I have never been to the Milford Road side of Marsh Creek before, so this is going to be very interesting.
As I entered the circle at the end of Milford Road, I saw a man standing at the trail-head dressed in orange and a gun on his shoulder.
I parked and as I got out the car, I asked the man if he had seen a lot of other people in the area, to which he said no, and then we started to chitchat.
After some time we introduced ourselves to one another, and as I read his card, I noticed that Joe Isaacs, was a drumming instructor, to which I said to him, that I had just posted earlier a video of some taiko drummers!
The two of us chatted for a little bit more than said our goodbyes, and I headed down the path to the rest of Milford Road.
Crossing over a pile of rocks, I started to walk along the new shoreline, which was sandy at first, then turned darker the closer I got to the water.
One could definitely see several levels at which the water had receded.
My tripod and camera were still hanging from my neck as I walked along the beach, and slowly moved into a slightly muddier area looking at a potential shot.
In fine tuning my position, I took a half a step back and was soon sinking in mud!
Within a fraction of a second, I was thigh deep in mud, and stuck.
This was not good.
I twisted myself so that I was facing where I had just come from, and I threw my tripod about 10 feet.
Somehow I had managed to keep my camera clean so far, as I tried to figure out a way to get back to safer ‘ground’.
Leaning forward, and on to my elbows, I started to slither back along my footsteps.
When I felt confident enough, I tried to stand up, which was easy enough to do, thankfully.
As I was standing there, re-assessing my situation, my cell phone began to ring.
I do not know why I answered the phone, but I did.
It was a customer wanting to schedule a meeting to drop off some photography that I had done for her.
I explained to her that I was not in front of my computer, but I could give her a call back at another time which she easily agreed to.
Wonder if my heavy breathing had something to do with her reaction.
Then it began to hit me.
The unique scent of fresh swamp mud…
Was I going to continue the day…
I was definitely having second thoughts, but decided to trudge along for as far as I could.
If there still were any bugs that were thinking of me as a snack, I definitely had the ultimate repellent for the day, and each time I tried to find some place to wash off, I still feared sinking in again.
After several hundred feet, I reached a series of more piling clumps and captured some images, and at one point snapping an image showing the boat rental facility where I had been a couple of days before.
I walked along the various shallow inlets, and as I got further along the western coast line, it became dramatically steeper, and eventually came to a place where a newly fallen tree prevented me from going any further, so I turned around and headed back.
Returning to where I had started, I decided to continue on, heading east an into the small cove.
As I approached this end of the lake, on the other side I could see more pillars sticking out of the mud, along with several big rocks that dotted the mud flats in front of me.
Finally in the corner of the cove, coming out of the woods, was a small stream of clear water, which I happily stepped in to trying to clean my legs and shoes, but there was just not enough.
Looking at my watch, it is time to head back home and greet the kids, as they got off the bus and start the rest of the afternoon activities, including some good cleaning!
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