Edwin Lakes Area Pond

This pond has a nice sinking area on the east side where a stream enters it. The mud has some sand deposited on top by the stream, but further away it is just mud, which varies in softness depending upon how close you are to the water. All around the edge of the pond, grass covers soft mud. Where and when this mud is extra thin, it bounces like a waterbed, making you feel off-balance from the grassy ground tilting towards you as you walk. I could never touch bottom in the mire.

For cleanup, the water in the east side gets fairly deep quickly, making it very easy. But you have to go through the mud again to reach shore, so the stream, when it is running, allows for the final cleanup of the legs and feet. Yellow Waterlilies provide solid rhizomes to stand and walk on. There is water close to the grass on the west side for cleanup if the stream is dry.

This was an extremely dry year, exposing much mud! My main sinking area, at the time of the pix, was too thick to sink into anymore, and in fact, animals, possibly deer or cattle, have walked on top of it, sinking only a couple inches! For my sinking pix, I had to choose a softer spot closer to the water.

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Saturday July 21'st, 2001

July started off hot and dry, dropping the water levels, thickening and exposing more mud. Then, things became very cool and wet, raising water levels, submerging much of the mud, except for my main sinking spot, which was still just exposed, almost level with the water. The high water softened the surface a fair bit, making the very top of the mud much runnier than the extremely thick, doughy mire below. I hadn't worked it through the summer as much I would have wanted to, and so it took a while for me to sink under. This is the same spot that got so thick in 1998 that it wouldn't close over my head, even after I was several inches under, and I wound up getting claustrophobia, and then, later in the season, deer or cattle walked on top, sinking only a couple inches!