It’s certainly been a chilly September for us!
I made one final trip to the sticky solitary hole and discovered that someone had taken a truck or something and crushed all the nice tall grass that helped to hide the mud hole from the nearby driveway. It’s a little bit disappointing that I won’t be able to return there this year. I did stay for the evening and not a single passing vehicle threatened my solitude, so I was happy for that one final session.
The creeks I was exploring this year, unfortunately, are too grown in and never sufficiently drained so I will have to put off further exploration until next year. I am still in awe of the massive amount of silty/clayey/gooey goodness I’ve found in that area. Parking will need to be addressed. Otherwise these creeks and streams cover a nice sized area and I’m confident I will find at least one viable day spot somewhere in the area. Hopefully…
This leaves me at this year’s final spot, the spot I found 2 years ago. I’ve visited it a few times when the water level was low. Very silty with some organic content and a thin layer of clay left from a creek that drains into it. I’ve made a few visits there and the hole was getting deeper and gooier… And then it rained. So up goes the water level so my nice gooey hole is under water again.
So I tried a different approach. I found a spot a few metres down the creek where the water hasn’t reached yet. I found the ground was pretty soft and spongy. As a bit of an experiment I brought a shovel and shaved off about 2″ of soil and the plant life that was growing in it. I ended up with a new useful patch of similar soil. It’s got a slightly more sandy texture, but it’s pretty fine sand and once I mushed around a bit it became very good quality mud.
I went back one more time to visit this new hole, and this time I used the shovel to deepen the hole to about a metre deep. I took out some water, and mushed around a little bit and I’m sure I can make this hole a lot deeper still… Nevertheless a metre deep is quite sufficient for my needs.
I’m fully aware I’m running out of nice weather for this year. I’m hoping for a few more nice evenings, but even on warmer nights the ground is starting to get kinda chilly. I’m already anticipating the return to some of my holes next year, after the saturated ground freezes and thaws again…
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