Illinois River Mud Fun

[quickchi21]

Well, I finally made the drive out to the Illinois River. Parked at a boat ramp and walked across a small stream to a mud flat/pond that’s hidden by trees. Only thing is that a road passes overhead on a bridge and you can see some areas of the field. So you just gotta hang on the sides and sink in the right location out of view. Anyways, the mud here was seriously so insanely thick. I was wearing waders and made myself sink to about my upper thighs before stopping to see if I’d be able to get out. Which was a really good thing that I did as it took a good 15-20 minutes for me to get my feet out. The whole sole and boot portion of my waders were stuck so deep, my foot kept slipping out into the pant section and I literally had to dig it out and pull as hard as I can. Was worried I would have to cut myself out of it for a sec. After getting out tho I kinda just laid on the surface and rolled around and enjoyed myself. I got buried a bit again and it took crawling and fighting around a lot to be able to get back to shore lol. Anyways, I definitely really wanna go back but wear something that’s less likely to keep me so stuck. I would just wear socks however I did see a few mussels/shells in the mud flat so I’m kinda worried about slicing my feet up. Not sure if anyone recommends wearing anything else on my feet that wouldn’t create such a huge suction problem. Thanks!

[quickchi21]

Ok update hahah, realizing now that water shoes right above my ankles are probably gonna be the best option for me. I included a picture from one of the spots around the pond/lake. The area in the pic was the smallest out of all the mud fields on the lake so there’s a ton of room. I didn’t sink in the more wet/watery area so that could’ve been the reason why I got so stuck too. Gonna go back out in a few days and take more pics of the area If anyone else is from Illinois hit me up, I’ll let you guys know the exact area of you wanna sink together. It’s a few miles west of starved rock state park

[Jaina76]

I'm not too far from the Illinois River. I'm located in west central Illinois, and have yet to do any serios mudding. I tried a spot a few years ago at Matthew's Bay, not too far from Bath, but wasn't much deeper than my knees.