The Magazine of The Sierra Club
ENVIRONMENT EXPLAINED
Stuck in the Mud
You're on a solo hike and get sucked into a muddy swamp. Now what?
I was camped near Ebbetts Pass in the Sierra. I was going to take a hike with a friend, who backed out, so I went alone. That may have been a mistake -- though if she had come, both of us might have been stuck.
I wanted to get to the shore of a small lake, but it was off-trail and there was a lot of mud, which was made even stickier by droppings from Canada geese.
With each step, I sank in deeper. Suddenly I was in up to both knees and couldn't pull myself out.
I laid my hiking poles in front of me and rested my hands in the middle. Using all of my strength, I was able to free my legs.
But there was more mud between me and the trail. I crawled to an old log that was partly on solid ground, straddled it, and finally got to the grass and safety.
Now I was covered in sticky mud, but I didn't want to waste my drinking water trying to wash off, so I just hiked back to camp. My boots will never be the same!
Ask the Expert
Bill Flower is the Sierra Club's Outings Committee chair.
"When hiking alone, a small problem can easily become a big problem. Our hiker did well to remain calm and to think about what she had that could help--a log or branch might have helped if she hadn't had hiking sticks. As a last resort, she could have tried to pull her bare foot out of the boot and the mud. Then she'd want to try to dig the boot out, because she certainly wouldn't want to hike out barefoot."
