How I Found Pluff Mudd

Ok what I'm about to say, I'm not really all that proud of, I'm actually quite lucky really. For awhile now I've wanted to photograph the bridge and beyond. The bridge I'm referring to is the one right by my house, sort of, it is the one closest to me, I think. It is the Okatie River underneath it, and so it holds Highway 278. Sounds pretty exciting doesn't it? Ok probably not, but there is a tale to be told, and a lesson to remember.


Here we see a tree, which is kind of strange, because there really is no trees in or by the river.



Here is the Okatie River, not really a river, but anyway, a tidal estuary, aint it nice? Now up until this point we really didn't encounter any pluff mud, but I'm working on it, believe me.


This is a crab, they live in pluff mud, they like it there, probably because they are light enough to not sink in it, but that is mere speculation on my part.


All the crabs were tiny, and for the most part would run into their holes... there were a few that didn't make it. God rest their souls.



Here we have made it, this is the side of 278 nobody really sees. We did run into what we thought was pluff mud here. There was maybe a 6 inch layer of mud that we had to navigate/negotiate. What we didn't know is what lay in store for us later...


Ok we made it. Well we did not make it back yet so don't get too excited. I did feel kind if let down as there really wasn't much to photograph.

Except for the sky. And even then there is the power line in the way.

We make our return trip, and everything is pretty much going according to plan. Not that there was a plan, but if there was we were going by it.


Until here. You see, this very skinny peninsula was mildly amusing to me. I walk up to get a closer look and sluuurp I found the real pluff mud. I took a step, and it was like any other but then the ground gave away and I discovered that for all intents and purposes I could grab my, eh hem, crotch or touch the ground, they were both the same. I had sunk one leg past my mid thigh and now I had no idea how I was going to get out of this.

You really can't accurately describe what it feels like to be walking one second, the next you're in mud up to your ass, you just can't. Desperation set in. I can say that, though my 13-year-old, was laughing hysterically, I was methodically thinking of a way out. I gave the camera to my still snickering daughter and pulled up just enough so that I was on my knees, and I knee walked until I felt I could stand again. My clothes were done, but other than that I was ok.

Then it was my daughter's turn to sink in the mud, which really was funny, because she was laughing at me, and she sunk both of her legs down into the pluff, and she lost her flip flop (yes I know, not the shoe I would have worn but kids, you know?). So she sticks her arms down into the hole to get the flip flop and success we have got it, except now my daughter is just about covered in pluff mud, and I take the camera back.

We retreat without further incident, both of us really looking forward to a shower. But if I can take anything away from this trip it's this... You can laugh if you want to, but the same thing may happen to you, and the wife was right in warning me about pluff mud, I hope I never again find myself in it.