My August 26’th, 2025 Adventure, Part 2, The Conclusion (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!With my bog flooded, I had to decide what to do.
This time, I had only one container of Kool-Aid, which I was partially through, and would quickly run out if I was to just spend the day hiking around other places in this heat. The last of the Gatorade was finished previously, and I forgot to remind my mom to pick up Gatorade or Powerade when she went shopping.
Basically, I tend to use the least of my liquids when I stick close to the bog and enjoy sinks through the day, so I thought one container would be enough, but didn't account for this situation!
But, there was one other thing that I had been thinking about on and off over the past while.
It has been years since I had loosened the mud to a depth of around 5 feet, something I would do when the bog was flooded, but that was usually earlier in the season, when the mud would be chillier. But, since it was late in the season, things would be not so cold, which could make this task not so uncomfortable!
Perhaps I could even re-expose the mud, or at least, reduce the surface water enough for it to be exposed for my next adventure!
So, I got undressed but kept my sunglasses on, since I knew that the sun reflecting off the water would be a problem, although I would try and avoid looking in certain directions. I also put on insect repellent, smearing it in my hair, around parts of my face, neck and shoulders, all parts that would be above the mud, since I didn't want to be swatting anything biting my head and shoulders with muddy hands (good to be prepared).
I then headed to the west side of the bog, through the "cage", and then slowly lowered myself down into the submerged bog, so as not to splash any muddy water on me. At first, it felt a bit cool, but I started to get used to it. I proceeded to pull up globs of thicker stuff from deeper down up to the surface, mushed it up into the surface water, with swamp gas bubbling up around me from the disturbance. When I couldn't reach deeper without immersing my shoulders, I then used my legs and feet to bring it up closer to the surface, where I could reach it with my hands. I discovered that the bits that were originally exposed on the surface turned out to be just pieces of rotting sod, which I pushed under and mushed up. Once I had enough of it mixed deeply enough where I stood, I moved on to an adjacent spot, working my way counterclockwise, across the south side to the east side. I kept close to the edge, so I could lift myself up as well, so I wouldn't go too deep and chill myself, since I wanted to keep myself dry and warm from my shoulders up.
I found that as I got to the eastern portion, I was loosening the mud much more than in the western portion, feeling my feet moving more freely on top of the thicker "soft bottom" as I had it worked down to around close to 5 feet. I periodically pulled out small pieces of sticks, and the odd pine cone. I would swish surface water under the mud, which loosened the loose mud even further. I was worried that the using of my feet to bring up globs of thicker stuff to within reach would give me knee or hip pain, but it wasn't too bad, although I did find that I favoured one leg over another (can't remember if it was my left leg). I was happy that the air was nice and warm, which helped offset the coolness of the bog, a coolness that was nicely reduced by a summer of heating.
Once I was much of the way through the east side, I found that my bladder was starting to get full. So, I exited on the northeast side, pushing mud off my body, especially my feet, back into the bog. I headed through the grassy meadow to some alders, and relieved myself. After that, I felt it was about time to take a break, warm up, have lunch and finish the job later on.
But first, I just couldn't resist trying out the patch of mucky fragile ground on the north side of my bog, to see if I could sink there. So, just to the north of my bog, I stepped, facing northward, into the middle of the mucky patch, one leg and then the other breaking through the slimy layer of rotted vegetation/roots, and into the mud underneath, which wasn't watery, but nice and thick!
I struggled, the mud beneath my feet giving way, sucking me down just past my waist, and with some more struggling with the ground quaking around me, my stimulation reached the exploding point!
After that, I worked myself out of the muddy hole, pushing mud back in to fill it, and headed to the pond to clean off, using yellow waterlily rhizomes for a place to sit or kneel on. I can't remember if it was this first cleanup or the second where I relocated the submerged log, which gave me more solid footing.
I was happy to see that while water deeper down was cooler, it was warmer near the surface.
I cleaned off everything I could reach in my upper body, but had to lay on my back on the floating vegetation (Nature's scrub-brush) and rub my back before returning to the water to splash water over my shoulders and down my back to rinse it off. I moved to a spot where I was higher to clean myself lower down, and in the grass to finish the cleanup. I then air-dried, but had to pick the odd leech off my skin. But, at one point, I was heading back to more solid ground, when one leg went through the floating mat, getting my leg muddy again, forcing me to have to clean up again.
