My September 2'nd, 2023 Adventure, Part 4, The Conclusion (Click Here For The Beginning With More Pix)!It was getting a bit later than I had wanted! I had planned on having my breathing hose sink at around 3 pm, and it was already getting close to 3:30 pm, I had nothing set up yet, and I was still feeling a little on the cool side!
To make things worse, I was having leg cramps start up during my last mud session and during cleanup, something I didn't want to happen again during a breathing hose sink!
I was starting to wonder whether I would have time for the breathing hose sink, but I had waited too long to give up yet! First, I decided to set up the cage around the bog, so that I would have that out of the way, and hopefully, I would be warm by then.
So, I set up the cage, with the new sticks allowing me to double the density of the "bars", which made for an even better barrier!
Once I was finished with that, I was ready to get things set up!
I removed some of the sticks from the southern part of the west side of the bog, since they were casting shadows on the nice thick spot I was going to get sucked under in, on the west side. I grabbed my breathing hose, and buried part of it in the thick mire so it would be hidden from the camera once I was under, with the side I was to put in my mouth sticking out of the mud where I was going to plunge in, and the other end trailing out of the western part of the south side of the bog. I took one stick/pole, and stuck it through the floating mat on the south side, in a spot close to the action, but where it wouldn't cast any shadows in the video. I attached my camera to the Gorillapod, with it once again set to 16:9 so that I could get my spot on the west side properly framed. Once I had the camera set and properly zoomed in, I returned to my things, put on my swim cap and swim goggles, as well as my junk shorts, which I had to tie to my waist with a plastic bale string, ever since the elastic around the waist stretched. I went back to my camera, only to find it had turned off, meaning that I had to turn it back on, go back to put my sunglasses back on again so that I could see the camera screen, and get the area properly framed and zoomed in again:
2023 09 02 4L Crescent.jpg
I pressed the record button, returned to my things to set down my sunglasses, and then put my swim goggles over my eyes, making certain they were fitting nice and snug. I headed back to my bog, having to dodge the cowpies on the path again, something I had to do repeatedly throughout the day! I squeezed in between the sticks on the northwest corner, and standing on the western edge of the north side, I was all ready to begin!
Facing south, I made the fateful leap, getting sucked down to my crotch in the thick, doughy mire!
But, I was a little too close to the breathing hose, which I had to pull out from under the front of my shorts, glad to see that the end wasn't muddy!
I then began to slowly sink down deeper and deeper, struggling with my legs, the sucking mire eventually rising to my upper chest, at which point, I plunged my arms down into the doughy mess, and continued to struggle in the gulping mire, grabbing onto the hose under the mud to adjust its position. Once the thick, heaving muck rose to my shoulders, I finally put the end of the hose into my mouth, but I had to adjust my bite on it, because the inside of my lips were getting pinched on it. It was a long, slow process, getting sucked down deeper and deeper into the hungry quagmire, but the doughy muck sucked closed over my shoulders and continued to rise higher and higher! I had to try and move my head forward so that it would be in a straight position, for minimal neck strain. The suffocating mire swallowed my breathing hose, my nose and then my swim goggles, the light fading into darkness, and my exhaled breath hissing through the mud. I had to try and push mud in front of my head forward to help me move my head more forward, once again to lessen any strain on my neck. I felt a tiny bit of mud in my mouth, but I spat it out into the hose, and it was no longer a problem.
As the voracious ooze climbed up the sides of my head with the swim cap, I noticed that when I exhaled, for a moment, it sounded like a vibrating fart, and I hoped that I had caught that sound on camera!
I kept on pulling myself downward, while holding onto the breathing hose in front of me, so that it would go down deeper with me. I kept on inhaling through the hose, and exhaling through my nose, hearing the air hissing/farting around me to the surface. I kept on working myself down deeper, and then finally raised my hands to the surface to feel the area above my head to see whether or not it had closed over me yet. I felt a "flat" surface of mud above my head, meaning I was indeed totally sucked under the surface of the doughy, suffocating mire!
I continued to inhale through the hose and exhale through my nose, hearing the muffled hissing sound of the bog passing the gas to the surface above me! I noticed that the air I exhaled tended to take different paths, sometimes moving around different parts of my head. Sometimes the air would seem to build a larger air pocket which would then deflate to the surface above me!
