My September 2'nd, 2023 Adventure, Part 3 (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!Finally deciding on the west side, I made my way to the northwest corner, slipped in between the sticks to stand on the floating meadow bordering the edge of my bog, and started my fantasy! I thought about how this patch of wet ground looked so innocent, but was the site of a life-and-death struggle as two head of cattle got stuck there, with the hungry quagmire winning out, sucking them under the surface, where they suffered a horrible, suffocating death!
The next day, poles stuck 10 feet down into the muck wouldn't hit anything, meaning that the bodies of the cattle were totally gone, out of reach, lost forever!
And, the bog had eventually erased all signs of the struggle from its surface, as if nothing ever happened!
After I was reflecting on that "situation", I "accidentally"
lost my balance, and fell into the west side of the bog, facing south, on my hands and knees, which quickly got sucked down by the hungry morass!
My bent legs sucked under, my arms getting sucked straight down, and the soft, heaving surface sucking at my stomach and slowly rising up my front, I began cursing, because I was now in the same situation as those cattle, and there was no escape from the farting morass!
I struggled, more and more of my chest pressing into the hungry muck, my arms getting swallowed deeper and deeper, imagining that soon I would suffer the same suffocating death as those cattle, and vanish forever beneath the quivering surface of the doughy ooze, never to be seen again, with the mire then eventually hiding all signs of my struggle, raising my stimulation to the exploding point!
After that, I worked myself straight, and then proceeded to mush up the surface around me. I swished the water from the middle part I could reach, over to my left (north), and continued churning the mud, which occasionally farted swamp gas. I would face the middle, reach under the mud, and lifting up with my hands, would flip the soggy surface in front of me over towards me and push it down, making part of what was once a soggy surface turn into a thicker doughy mess, although my actions also pulled some of the soggy surface further away towards me. I repeated it again, and continued to mush and churn all the mud around me, before smoothing it out, and then working myself back towards the west shore, pushing mud from behind me to in front of me, and then pushing down on the grass to lift up my buttocks and pull myself backwards and sitting down on the edge of the grass, where I extracted my legs and feet, pushing the mud off them back into the bog. I then moved to the northwest corner and plunged in, repeating the same process over again, pushing mud underneath towards the middle as well, to try and raise the center. I then moved to the north part, and continued with the process, finding that I was starting to feel a bit more stimulation, not enough for an "explosion"
, but just enough for a perpetually "gooooood" feeling!
The sun was getting nice and warm, and I was staying at around waist level in the thick, bottomless muck, which made things feel less chilly, and more comfortable!
Then, the next thing I knew, there was a sudden cracking of sticks, moving of branches and a bunch of mooing coming from the west of me!
I looked over, and a spaced out line of cattle were walking northward, one after another, right along the path that went through the area with my things!
I even saw them walking right through there!
My watch!
My Gorillapod!
My swim goggles!
My clothes!
My camera!
My prescription sunglasses!
My lunch!
My drinks!
My bug and bear spray!
So, I hastily worked myself out, and headed quickly to my things, relieved that the only things that were displaced were my jackets, which were dragged slightly northward in the path! The rest of my stuff was okay!
Wanting to move my jackets off the path and onto the side, my hands were too muddy to touch them, so I had to move them using one of my sticks. Then, I stood in the middle of the path, to block the few remaining approaching cattle from coming through that spot, watching them stop, stare at me, and walk away westward before continuing northward to join the rest of the herd. I had to wait until there was no more mooing or snapping of twigs to the south of me before I could leave that spot. I decided to grab one of my longer sticks to lay diagonally across the opening between alder bushes in hopes that would block their path, although it wouldn't stop a large animal if it wanted to plow through. But, perhaps just something stuck across the opening would provide a visual/psychological barrier that could stop them.
I had forgotten to take a photo of some animal prints on the northeastern part of the bog, so I washed my hands in the pond, dried them off with my junk shorts, grabbed my camera, and took a photo of some animal prints, either a beaver or muskrat, or something else:
2023 09 02 4G Crescent.jpg
I then put the camera away again, and resumed my work, progressing in a clockwise direction. On the east side, while mushing/churning up the surface, I felt something solid with one of my feet deep down. I managed to use my foot to raise it up through the mud high enough to reach, and pulled out a short chunk of wood, around 5 inches long, and a bit rounded or tapered on the ends and wider in the middle. I wiped the mud off it and tossed it into the grass.
When I reached the southeast corner, I was making progress mushing and churning the mire, and getting close to getting started on the southeast extension, when all of a sudden, I was alerted to a different sound!
It first sounded like a bird, but then I realized it was the
VOICE OF A PERSON to the
EAST of me,
ON FOOT, calling out!
It first sounded like a child, but then I realized it was more likely a woman, sounding like she was calling out to a pet (dog?)
, and making some banging or clanging sounds as well!
Then, I noticed that the cattle that were now to the northwest of me quickly took off to the north and left the pond/meadow/alders area altogether!
It was almost as though that person was calling the cattle!
I began to wonder if perhaps she was a rancher checking on her free-range cattle!
I was frantically exiting the bog, rushing towards the alders, naked, full of mud from my waist down and on my hands and arms, with dried mud on my chest!
I got really nervous when I heard that person yell "
HEY!!!"
I didn't know if that person saw me
, but I wasn't anyplace that was visible from the road, unless that person left the road and was walking through the bush towards where I was!
That person continued to call out for a while, and I felt I had to get out of there
IMMEDIATELY!
But, I had to clean up first, and my cleanup area to the northeast of the bog was the only place that was partially visible from the road, something you only catch a brief glimpse of from a moving vehicle, but on foot, you can get a steady view of that small area!
