and go right on buy.

My closest sinking spot certainly isn’t the best, but no doubt that if I put some effort into cleaning the area up, it could be considerably better. Then deepest I ever managed to sink there is chest deep...barely. Definitely NOT my favorite spot. But it’s damned convenient. SERIOUSLY CONVENIENT. It’s only 25 feet from the backdoor of my house. There’s even a little private area that my neighbors can’t see thanks to some well placed trees. But it’s had trees and stuff right by it, so the crap drops down into the mud. It’s a cross between tidal mud and bog mud, unfortunately leaning towards the bog mud side. I’m not a fan of bogs, ESPECIALLY when there’s so much absolutely amazing tidal mud that’s readily available just a short drive (or jet ski ride) away.

This is probably how multimillionaires feel. They pinch and save nickels and dimes for years while struggling to put together a dollar. Then they’re suddenly buried in millions. I search and searched everywhere I’ve ever lived for months on end trying to find good sinking spots. This was well before the internet came along. I would buy maps at my local gas stations and study all the water features...especially anywhere a stream entered into a pond or lake. Then I’d search the area to determine if it was even viable. Usually it wasn’t. But persistence always paid off (except for Pensacola). These days finding mud is so, SO DAMNED EASY! But in many locations, there’s simply no decent places to go sinking. And then I moved here. This place is mud heaven. It’s damned near EVERYWHERE. There’s not a direction I can go without having to cross over at least a patch of mud just to get out of my neighborhood. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s goo mud, but it’s mud nonetheless. When there’s so much amazing mud readily available, there’s really no reasons left to have to compromise anymore. There’s mud locations around that in past years would’ve had me ecstatic...absolutely thrilled with. I won’t even remotely consider them anymore. This is truly a mudder’s paradise.

[mudxdresser]

I used to make visits every couple of weeks in the summer to mudpits that required either a 400 mile or 600 mile round trip. The "local" mudpits I visited every week required a 140 mile round trip. I am overjoyed to only have a mudpit that only requires a 90 mile round trip currently.

[Nessie]

When I first found this community (in the year 2000), I networked my way into other people's quicksand. The upside was meeting awesome sinkers, working on video crews and making new friends, but the downside was that it always seemed to involve plane trips, which cost me a lot of money and always involved time off work. In one case, I got to my sinking partner by car but it took 12 hours.

The only exception to this is that one time a potential sinking partner flew his way to me, so it was he who had the hotel room. We went exploring. We didn't know if there would be anything at all and I really hoped he would not be disappointed. But thankfully, there was mud there and we had a blast! That mudpit was about an hour from my house.

Rigorous exploring eventually reduced my travel time to the best places to about 45 minutes in my own car.

Substandard places turned out to be a lot closer (about a half an hour tops) and easier to manage than I ever imagined. It turned out that I could, after all, sink in suburbia. There may be people on trails in local parks, but they are really and truly not to be found in the peat patch in the middle of the cattails, where one can lounge around in the muck for an hour without a soul ever poking their nose in.

Suburban sinking relies heavily on average people refusing to believe that anyone would ever be up to such a crazy thing even when there are obvious clues like muddy skin or wet clothing. Eventually I went into real wilderness for the peace, quiet and total privacy, but looking back, it is amazing that when just starting my exploring, I played in suburban mud exclusively about once a week for two entire years.

In one of my very first spots, the mudpit, in a marsh full of cattails, was across the street from a public swim area. Easiest cleanup ever.

Nessie

[Mr Mudster]

Over my sinking "career" I've had places as close as, literally, in my backyard to as far away as 3 hours by car or motorcycle. The best one I ever had was at a lake that was in a major drought. The entire west area (which was the inlet area) was a muddy, boggy delight. And it was about 2-1/2 hours away. I got to that one at least three times a month in the summer, and sank as late as mid-November in the winter (and this was in Colorado!). The drive, and the icy mud, was well worth it.

It just boils down to what you're willing to do for your enjoyment. And also how much you can afford to spend on it. Since I'm one of those that has no expensive vices (like drinking, smoking or drug use) I can spend more on my mud fix! Or at least I used to be able to do that. Now that I'm well into my mid-50's I don't do it nearly as often as I'd like to.

[mud_dreamer]

I have two main spots within 25 miles of where I live. They are both on small streams with dark grey silty clay. One I access by truck then bicycle and the other by truck then kayak.

I have 2 locations which are on my list of places to explore. I was close to one of them once. These are around 300 miles away. I use the states water level graphs to determine when to go. Needless to say, 2019 has been very wet. I have not been out once yet.

But I am getting soooo much work done.

[bogbud]

Thanks for all that input!
In the meantime i was able to find a few (quite) deep mudspots that are at least good for some thighbooted fun but nothing that compares to my old areas. So when i'm in bad need for a real sinking-adventure i still visit those old places. As for obvious time- and money-restrictions this is only once a month or so. When the traffic is okay this is just an easy one-day-trip.

The question was also meant in a broader sense: Your (US) medium-sized state is just as big as the whole countries in europe and anything that is about 100 miles away is considered REALLY far away over here (or worse it's in a different country )

[Black Clay Lord]

I WISH I had a spot to visit. Alas, I do not. Although mayhap the Red River Gorge might have some on the bank.

[enerj29]

I live in a city and have to drive about 40-50 minutes in either direction to get to my spots. I can’t often go after work because the rush hour traffic adds about a half hour onto the drive and then I’m there for what, an hour before I have to turn around?

But bogbud, it sounds like you probably know people where you used to live. That could make for a much more affordable overnight trip. I probably wouldn’t want to do 4hrs round trip in one day, but over 2 days, sure. I’ve done it before.

If I may ask, what part of the world is your mud that you’re leaving?

[bogbud]

I live in a city and have to drive about 40-50 minutes in either direction to get to my spots. I can’t often go after work because the rush hour traffic adds about a half hour onto the drive and then I’m there for what, an hour before I have to turn around?

But bogbud, it sounds like you probably know people where you used to live. That could make for a much more affordable overnight trip. I probably wouldn’t want to do 4hrs round trip in one day, but over 2 days, sure. I’ve done it before.

If I may ask, what part of the world is your mud that you’re leaving?

I keep that sinking-business very private and don't want my old pals to see me when i return from the bog all messed up in mud. I have done a couple two-day visits with meeting them the evening before my "boggy day" under the guise of a business- or doctors-appointment, though.

That's near the North Sea in Central/Western Europe. All the areas around the coast are former bogs and marshes that have mostly been drained and cultivated over the last couple 100 years, but there are still a lot of remaining bogs of all kinds. The coast itself is the "Waddensea" (look it up on Wikipedia) with lots of good locations with either saltwater- or freshwater-mudflats. I miss those places