Quicksand Fans

Why and how are Tidal Mudflats deep and dangerous? I spotted a few near a river and I'm planning to go in March or when it get warmer. How should I prepare?

Simple really, you get stuck and the tide comes in, you drown. It's not the depth of the mud that matters, it's the depth of the water.

Tidal Mudflats can be super-fun but also can become dangerous in no time.

First of all they are changing and changing. An area that has boring watery ankle-deep mud the first time you visit can have thigh- or belly-deep gluey stuff the next time. Also vice-versa. You sink right down to your armpits one time, it's solid the next time.
Also be prepared to encounter "soft spots" in unusual places. Internet is full of reports with people who just wanted to take a little shortcut or wet their feet and needed a rescue only a couple dozen feet from the shore.
Tidal mud is THICK! and STICKY! It will stick to you and try to hold you in place everywhere it touches your clothes. When i come back from a messy outing in my secluded tidal mudbay i'm full of mud, even when i have only sunk to my waist, and a couple pounds heavier.

Also to consider: You're often in plain view. So go find either a really secluded area or go only in the dark.
Also (of course): everything Mudxdresser said!

JohntaviousWilliams wrote:Why and how are Tidal Mudflats deep and dangerous? I spotted a few near a river

I spotted water near a lake once.

BH

(yes, I know this thread is three months old, but it's better than creating a new thread...)

I have been in one or two tidal spots before, mostly small "patches" of mud that range from waist deep to bottomless... and of all the times I've been to my main spot (it's 5-6 hours away D:), I never had issues getting out. I think I found a spot closer to me on the QSF map, but I want thoughts on everyone's techniques for getting out.

I usually play in very thick clay-like creekbank mud which is often thick as modeling clay and really makes it hard to get out. I've blown both my calves out once or twice, but lately, I've been using a large piece of driftwood (wide and long) to push on to get myself out. I wonder, has anyone tried a similar technique in thick and sticky tidal mud? The spot I'm looking at is only accessible by kayak and one of the small flats (40ft x 40ft), looks like it's exposed at high(er) tide as well (see link). It's not terribly far from me (2.5 hours), so I plan on going on my kayak at high tide to see if any mud is exposed. I can easily fit a foam kickboard in the footwell of my kayak and maybe even use the paddle as a long piece of leverage, though I'm concerned I would snap it in half since it is a two-piece paddle). I also had a QS friend tell me that at their clay spot, they use an inflatable beach ball as well.

I firmly believe in risk mitigation (but not total elimination)... like as my avatar shows, I climb rocks. I mitigate that risk by using a top rope or in sport stuff, clipping in every 10ft or so, and have never gotten hurt beyond minor scrapes from rough rocks. I feel similar mitigation strategies in mud might work... but want other people's opinions?

Thoughts?

Images of spot at various tides: https://imgur.com/a/NxxZPgA
Image of the inland bay: https://imgur.com/a/ptTDyFc - The spot is in the upper left side.

Do some research on the area before going in. Tidal mud flats aren't all created equally, and some are more dangerous than others. For example, the sediment that makes up quicksand on the Turnagain Arm in Alaska has a well-documented reputation for "locking up" around submerged limbs once the water gets squeezed out of it when someone sinks into it, requiring external rescue. Combined with the exceedingly high tides there, things can get lethal quickly.

Rickington wrote:(yes, I know this thread is three months old, but it's better than creating a new thread...)

I have been in one or two tidal spots before, mostly small "patches" of mud that range from waist deep to bottomless... and of all the times I've been to my main spot (it's 5-6 hours away D:), I never had issues getting out. I think I found a spot closer to me on the QSF map, but I want thoughts on everyone's techniques for getting out.

I usually play in very thick clay-like creekbank mud which is often thick as modeling clay and really makes it hard to get out. I've blown both my calves out once or twice, but lately, I've been using a large piece of driftwood (wide and long) to push on to get myself out. I wonder, has anyone tried a similar technique in thick and sticky tidal mud? The spot I'm looking at is only accessible by kayak and one of the small flats (40ft x 40ft), looks like it's exposed at high(er) tide as well (see link). It's not terribly far from me (2.5 hours), so I plan on going on my kayak at high tide to see if any mud is exposed. I can easily fit a foam kickboard in the footwell of my kayak and maybe even use the paddle as a long piece of leverage, though I'm concerned I would snap it in half since it is a two-piece paddle). I also had a QS friend tell me that at their clay spot, they use an inflatable beach ball as well.

I firmly believe in risk mitigation (but not total elimination)... like as my avatar shows, I climb rocks. I mitigate that risk by using a top rope or in sport stuff, clipping in every 10ft or so, and have never gotten hurt beyond minor scrapes from rough rocks. I feel similar mitigation strategies in mud might work... but want other people's opinions?

Thoughts?

Images of spot at various tides: https://imgur.com/a/NxxZPgA
Image of the inland bay: https://imgur.com/a/ptTDyFc - The spot is in the upper left side.

From the images it does look very promising. Over here there are almost no secluded bays like yours and most of the tidal beachline is just dams. When i'm lucky there are reeds and weeds but not much.

Also nice to meet another "long-distance"-sinker. My tidal area is about 3hs away when there are no traffic-jams. I'm able to walk to that spot and always carry a long and stable piece of wood or some branch i find at the shore. Without it, it would be near impossible to escape the grip of the mire, even when i sink only 3 or 4ft down. The upper layer is quite soft, will give no leverage, and will happily flow back when trying to dig myself out. Further down it gets increasingly gluey until i'm so stuck i can't move my legs anymore.

The mudflats and sloughs in the south San Francisco bay are saturated with mercury washed down creeks to the bay from quicksilver mines in the foothills above south San Jose (no, you don't wanna sink in quicksilver). https://www.google.com/search?q=almaden ... 36&bih=742

Also, who knows what what is down there after hundreds of years of things washing downstream or sinking in one of the many docks that once occupied the area in the 1800s. The former Navy base here has it's own superfund grounds pollution issues, so who knows how many chemicals and aviation fuels have been washed into the bay to sink into the mud over the 3-4 decades or more when they were here?

We have all the muck and goo one could wish for, but I do not trust any of it.https://www.123rf.com/photo_115322862_t ... -moun.html

So check the history of your area if you can. The more rural and away from towns and such, the better.

BogDog wrote:We have all the muck and goo one could wish for, but I do not trust any of it.https://www.123rf.com/photo_115322862_t ... -moun.html

So check the history of your area if you can. The more rural and away from towns and such, the better.

It sucks that industrial and environmental pollution is yet another obstacle in the quest to find good mud to sink in. I walked around some salt flats in the south bay area and it had some good looking mud, but I didn't sink, for a variety of reasons.

I live in PA and unfortunately our rivers have had their share of industrial pollution too. I have a small lake I go that's fed by a small stream, so the risk of pollutants is lower, but it's not nearly as private as I'd like. (Wish I could just buy this little park, sigh)

Being in western PA makes any tidal areas pretty far from me, ~6-7hrs, but I would like to get to experience them. I tend to drive ~45-60 mins to where I go. Having a sinking buddy would make this all safer and more affordable, shame that we're all so far apart.

I actually did a little sinking out there a couple of times in 2000 behind the base before I knew better. The mud didn't go past my thighs though.

10 years later I'm fighting Lymphoma cancer. Related? Who knows?