So, I headed straight south, to the tiny pond south of the main pond, looking at the exposed mud on the south side of the main pond, it appearing unchanged from last time. On the northwest corner of the tiny pond, I sat down on a mat of bog cinquefoils in the cool water, and cleaned myself up nicely.
Then I started back, feeling a bit chilled, but relieved that things seemed to have quieted down.
As I headed back, I noticed a number of dead alders scattered here and there, just waiting to be used for supplementing my cage!
First, I had to get back to my things, where I quickly got dressed so I would be decent, putting on both jackets for a faster warmup.
Then, I headed back southward, and proceeded to break off the sticks/poles, and each time I had enough in my hands, I would add them to my pile, and go back for another batch. Once I felt I had enough stick/poles, I then put my shoes on, grabbed my lunch and drinks, and walked to the sideroad, with no sign of the cattle anywhere.
Snacking on my Pizza Pops, I decided to walk up the sideroad to the clearcut to the northeast to see if there were any vehicles over there, before heading back to where the road passed the east pond, where the voice was coming from. I was just entering the clearcut, and had finished the second Pizza Pop, when I heard the sound of an ATV. Then, someone on an ATV and others on motorbikes passed by me, and some waved to me and I waved back. Nothing to be concerned about, since I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary.
Now,
THAT was the type of thing I was expecting,
NOT someone on foot within earshot of me, and would be within clear view if not for the willows/alders between the two ponds!
Since they were headed to the end of the road in the clearcut, and I could see the area to the south, downhill from where I was, I turned around and headed eastward, up the original road there that passed the clearcut, and continued up it until I heard the people drive back away. All quiet, I then turned around and headed back down the road to where it passed the east pond, and studied the visibility of my pond from there, once again glimpsing only parts of it to the north of my bog.
I hoped that that person stayed on the road, and never saw me.
That was likely the person's truck that I saw parked on a sideroad to the east!
I returned to my bike, putting my lunch bag and empty drink bottle in my saddlebag. I headed back to my things, and realized that my new sticks needed to be stripped of loose bark. So, I went through them, and removed all the loose bark I could get off, so nothing would fall into my bog later on. Once that was done, I was nice and hot, so I got undressed, and was all ready to finish up the job I was working on when I was interrupted by the
scare!
I returned to the southeast corner, and finished mushing and churning it up, including turning over the wet part towards the center, and mushing it down, as well as pushing mud underneath towards the center, and smoothing things out. I then mushed up the southeast "finger", and then took care of the south side, repeating everything there. I slowly worked myself out the same way as I was doing all along, and from the edge, was able to finish off the southwest corner, which was just a narrow band of undisturbed mud on the south side. All that was left was the middle, which was now a rather small patch after I had "eaten away" at it from the sides. So, facing north, I jumped into the northern part of the south section I had mushed up and smoothed, and was finally able to churn over the last of the soggy surface, turning everything into a nice thick doughy goo, which I smoothed out!
During my work, I had also been removing debris again, as well as mushing up tiny pieces of mud that was solid, likely from when the surface of the bog dried out a number of years ago. I also loved the feel of the occasional bubble of swamp gas that would work its way up along my body to fart out at the surface!
All finished, I started to struggle there, imagining that I was slowly being sucked down to my death by deadly quicksand, plunging my arms straight down into the gulping mire, seeing and feeling it slowly rise up my abdomen, slowly sinking for real!
I then lifted my arms and hands out of the mire, and set them in front of me, but slightly spread apart, and then pressed down as I struggled, the pulsating surface giving way and hungrily sucking them under the surface into its doughy softness!
With my arms in a more horizontal position under the voracious ooze, I struggled vigorously, imagining that I was going to be sucked completely under and suffocate beneath the heaving, pulsating surface that surrounded me and there was no way to stop it, the doughy mire slowly rising to my upper chest, the feel of it gripping me, raising my stimulation to the exploding point!
After that, I felt my body temperature drop again, and it was time to call it quits for this sinking session. I worked myself backwards slowly, moving mud from behind me to in front of me, and slowly wormed my way towards the south side, smoothing the mud in front of me as I went, until I was finally within reach of the grass, where I lifted my buttocks up above the mud, pulled myself back, and sat down on the grass. I extracted my legs and feet, pushed the muck off them back into the bog, and then smoothed it out. And finally, that job was finally done
, albeit much later than I had expected, making things uncertain about my planned breathing hose sink!
I headed to the pond to clean up, finding that the water, while a little cool, was finally starting to warm up.
I cleaned my front, and then laid back on the grass on the edge (Nature's scrub-brush), to rub my back to eliminate the brown film of mud stuck to my skin there, returning to the pond to splash water over my back to rinse off all sediment from the location of the grass I laid down on. I finished off my cleanup, and then returned to my things, where I grabbed my camera and took photos of my finished job:
2023 09 02 4H Crescent.jpg
2023 09 02 4I Crescent.jpg
2023 09 02 4J Crescent.jpg
2023 09 02 4K Crescent.jpg
I put the camera back away. I had noticed that there was a noticeable depression on the northeast quadrant of the bog while taking the photos, so I smoothed it out.
To Be Concluded...
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It had been perfectly calm all day, until I had the camera set up for the first video of the day! 
So, I had to immediately work myself up to the surface and quickly wipe the thick, suffocating coating of doughy mire from my mouth, to take in lungfuls of fresh air! 
I headed back to the bog, and standing on the west side, knowing that it would be a lot of work to get back to safety in that stuff, I jumped in, sinking to my waist in the farting mire! I struggled, facing eastward towards the place where a hiker had just been sucked under earlier 
bog!