Revisiting an old mud hole

I had been pondering a trip out to the river for a while. Yesterday, I decided to make the drive and explore a spot that I haven’t visited in over 5 years.

I used to have a bit of a clearing where I pulled my boat up on shore and a trail to my mud hole. Yesterday, I had to clear tall marsh grass where I landed and it wasn’t easy to find the mud hole, because it was grown over with clumps of grass.

The cool part was that the mud under that grass was still soft and bottomless. I could walk right up to the edge of where I had it worked up, but the next step was instant death.

I got into my Tarzan thong so I could make a little “Tarzan get sucked under” video. I’ll bet you can’t guess how it ends! Sorry, the name sort of gave it away. Maybe I’ll come up with a better name for it. It might sell better if I just call it “Tarzan gets sucked”. Facebook would probably identify that as click-bait and banish me. Actually, I don’t use Facebook.

The mud was good. It was thick and the grass on top made it impossible for me to use my usual escape trick. I wish I had had my wrists tied behind my back. Escape would have been really interesting, then.

There is absolutely no bottom to this muck, and it’s pretty smelly, too. I think I might have to go back there, sometime.

I didn’t work really hard on shooting video, yesterday. I took only my GoPro and kept it close so I could adjust it from time to time. The images here are all from the GoPro video. Once I finished shooting the main feature, I enjoyed the mud for a while longer, and got sucked under one more time for posterity.

Finally, I clawed my way out of the mud and returned to the river to wash off. It was nice having only one tripod and a very light camera to carry. I had to think back to the old days, on the techniques I had developed for cleaning up on that muddy river bank.

The cleanup spot is wide open to the river, but I didn’t see a single boat on the river, the entire time I was out there. It has really never been a problem; I can hear motorboats coming long before they come into view, and there aren’t many. A canoe or kayak could sneak up on me, but that has never happened. If it does, I’ll just invite them to join me in the water. 🙂

That’s it. There can be no more mudding this week, because I have no car. It’s too bad, because today would be a great day for mudding. I can still detect the smell of that mud on my skin. It’s a nice reminder of where I’ve been.