I kept on working myself deeper, pulling my upper body and breathing hose down, and then working my feet down deeper into the bottomless gooey stuff below, before lingering there and doing things like moving my hands around underneath to make the mire heave and pulsate, or raising my hands above the surface and do some struggling, and slowly pulling them back down into the doughy depths of the sucking slime! I found that I could sink more easily when I pushed up through the mire with my hands as I worked my upper body deeper, before working my feet even deeper down yet! But, each time I worked myself a little bit deeper, there would be a brief moment of uncertainty about whether my body would be able to easily handle breathing at each progressively deeper depth in such thick mud, with me looking for any signs of any potential problems, but fortunately finding none each time, making me feel more at ease, as I got used to breathing at each deeper depth.
I tried to hold my arms up closer to where the air I was exhaling was being passed to the surface, in hopes that I could get it to rise along my arms/hands to the surface to try to make better bog farts, but it didn't feel like it was working.
I loved the experience of being totally engulfed by the encompassing mire, with only my breathing hose keeping me alive deep down in its suffocating depths!
I kept on moving my hands under the mire, swayed, and periodically raised my hands above the surface, only to slowly pull them back down again, to make them disappear into the doughy muck for effect!
I think that the deeper I got, the easier it was to work myself down even deeper, perhaps because with more mud above my head, it could flow more easily around the top of my head, instead of being hindered by its weight when it tried to lift/bulge above the surface when I was shallower.
Towards the end, when I worked myself down deeper yet, pushing up through the mire on my sides with my hands while working my upper body lower, and then straightening my legs, working my feet down deeper yet into the thick mire beneath, I noticed something new.
The mire started to squeeze my head more tightly, which felt interesting!
It seemed that the deeper I sank, the tighter the grip it had on my body!
Or, it had to do with the movement of the mud around me when I pulled myself deeper, with it sucking more strongly at my head!
It then took a moment for me to get used to breathing at that new depth, with me lingering there for a bit more, continuing to do various stuff with my hands. While I was under there, I also tried to put my hands above the stream of air I exhaled, to try to trap it and then release it in one big belch, but couldn't get the air to build up under my hands.
Finally, my mouth was starting to water like crazy, with me having to swallow more and more saliva, and I was also starting to feel a tiny bit chilled.
So, I finally decided to call it quits, and bring this session to an end.
I carefully worked each foot up higher through the thick doughy mire below, before working my upper body straight, moving my breathing hose up with me as well. I kept on repeating the process, the hissing of the bog passing the gas from my exhaled breath to the surface becoming shorter and less broken up. Then, the mud over my head felt lighter, and my exhaled breath started to have very abrupt hisses. Then, I could see light filtering through the mud! Once I worked myself up high enough for my mouth to be at the surface, I removed the hose from my mouth, spat out a bunch of excess saliva, pulled the hose partially out of the mud, and moved it away. I then continued to work myself up higher and higher up through the thick, doughy mire, wiping away mud from my head, including my swim goggles, and removing more mud that was stuck to me. After my head was above the surface, I heard the sound of cattle mooing again, meaning that they were back!
I just hoped that they didn't walk through my things!
I continued working myself higher and higher, moving the breathing hose further away. As I worked myself up higher, I would remove the odd bit of debris and smooth the surface out as well. Once I got up to waist deep, I worked myself backwards, towards the west side, and smoothed the mud around me some more. Then, I put my hands down on the grass on the edge, lifted my buttocks above the mud, pulled myself backward, and sat down on the grass. I worked my legs and feet out, pushing the mud off them and back into the bog, which I finished smoothing out. I then headed to the pond to clean my hands, but because things were so blurry through the goggles due to a combination of condensation inside, and mud smeared on the outside, I had trouble getting back to the camera, because I couldn't locate the bog!
I finally found it, returned to the camera, and pressed the record button a few times to make certain it was indeed stopped, before turning the camera off. I know I could have removed the goggles to see clearly, but there was so much mud stuck on my face that I didn't want to remove them until I had most of the mud washed off my face and head, or risk getting mud falling into my eyes.
I headed to the pond, and just as I had hoped, the water had warmed enough for me to immerse my head reasonably comfortably!
I cleaned myself off, having to scrub my face extra hard with my hands to make certain that there was no brown film left. I cleaned my swim goggles, swim cap and then my junk shorts and the string, using "Nature's scrub-brush" to clean my back again, and swishing water over my back to remove loose debris. I hung my wet things on some alder bushes, and finished my cleanup. I also had to clean up my breathing hose, swishing it in the water, and rubbing it in the grass to try and loosen and get the mud out of the grooves, and swishing it in the water again, as well as running water through it.
I removed the camera and Gorillapod from the stick, and removed the camera from the Gorillapod. I changed the camera back to 4:3 and put it away. I was happy that my things weren't touched by the cattle.