I took a photo of the bog after my first session of mud loosening, as well as the new sinking hole outside of the bog where I had a stimulating sink, and an adjacent boggy spot that may be just as hazardous
:
2025 08 26 2J Crescent.jpg
2025 08 26 2K Crescent.jpg
2025 08 26 2L Crescent.jpg
2025 08 26 2M Crescent.jpg
I got dressed, and headed back to the clearing north of the pond, and had my lunch - a couple Pizza Pops and a Sweet & Salty almond bar, along with my Kool-Aid. Then, to get myself warmed back up enough for my second session, I went for a walk up the sideroad, hoping this time there would be no bear. I noticed that the stream channel leaving the pond with the ring bog was a little lower(
https://maps.app.goo.gl/STzu5mD1BthRp7TV9 ) . I never bothered to have a closer look at the pond (
https://maps.app.goo.gl/6DWG2BAvbqB7XmBs6 ), instead wanting to just hike to the clearcut a ways down the road. In the clearcut, after I picked up a peeler someone had lost (the metal part on the kitchen tool was a little bent and felt loose), I took a look at a low spot east of the road that often had some water in it with a muddy bottom, but was buried in logs and sticks (
https://maps.app.goo.gl/f664eWxzDvBMdb5y5 ). I walked over to the south side, and took a photo of an exposed patch of black mud there:
2025 08 26 2N Crescent Clearcut Log Mudhole.jpg
I took a stick and probed the mud, finding that it was around half a foot deep, give or take a couple of inches. It was also full of swamp gas from the decaying wood buried in it, causing it to make all sorts of sucking and slurping noises when disturbed with the stick!
I wished I had a bottomless pit of stuff that was that gassy, but perhaps thicker, and free of logs/sticks!
I headed over to the east to check out a bush with orange berries to see if it was a mountain ash, and it was. I then returned back the way I came, back to my pond.
Now, I felt warm enough to finish my "site preparation" bog loosening job!
I got undressed, and kept my sunglasses on once again to protect my eyes, since there was a lot of water to reflect sun into my eyes (years ago, I was working on my garden pond with the sun reflecting off it into my eyes without any sunglasses, and wound up getting a large permanent blind spot in my left eye, the exact shape of my bifocal
). Once again, I slipped myself into the west side, and first did a bit more loosening on that side, because when I started in the morning, I didn't do as great a job initially. For some reason, at times, I seem to start a job being less thorough, but become progressively more thorough as I go.
Then, I worked my way eastward, across the north side, mixing water in with the mud, bringing more mud up to the surface, using my foot/leg to bring it up close enough to reach with my hand, and mixing it with the water. Just like before, I also swished the surface water downward through the mud to liquify the loose mud further. Once I made it to the east side where I left off, I went back and started to try mixing parts I missed getting deep enough down.
When my bladder filled up again, I had to briefly exit the bog on the north side to take a leak near the alders, before getting back in, accidentally splattering my glasses with a mud-soaked piece of grass when I was exiting the bog
, which I would have to clean later. After all the disturbance, the swamp gas bubbling had slowed down substantially throughout my work. I noticed that the mud in the eastern part had become quite loose, but with a distinctive "bottom" which was soft, gooey and bottomless!
But, the west side was overall thicker on top, with no discernible thickness boundary. It just seemed to get slightly thicker with depth. To even things out, I had to move from the west side to the east side, dragging the thicker mud with my body into the looser stuff.
Just like in the first session, I kept on holding onto the side often to keep myself at around armpit depth, because I didn't want to get chilled. But, finally, I was moving through the middle as well, with nothing to hold on to, but still able to keep from immersing my shoulders in the surface water. I also tried to pull the watery mud off the grass on the north side where I had exited earlier, but the grass wouldn't rise up, so there was still mud on top. I knew it was starting to get late when shadows began to encroach on the west side of the bog, eliminating the warm sun there.
I kept on working things as the shadows spread, but finally, after using my body to mix mud from the west side over to the east side, I finally decided to call it quits.
I exited the bog on the northeast side, pushing the mud off my body and the thicker stuff off my feet, and pushing it out into the bog. As I moved back, I tried to push the watery mud off the grass on the northeast side, but just like on the north side, the grass was slow to rise, so I couldn't get it all.
With the job done, I first wanted to try to have a second stimulating sink in that hole just north of the bog again. So, facing north, I stepped back into it, sinking up past my waist, as the mud beneath my feet gave way. I struggled and struggled, and leaned over and struggled some more, turned myself around to face south, struggled some more, before turning back to face north again. After a bit of struggling, I decided that I was either too chilled, or was becoming desensitized from being in the mud for so long.
