I hope I didn’t offend any golfers with my title! I went out kayaking today, around the time of low tide. I needed to do some maintenance on the creek, and I took my mudding gear, in case I could manage some time in the mud.
The tide level did not bode well. If I did get in the mud, I wouldn’t have long to play. The tide was still going out, so I paddled to my most distant spot. When I arrived, the tide was as low as it was going to get. I picked a spot where I don’t generally play, but I knew had a precipitous drop off hidden in the mud.
It’s uncanny, really. I can step off the edge and go from knee deep mud to well over my head. What’s even weirder, is that I can reach out and feel a sharp, hard shelf next to me, that feels like it was cut at a right angle. When standing on the shelf, you’re standing on a solid, level surface. The drop off from there goes straight down.
Anyway, I knew I didn’t have much time, so I hurried to set up cameras and cut a crude path through the tall needle grass. With the cameras rolling, I took a walk down my path to a muddy tributary that would bring me out on the shelf. Once I reached the edge of that hidden shelf, I took that fateful step, and the bottom disappeared. Needless to say, I was never heard from, again. 🙂
By the time the mud sucked me under, the tide was coming in pretty fast. I dragged myself out of the deep spot and set out across the unpredictable mud towards my boat. I no sooner arrived at the camera by my boat (the non-waterproof one), and it started raining. I quickly put that camera away, got the rest of my gear into the boat, and started walking my boat towards deeper water, where I could get cleaned up and change my clothes.
Regarding the pictures on this post: The first one is from the story and the last three are the aftermath. I didn’t get any cleanup photos or video because the weather was threatening, and I needed to get back.