I replaced the sticks I had removed, also removing the one I used for the camera and relocating it as part of the cage. I then put the breathing hose away in its normal hiding place under a spruce tree, covering it with dead grass. I started to get my things put away, but since I had just finished the sink and cleanup, the swim goggles, swim cap and junk shorts and string were still wet. I put my swim goggles away in its package anyways, after trying to wipe away residual moisture with my t-shirt. But, I never bothered putting the swim cap in its package, because it was still fairly wet. I also suddenly remembered that I hadn't taken a final photo of the caged-in bog, so I did that:
2023 09 02 4M Crescent.jpg
I put the rest of my stuff away, and realized that there was one stick left I had forgotten to add to the cage - the one I laid in between the alders to try blocking the path of the cattle! I just took it and laid it on the ground out of the way. I took a final look at the bog, then started back, but turned around to check my area one last time to make certain nothing was left behind, before finally returning to my bike north of the pond, finding cattle were in the area. I put my stuff away, only to find that one plastic bag containing my drink bottles was set down on a small cowpie I didn't know was there!
Barely a tiny smear outside the bag, and nothing inside it was contaminated (smell test), and I turned the bag inside out and put it in a sidepocket in my saddlebag, and finished putting things away. I then headed back, passing the dropoff point some time around 6 pm, around 20 to 30 minutes later than last time. The truck was gone from the other sideroad, and I felt certain that that woman was from that truck. When I made it onto the main gravel road, I snacked on a Sweet & Salty cashew granola bar.
A little bit further down the main road, there was another truck parked beside another sideroad, with a herd of cattle gathered in the area. But, as I approached, the cattle started running, some heading straight down the road in front of me!
I kept hoping they would go off to the side of the road, because I hated chasing them down the road and separating them from the rest of the herd!
But, I had reached a long stretch of the road where there was a steep hill/embankment to the left, and a steep dropoff to the right, so the few cattle that were running in front of me had nowhere to go but further down the road!
I felt bad about how far from the herd they were, and it took forever before I finally reached a spot where the cattle were able to finally move off the road, a couple at first, and the others a little further. I just hoped that they would know enough to head back up the road to get back to the herd.
I had promised my dad that I would be phoning him around 7 pm, but since I was running late, I decided to phone at the Kilometre 7 marker, since that was the first place with cell service I would reach. I got there right around 7 pm, and made the phone call, and asked if I should also phone at the usual spot, but he said that he will be coming right away, and will pick me up wherever he saw me. So, I continued on, discovering that I passed the usual contact spot 15 minutes later! He picked me up in the valley bottom, and we got home before it got dark.
That was quite an eventful day!
I hadn't had so much trouble with cattle in the immediate vicinity for a long time, and this time was the one of the worst!
While I wasn't going to be surprised by anyone passing down that sideroad on any motor vehicles during the
Labour Day long weekend, the last thing I had expected was for
SOMEONE to be right on
THAT sideroad,
THAT day, by the east pond,
ON FOOT! I was so scared that this was going to be the day I was finally going to be caught in the muddy nude!
That person sounded like she was calling the very cattle that had been walking beside me and my things!
The last thing I wanted was to be in any close proximity to a rancher checking the herd, especially since I had opened up a patch of ground that poses a deadly threat to any of those expensive animals!
However, looking at the area from the sideroad, as I mentioned before, all the willows and alder bushes growing between the two ponds have hidden almost all of my pond/meadow, with only tiny glimpses of it from the southern part of the east pond, and those glimpses are of the area north of my bog. It would have been quite a difficult walk to go through the thick bushes and forest on the south side of that east pond to be able to get a view of the rest of the pond, and me!
But, to the north of the east pond, it would have been easier to get through the bushes there to see my west pond and me
, but I think I only heard her voice coming from the road around the southern to middle part of the east pond.
But, that is the type of thing you can go through on Crown (government-owned public) land, which is multi-use (logging, free range cattle grazing, hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, swimming, atv'ing, motorbiking, cycling, etc.).
But, anyways, that scare had interrupted my mushing of the surface, forcing me to lose a lot of time, deciding to take a hike to the clearcut and back, encountering people on an atv and motorbikes, which was something I wasn't surprised about. But, the added exercise from that extra hike resulted in the strongest cramps I had in a while
, but thankfully they didn't get too bad, and didn't last long.
I felt that I was soooo close to missing out on the breathing hose sink, but was glad that I managed to go through with it anyways, and didn't get back late!