So, I pulled myself out of the hole, and pushed the mud back in. Then, once again, I tried pushing mud on my two exit points from the main bog back into it, but still couldn't do it completely.
I headed back into the water to clean up, cleaning my glasses off and setting them on top of a yellow waterlily leaf nearby (there was also a second splattering afterward in that loosening session). I also immersed my head in the water to do a complete cleaning because of the splattering, happy that the water was not chilly thanks to the sun and heat.
I cleaned myself down lower, and also rubbed my back on the floating weeds (Nature's scrub brush), and then got back into the pond to splash water over my shoulders to wash it away.
But, when I had myself cleaned down to my waist, I found my right armpit was bleeding!
I immediately realized that I must have been bitten by a leech!
I splashed more water on my armpit, and pulled at my hairs, in case it was still there, not certain whether I had pulled it off or it was already gone!
But, splashing water on my armpit wouldn't get rid of the red streak of blood going down, because it would instantly reappear the moment I had washed it away!
I couldn't get out of the pond, air-dry and get dressed as long as I was still bleeding profusely, because I didn't want to get any blood on my t-shirt, which would look suspicious!
So, I spent a long time splashing water on my underarm again and again, with it seeming to take an eternity to slow down!
But, finally I started to wonder if by keeping it wet, I was prolonging the bleeding.
So, I got out of the water, returned to my things, got out some tissue, and kept on dabbing it over and over again, finding that the bleeding was indeed starting to slow down!
It took a while, but it seemed to start to dry out a bit.
I finally got dressed, but left my T-shirt off, remaining bare-back. I took a final photo of my bog, with all the mud loosened to around 4 1/2 feet, still all covered with water:
2025 08 26 2O Crescent.jpg
I swapped memory cards, got my things together, and headed back to my bike, carrying my t-shirt instead of wearing it. I put my things back in my saddlebags, including my t-shirt, and walked my bike back to the sideroad, once again having to go under the fallen tree. Heading down the sideroad, towards Crescent Road, I stopped when I saw a rabbit on the trail (it was around 6:18 pm), and took a couple of pictures, the second of which I had obviously moved the camera when clicking the button, since it was vertically smeared (lower evening light levels resulted in longer exposure time, increasing the risk of movement blur), and won't bother showing:
2025 08 26 2P Crescent Rabbit.jpg
The rabbit took off when I got closer, so then I continued on to Crescent Road, and then the main gravel road, not bothering to put my t-shirt back on until around 7 pm, when I was certain my bite was totally dry. I made it into the valley bottom before my brother finally picked me up and drove me back home. At home, when I looked in the bathroom mirror, I noticed that there was still some splattered mud dried on my face, meaning I didn’t clean it away well enough, but at least I caught it in time before anyone noticed, although I could have easily passed it off as a splatter of mud from biking through a puddle on the road.
I showed my mom that kitchen peeler I found, and she determined that it was in too bad shape to be of any use, so I threw it in the garbage.
Overall, it was a bit of a disappointing day, since I soooo badly wanted my bog to be exposed!
That one or two days of rain we had must have really set things back for the water over top of the mud to have changed so little, after 15 days!
I just hoped that the loosening of the mud would have mixed enough of the surface water into the mud to have it become exposed for the next time I would return.
But, I still did enjoy heading further up that other sideroad to the part that I had missed last time, and then it was nice to spend several hours in the mud, even though there was a layer of water on top.
And, at least the mud still surrounded me a little at the surface while I was in it and churning it.
During the day, in addition to having a taste of wild blueberries, I also tasted some wild raspberries, thimble berries, as well as a wild black current.
I was surprised about how much that leech bite was bleeding!
It must have been latched onto me for a very long time, constantly adding anticoagulants into the wound!
I noticed that where it was bleeding in my right armpit, there were actually two bites close together, and a third bite slightly further away. Then, I noticed that there were three more bites down my right side, and two more around my right nipple, for a total of 8 bites!
Due to the number of bites and the persistence of the bleeding, I came to the conclusion that the leech must have been in the water over top of my bog, and latched onto me there, gorging itself on my blood for a very long time during my second mud loosening session, and easily went unnoticed!
So, hopefully, for my next adventure, enough time would pass for the water levels to drop, finally exposing the mud and offering a much better sinking experience!
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