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The messy adventures of John Marsh |
On Saturday, Aug 26, I added some pleats to my super-tiny denim short-shorts, so I wore them on my trip into the swamp the next day. I had about an hour to play at low tide, and I used some of it to shoot some arrival video. I cleaned up a little before diving head first into the mud for my feature of the day. I did some really dangerous stuff off-camera as the tide was coming in. When the lightning and thunder from a band of thunderstorms started getting close, I decided to head for my cleanup spot. I got rained on a little bit on my way out, but the rain stopped before I got to where I planned to clean up.
This vlog is a little long, so it is pretty low quality, again. I shared as much of my trip as I could. Maybe, after I’m dead, someone will go through all this old video and make a full length documentary out of it. 🙂
I will be releasing some new material for the September C4S special. Hopefully, that will help pay for the camera I had to replace.
I left a silly plastic part in the swamp, yesterday. I knew it wouldn’t be damaged by the salt water, but I was afraid it might get carried away in a high tide or heavy rain, so I set out, today, to fetch it. I decided to wear an old pair of nylon briefs that I haven’t worn in a long time. I figured I might as well get muddy, as long as there was a low tide. I got out too late to enjoy the duration of the low tide, though.
I had to drag my boat in, since I arrived when the tide was at it’s lowest point and about to come back in. I recorded a good bit of the slog. After that, I dove in head first and recorded a little drama. Finally, I rinsed off a bit, tied a rope harness on my hips for fun, and paddled to where I clean up. I failed to hit record on one scene, but I got most of it on video.
I will probably make a longer version of this slogging video for sale (full HD quality, of course), and I’ll have another clip from this trip with the dive and struggle. However, I was thinking that my loyal patrons might be interested in some of my vlog clips that will never be released as clips in full HD (FHD) quality without the watermark. I can’t promise to have the project files for older clips, but any vlog/teaser I’ve released in the past year or two will still be on my editing computer, so I could pretty easily export a FHD version, free, for the right person. Some of these vlog clips are pretty hot, in my *humble* opinion, and it makes me sad that I have to publish them in low quality with a watermark to protect my bandwidth and my content.
I’m still exploring new places, but I have also had some decent low tides. Yesterday (8/11), I went into the swamp for some messy fun. I did 5 wardrobe changes. That’s just how it played out. The video blog below gives you an idea of how my trip went, yesterday …
On 8/8 I explored some new places at high tide to see what I could find when the tide wasn’t low. I found some really cool looking swamp scenes, and there was some deep mud, but I didn’t find any smooth, debris free mud where I could really have fun. I think I could shoot some dramatic video, because the scenes are really scary looking. I did shoot some video on my 8/8 trip, but the light wasn’t very good for video.
On Saturday, I took a friend kayaking with me, up the muddiest creek I know of that isn’t salt marsh. The first part of the trip was pretty strenuous, but things went pretty much as planned. The return trip was a little rough. I had to paddle several miles against the incoming tide and a moderately brisk wind. I let my friend hike back on the trail, so I had to tow his kayak behind mine. He also had some adventures on his hike, so we both took a pretty good beating. Of course, the only things I recorded on video were the fun, scenic, and muddy parts. My vlog includes none of the really challenging parts. That’s kind of the way I shoot my adventures. I don’t want 7 hours of video to edit, so I just shoot when I think it’s going to be interesting.
I didn’t shoot anything I plan to sell, so I edited the highlights into the following 6m 23s vlog. Of course, I had to make it low resolution to keep the file size down.
Maybe conditions are going to favor better tides in the near future. On July 26, the low tide got down to -0.56 ft (at the tide gauge that I monitor) and it got down to -0.72 ft on the 27th! That’s lower than I’ve seen the tide in a long time.
Although I was in the 2nd day of a migraine headache on July 26, I could not pass up what could have been my only chance for a good low tide. My head had been hurting for about 30 hours, so I figured a distraction wouldn’t kill me. I took my heavy, lead weight and I probably took some ill advised risks, but going under with the heavy weight tied to me definitely took my mind off my headache! (probably not something you should try at home)
My headache was gone by the time I went out on the 27th, but I almost didn’t go because two days in a row of going under the mud, over and over, really messes with my eyes. However, I also have some poison ivy on my left ankle, and I figured it couldn’t hurt to soak it in salt marsh/salt water. So, off I went. I didn’t take my weight, but I did do some crazy fun bondage … and got lots of mud in my eyes.
And, this evening (July 27), after cleaning up my gear, catching up on work, and doing a load of laundry, I went out to target shoot with my compound bow. After all that, I came in and edited the short vlog that you can find below. I hope you enjoy my 1:33 summation of my two days of adventure and horror in the swamp.
Everything I’ve been reading is telling me that my tide situation isn’t going to improve for years, if ever. So, I’ve been risking poison ivy to find new places to sink. Yesterday, I was really taking my chances, walking through it barefooted. I hope I don’t regret that decision.
My next trip will probably be to this same area by kayak, so I can avoid some of the weeds and have an easier cleanup.
At least for a while, if the current trend continues. I had some moderately low tides (where I would have had super low tides in the past), thanks to the new moon (sun and moon aligned). I left home around 3:30pm so I’d be able to arrive in the great mud zone around 5pm (30 minute drive and 60 minute launch/paddle).
When I arrived, the tide was still going out. I didn’t go straight for the familiar mud. Instead, I paddled away from the creek, into the muddy channels that cut through the marsh grass. The channels are filled with deep mud, but the channel I chose to traverse was full of timber and generally has some water over parts of it. I had hoped to get to a spot where I have played before, but I wasn’t able to get that far, in spite of a heroic effort.
I put together a seven minute video that covers the highlights of my trip from the time I got out of my boat into the mud, until I got washed off and started packing up to paddle back. The video has been removed from the server, to make space for new vlogs (2024-04-22).
I went out to the swamp on Sunday afternoon (July 16, 2023) for what would be a pretty short wallow in my deepest swamp muck. It was raining when I arrived at the mud, but it was just a quick shower.
As soon as the rain stopped, I dove head-first into the bottomless muck. I dove so deep, it took me several strokes of my arms to break the surface, when I had to resurface. I think this was the first time I’ve ever been that deep after a dive. It was kind of intense, so of course, I had to do it twice.
There really isn’t much to report on this trip, except that it was very short. I went out in my jean shorts and stripped down to red latex briefs before getting in the mud. I paddled my new boat, so I could experiment with a boat-mounted camera support.
I’m still waiting for the tides to return to something like they were a few years ago. I know we’ve had 5″ of sea level rise here in the last 10-20 years, but the tides seem to have risen 6″ in the past 3 years, therefore I think there has to be other factors involved.
Check out this free video. I didn’t really shoot enough to make an official clip, so I won’t be releasing an HD version of this until I have some more diving video to add to it.
