Quicksand!

[jdmidwest]

I came across an interesting article on F&S online, Quicksand is not cool anymore. I can't say, in all of my streamside travels that I have ever came across anything remotely resembling quicksand. I even stick my foot in the little bubbly springs just to see how deep I will sink. Anyone ever seen Quicksand? I remember most survival books years ago taught you how to get out of it.

Quicksand is not cool anymore?

[Al Agnew]

I've actually encountered real quicksand once. It was on Pickle Creek in Hawn State Park. Pickle Creek, which flows through the Lamotte Sandstone formation, is very sandy-bottomed where it's not rock. I guess this place had a spring or something welling up from below. The water was only a couple inches deep over what looked like a smooth sand bottom. One step it was solid, the next step one leg went down just like it was water, all the way to my upper thigh. Now I had one leg sunk, the other twisted and bent around almost behind me. Fortunately there was a log within reach so all I had to do was grab it and pull myself out, but it was startling, to say the least.

[jdmidwest]

I think I know the place. Why would you step off the trail? Did you not pick up a copy of the trail guide at the head of the trail?

BTW, Pickle Springs is a great place to do family photo shoots.

[eric1978]

I encountered some stuff earlier this summer wading the Huzzah near Red Bluff...I wouldn't call it legit quicksand, but kind of a combo of sand and mud. I was crossing the mouth of a small feeder creek, and I stepped off a log jam into about a foot of water and ended up about thigh-high in muck. I didn't sink any further as I struggled out of it, but it had quite a grip on me, and it was a real mess to get out of. Pretty scary, really, since I was by myself and a good mile or so from the truck.

[fishinwrench]

Anyone ever seen Quicksand?

Oh yeah, plenty. I grew up on the Salt river, and the Mississippi. As kids my brother and I learned real quick about where quicksand forms and how to avoid it. I've only been in it bad once, but we had to rescue our dogs a bunch of times.

[Al Agnew]

I think I know the place. Why would you step off the trail? Did you not pick up a copy of the trail guide at the head of the trail?

BTW, Pickle Springs is a great place to do family photo shoots.

Yeah, I don't always stay on the trails...so shoot me.

I've been roaming around the Hawn Park area ever since I was a kid, and more of it has been off the trails than on them. There are so many really cool, and beautiful, rock formations there that few people ever see. I've been up and down every hollow in and around the park at one time or another. River Aux Vases on the back side of the park is spectacular, and some of the best places along it are just outside the park boundaries. I used to know the people who owned them.

Since it's only a few miles from the house, it's still a place where my wife and I go whenever we want a quick day hike. For a LONG day hike, if you have a plat map and topo maps, you can start out at MDC's Pickle Spring Natural Area and hike all the way to the main campground in Hawn Park without ever leaving public land...and it's a really cool hike with a couple different options for exploration.

But when I encountered the quicksand, I was actually fishing the creek. I used to fish down it and up River Aux Vases from the confluence, then hike from there back to the car. Not many fish of any size in Pickle Creek, but lots of little sunfish, a few smallmouth and largemouth, and the occasional grass pickerel.

I even floated Pickle Creek one time from the park down.

[flytyer57]

[eric1978]

Since it's only a few miles from the house, it's still a place where my wife and I go whenever we want a quick day hike. For a LONG day hike, if you have a plat map and topo maps, you can start out at MDC's Pickle Spring Natural Area and hike all the way to the main campground in Hawn Park without ever leaving public land...and it's a really cool hike with a couple different options for exploration.

It is a pretty nice area with some good hiking. We did an overnight once in August several years ago, amidst a heat wave much like the one we had earlier this month. We started at Pickle Spring and hiked some loop, and it was so hot I didn't bring a sleeping bag, just a light sweatshirt I figured I wouldn't need. We camped near the base of Evan's Knob by a little creek, and I absolutely froze my butt off. I woke up shivering and it was a miserable night. I've never gone without a sleeping bag since, August or not.

[jdmidwest]

Yeah, I don't always stay on the trails...so shoot me.

I've been roaming around the Hawn Park area ever since I was a kid, and more of it has been off the trails than on them. There are so many really cool, and beautiful, rock formations there that few people ever see. I've been up and down every hollow in and around the park at one time or another. River Aux Vases on the back side of the park is spectacular, and some of the best places along it are just outside the park boundaries. I used to know the people who owned them.

Since it's only a few miles from the house, it's still a place where my wife and I go whenever we want a quick day hike. For a LONG day hike, if you have a plat map and topo maps, you can start out at MDC's Pickle Spring Natural Area and hike all the way to the main campground in Hawn Park without ever leaving public land...and it's a really cool hike with a couple different options for exploration.

But when I encountered the quicksand, I was actually fishing the creek. I used to fish down it and up River Aux Vases from the confluence, then hike from there back to the car. Not many fish of any size in Pickle Creek, but lots of little sunfish, a few smallmouth and largemouth, and the occasional grass pickerel.

I even floated Pickle Creek one time from the park down.

I have been there several times myself on business and pleasure. It makes a nice backdrop for photo shoots and has some nice rock formations. I have not been there since last spring before the big wind, did it damage the park or the spring trail? I have wanted to go up in the winter time after the leaves fall and hike down the canyon to the park and take some pics.

[denjac]

I have never encountered quicksand, but have been in bogs in northern Minnisota. Very creepy stuff. You can jump up and down and the ground moves for yards around you. They do lose a duck hunter or two up there evey year in the bogs.