Quicksand Fans

I figured I'd take a minute to pass on my sinking adventures this weekend.

I was out on the Red River, near I-35 (one of the places on the Google Maps page that you can find here http://www.quicksandfans.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=847).

It took me a couple of hours to ride my motorcycle out there, but it was a beautiful day for a ride. Temperature was around 85F (29C). There was a light wind blowing, and it was just enough to make it a perfect weather day.

I parked on the Texas side of the Red River and put on my backpack and canteen. I started hiking toward a small stream that was feeding into the river. Most of the time that is where you'll find the deepest and best mud!

After making my way down a couple of very steep banks I saw that the stream was really shallow, and there were a couple of places where the stream had a nice bend which formed some muddy patches on the banks. That was my target!

I located a place that was somewhat hidden from view so that I could change into my mud clothes. Then I walked over toward the muddy area that I'd found. It was difficult, as the bank was steep and there were a lot of dead saplings that made the walk somewhat difficult.

As I looked around I picked a spot that seemed to be a good candidate for my sink. It had a slight trickle of water flowing through it and was very shiny on the surface. The area was about 7' (2m) wide. I took one step and sank instantly to my hips! This, of course, threw me off balance, and the remainder of my body went tumbling into the muck!

After I stood back up (a relative term, since I was "standing" in mud that was now up to my chest!) I thought to myself, "Ya' done struck gold, pardner!" I spent about 30 minutes playing around in the mud. It was about 5' (1.7m) deep and very creamy. And it was the sort of mud that just sticks to you, and doesn't want to let go! I bent my knees and let myself sink to my shoulders. But I was never able to sink past that because I have too much natural "flotation devices" attached to my body -- otherwise known as FAT! Yet it was still a great feeling to grab handfulls of this creamy mud and rub it all over myself.

It took about 10 minutes of work, but I got out of the muck and made my way back to the river so that I could clean off. I walked upstream along the bank for about 50 yards (45m) and then proceeded to slide into the river. At this point the river runs relatively deep. I'm not sure how deep as I am 6'3" tall (195cm) and it was well over my head. But I'm the sort that can stand upright in the water and just float, which makes it hell to try and sink under the mud! I'm way too buoyant (see above comment about my lean body mass!).

As I was swimming back to shore I ran into a man and his two kids. They were just there looking around. The scary part is that they were only a short distance away from where I had sank! Thankfully the terrain made it way to difficult for kids to head back there. But this area is obviously a lot more public than I thought it was. When I was leaving I saw two other groups of people walking toward that same area.

But it was a great day for a sink! And I will certainly return there soon to have another go at it.

Eddie

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ohh sounds good,.. manage to get any pics or vids to share with us?

gaz

gamwam wrote:ohh sounds good,.. manage to get any pics or vids to share with us?

Unfortunately, no. It's difficult carrying a video camera and tripod on a dual-sport (on-road/off-road) motorcycle! And since I go alone there's no one to run the camera.

I know that Nessie can relate to that problem!

Next season I'm going to try and figure out a way to carry the camera with me. I might spend some time in my shop working on fabricating some sort of carrying system for everything. It'd be a fun project!

Eddie

MuddyEddie wrote:I know that Nessie can relate to that problem!

I plan to work on that problem next year. The Path Guard has some experience running video cameras. I wouldn't call him an experienced Mud Man but if I dangle free food at the end of the shoot, it may get him moving.

Or maybe it's getting time to find a guy who can really, truly cattail-crawl.

If not, perhaps I can find more friendly trees. Or maybe those cattails can learn how to hold a camera. I was trying to train some cattails the last time I was in a thick bed of them...I mean, there were so many, you'd think that if they all got together, they could support one tiny camera, but they were mighty cranky about helping me out.

Hey, if you got shoulder-deep, though, you're doing just fine. I'm glad you avoided the people, though. I don't know the terrain of your mud site exactly or anything, but I've been in your neck of the woods and it has much less vegetative cover than my area. I guess...if the grass is up to your knees, it's considered a serious impediment.

Ha!

Where I am, the weeds can be over your head. I've even been waist-deep (in cattails, marsh grass and other bog plants) and I've able to eavesdrop on conversations as boats floated by.

Nessie

Well I went back out there again today. Since I'm on holiday all this week, I figured I'd do some more checking out of the area.

This time I decided to see if I could find the actual area that is described on the Google Maps page. I did, but there wasn't much in the way of mud there. I suppose if the water levels were lower then there might be some there, but the river is still running fairly high.

So instead I swam across the river which is only about 50 yards (46m) wide. There isn't much current there either, so getting across was pretty easy. I explored on the other side of the river looking for mud.

My first stop didn't work out too well. There was mud, but it was only 3' (1m) deep. But I remembered on the Maps page that there seemed to be a quarry just to the NE of that area. Between me and the quarry though was a very overgrown field. Weeds were so thick that you couldn't see what you were going through... and I found out too late that some of the growth was less than friendly!

SANDSPURS!

With the dense growth I was paying more attention to not getting slapped in the face with the saplings that were around, and avoiding the plethora of spider webs that were strung among them. By the time I'd walked about 5 minutes through the weeds I noticed that my calves suddenly had something sharp poking them. When I got to a clearing I saw that my socks and shoes were literally covered in sandspurs! I had hundreds of them attached to me!

Anyone who's ever had to deal with these things knows that they are a pain to remove, and I do mean pain! They are about 1/4" (7mm) in diameter with a dozen barbed spines on their surface. If you get one stuck in your skin, it's like removing a miniature fishhook!

I sat down in the clearing, and spent the next 30 minutes carefully pulling the spurs out of my shoes. I gave up on the socks, as the barbed hooks and the cotton socks were impossible to separate. Then I had to figure out how to get back to the place where I got myself into this mess! I decided that the best course of actions was to try and follow the same exact path out, trying to keep my feet in the footsteps I made on the way in. And it worked to a fair extent. I still had to sit by the river and pull out more spurs, but it took me about 10 minutes this time.

Now I had a decision to make. Should I give up and call it a day, or should I follow the riverbank and look around some more? With no socks on I knew that the backs of my feet would get raw and irritated in short order, But, figuring that it takes me two hours to drive out to this spot, I decided to explore. And I wasn't disappointed!

About a 2 minute hike upstream on the Oklahoma side I found another pool of water. This one didn't have any sandspurs around it, and it had an inlet area that looked suspiciously like it would be a good candidate. And what did I find?

BOUNCY EARTH!

The surface was that nice, semi-dry sand that bounces when you walk on it. So I bounced and bounced! I had a ball. Then the surface tension gave way and I sank slowly to my hips. Another five minutes and I was in to my chest. By then I'd hit bottom, but I didn't care. It felt great!

I just sat in there for about 10 minutes enjoying the feeling of the sand, then I began the long process of extracting myself. Since this was a sandy soil, extraction was extremely difficult. After sitting still for 10 minutes the sand solidified around me pretty good. It took almost 20 minutes to finally get liquefaction to occur, and I was able to pull myself free.

So I went over to the river and jumped in. Getting back to my starting point was easy, as the current was heading that direction. So I floated on my back, watched the trees go by, and slowly drifted to my starting point.

Another good day of mudding! Too bad the season is almost over here. Next week the temperatures will be in the mid-70's (21-23C) with overnight lows in the low-40's (4-7C). That means that the water temperature will begin to settle into that uncomfortable range. There might still be a few days left, but I will at least end this year on a high note!

Eddie