It seems that each time I do a breathing hose sink, that in the moment that I am at my deepest beneath the surface of the thick, doughy, cool mire, inhaling through the hose, and exhaling through my nose, and hearing the muffled hiss of the bog passing the gas up to the surface, really feeling my diaphragm getting a workout, I feel satisfied that I have gone deep enough.
But, after it is over, I am on top of solid ground, all cleaned up, dressed up, warm again and heading home, I then always feel some regret for not going deeper yet!
I was disappointed about the rainwater that had puddled on top of the bog, which resulted in me mushing up of the surface for a purpose that was the direct opposite of what I had done before! I usually mushed and churned the surface to mix in the thicker stuff that was losing water on top, with the softer stuff below, to make it
as soft as below. But, this time, I had to churn the mud to get rid of the water and soggier mud on top, bringing up the thicker, doughy stuff from down below to
thicken the surface! Because of that, I believe that the mud hadn't thickened since last time, which was a disappointment, since I had hoped for even thicker muck yet for the breathing hose sink. But, I chose the thickest part, and it worked out fairly good!
I had only one brief "junk" video to delete this time. Looking at the main video, once again, it was nicely zoomed in, although once again, my hands weren't both completely visible at times where they were at the surface. The camera captured my escaping breath farting out of the doughy ooze nicely, not to mention the great view of the sucking muck itself!
I started hearing cattle mooing when I emerged, but looking at the video, it turned out that they were mooing during the video as well! But, anyways, I was so glad I did go through with the video!
Interestingly enough, I discovered that this adventure was on the same day of the month as
my final adventure last year! The two years have been very drastically different, like between night and day!
This year (2023) had El Niño with a hot, dry spring/summer, where I successfully shot video footage in ever-thickening mud on every adventure!
Last year (2022) had La Niña with a wet, cool, late spring and late start to summer, where I missed out on my only video opportunity due to equipment (Gorillapod) failure (bought a new one after that), at the only time the mud was briefly sticking up above the water before it submerged for the rest of the season!
To really illustrate the stark contrast between the two years, here is a comparison of the bog after I had disturbed it, both photos taken on the same day, September 2'nd:
2023 09 02 4N Crescent 2022 2023 Bog Comparison.jpg
I was a bit concerned that the strain on my neck from being beneath the surface of the thick mire would result in more neck pain, especially since I had already gone on an outing 5 days earlier, giving my neck not as much time to recover as I wanted!
But, my neck sensitivity seemed to remain not any worse than it has been after my previous outings.
However, once again, my side neck muscles were a bit sore for a day, but then that soreness went away.
The day was cool at first, but it did warm up nicely as the day went on. We got up to 28.1˚C (82.6˚F) in the valley, a nice, warm late summer day, the reason why I rushed to go on another adventure so soon (5 days) after my previous adventure!
The forecast at the time indicated that after that day, the weather would go downhill, and be cooler for the next week, right up until Hunting Season on September 10'th! They were forecasting Saturday, September 9'th to be around 21˚C (69.8˚F), which would have meant that the temperatures up in the mountains would have been around 16˚C (60.8˚F), a bit on the chilly side. So, I was certain that was my last bikeride of the season.
However, things have been changing, with them forecasting some warmer weather for that weekend, with temperatures approaching that of this adventurous day!
So, there could be a slim chance I could squeeze in yet another adventure before Hunting Season!
But, if it turns out that Saturdays are when the rancher checks out cattle
, then, I could wind up with a repeat of this day's incident, or worse!
I will just have to play it by ear!
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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 then lingered there to finish catching my breath, something I didn't have time to do before my submersion (didn't want to pause my performance during the shooting of my video). I then proceeded to work myself higher and higher up out of the muck, wiping it away from my head and body as I went. Once I got to around waist deep, I worked myself around and then worked myself forward into a diagonal position, where I could slowly work myself forward through the mire towards the north end, pushing mud from in front of me towards the back side of me, so it didn't bunch up in front of me. Once I managed to get close to the north side, I was able to start pulling on the grass, and continue to move mud from in front of me to behind me. Then, I turned around again, and pressing down on the grass with my hands, I lifted my buttocks above the muck and pulled myself backwards, sitting down on the grass. I worked my legs and feet out, wiping the mud off them back into the bog. Then, I headed to the pond where I cleaned my hands, and returned to my camera, where I pressed the record button to stop the video, but then was uncertain if I did it, since I couldn't see the screen through the foggy, boggy goggles. 
location! 
bog! 
)! I just enjoyed a perpetual gooooood feeling.