return to mud stomping at Reach 11
Posted by Zonie on December 13, 2020 at 00:38:06
Having had no substantial rain since August, northern Phoenix got 16 mm Thursday. I figured it wouldn't all dry up by Saturday morning. I was expected at a demonstration at noon, but I was up early and figured I'd have time to do some mud stomping at Reach 11 Recreation Area in the area by the Equestrian Center that had been bulldozed in November of 2019.
Apart from my later plans, there wasn't quite enough mud for a full wallow and it wasn't quite a warm enough day for me for doing that (the temperature rose from 7°C when I started to 13°C when I left). It did occur to me that I need not leave time to change. Having mud on my boots and overalls probably wouldn't make me stand out all that much with the crowd. They'd just think I was some rancher who had stomped around in the mud feeding the herd in the morning prior to driving into town for the demonstration.
Decades ago I had been told that having two university degrees was a permanent disqualification from being a redneck and that the best I could hope to manage was being an eccentric, but due to my work and clothing I am sometimes mistaken for a redneck, and this guise seems to have worked today. One lady asked if I was a farmer, and I told her I was a metallurgical furnace operator, and then I had to explain what that was.
Anyway I wasn't too late. One day of relatively weak December sunshine wasn't enough to dry it all, and I found satisfying squishy mud in many of the dips in the bulldozed field.
I had a fair amount of solitude. There had been a crowd of young people exercising in the parking lot when I arrived, but they must have gone elsewhere, because I didn't see them again after I got on the trail to the Equestrian Center. The center itself was empty most of the time, though late in the morning one staff member was using the tractor to grade the arena, so maybe some equestrians were expected in the afternoon.
I managed to flood my boots in a couple mud puddles, churn up the mud well and slop it up mostly to my knees. It's a good start after so many dry months. Unfortunately the long-term forecast is for a dry winter, but those have low accuracy.