{"id":6363,"date":"2023-09-18T09:59:23","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T13:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/?p=6363"},"modified":"2023-09-18T10:01:47","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T14:01:47","slug":"free-exploring-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/?p=6363","title":{"rendered":"Locating Mud (free video)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>John Marsh went out exploring the forest, again on September 17. Here is a short video from his expedition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video controls poster=\"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2023-09-17_hike_1.jpg\" src=\"\/movies\/2023-09-17_short540p.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>People often ask me how I find good places to sink. This video gives you a clue (like other exploring videos I&#8217;ve posted in the past). You can&#8217;t tell where you&#8217;re going to be able to sink deep, or where the texture of the mud is going to be perfect without sinking in it. I could probably use a pole to check depth, but that wouldn&#8217;t tell me if I&#8217;m going to encounter buried timber and other obstructions that the pole might slip right past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bottom line is that every mud hole I visit has been discovered this way. I have slogged through miles and miles of muddy bottoms and salt marsh to find those perfect spots. I can tell you where you&#8217;ll have the best chance of success, but really great spots are rare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a nutshell, you want to find a spot that used to be a deep hole and has since filled in with silt. That could include the classic settling pond where sand-washing plants eject their clay-rich water and the clay settles out, although most of those are heavily guarded. It also includes places where a stream path has been altered and an old oxbow has been abandoned by the stream and has since filled up with loose silt. Of course, estuaries can have bottomless muck; just stay far enough from the ocean that you don&#8217;t encounter oyster shells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If an area is heavily wooded, there is a 95% chance that the tree roots are too thick for you to sink. You&#8217;ll have to find clearings where large trees can&#8217;t seem to grow; that could mean unstable ground, or maybe it&#8217;s just too wet for tree roots to breathe, but either way, you may be able to sink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bottom line is that you have to get out there and get muddy if you&#8217;re going to discover that perfect spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Marsh went out exploring the forest, again on September 17. Here is a short video from his expedition. People often ask me how I find good places to sink. This video gives you a clue (like other exploring videos I&#8217;ve posted in the past). You can&#8217;t tell where you&#8217;re going to be able to &hellip; <a class=\"read-excerpt\" href=\"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/?p=6363\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&raquo;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,53,207],"tags":[213,214,102,86],"class_list":["post-6363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exploring","category-production-issues","category-video-blog-vlog","tag-boots","tag-hiking","tag-jean-shorts","tag-short-shorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6363"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6368,"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6363\/revisions\/6368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mudlover.com\/theswamp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}