So...

About once a year I get out to the tidal mud and have a good wallow. But it is so difficult!!!

1st: Use google earth to find decent looking mud.
2nd: Travel to said mud and assess in person if its accessible, has a fresh water source for cleaning up, and if its even good mud!
3rd: Watch the weather forecast and the tidal chart times and hope that your schedule pans out where you are free to travel to the mud on a warm enough day where low tide coincides with privacy IE: EVENING-NIGHT.
4th: Have a clean up plan.
5th: Execute

So I made my annual trip a couple of weeks ago and what a pain in the A$$!
I will say it was the BEST MUD I'VE EVER EXPERIENCED, but what a fiasco.

The low tide was 10:20PM, so I got there about 9. I knew the clean water was going to be difficult to get to and I was probably going to get a little muddy going from the clean water back to the car so I brought a 5 gallon bucket to bring some water back to the car.

I walked into the mud and slogged toward the clean water, which turned out to be MUCH farther than I anticipated. I filled the bucket and slogged through the mud and placed it in a spot I could easily find it. Then I finally sprawled out and let myself be enveloped in the silky smooth slop. I slid on my belly, I dug and mixed a hole that I could plunge my head and shoulders into, and I had a phenomenal time!

Then it was time to clean up. I slid on my belly down the bank and into the clean water, which was much shallower now that it was closer to 10pm and true low tide. I was wearing a thin pair of bikini briefs and as I slid into the shallow water SOME TYPE OF CREATURE (I'm pretty sure it was a crab) ended up in my undies! I had a few full body spasms as I thrashed to get that awful thing away from my junk! My neck and shoulder were sore for days I thrashed so hard!

After scrambling up the muddy bank and checking to make sure I hadn't lost anything (beans and frank all intact thank you very much!) I regrouped and high step-walk/slopped into the water and rinsed myself as best I could. Then I started the walk back to the car. The mud seemed much deeper on my walk back than it had on the way out (probably just my anticipation to get into the mud in the first place). I started to get tired and started breathing pretty heavily. Then I got to the bucket which had a good 4+ gallons of water in it and attempted to carry the extra 30+ pounds while high-step walk/slopping through the mud. I had to switch hands every few steps and realized the bottom of the bucket was splashing in the mud almost every step. It was also bumping/brushing my legs which were now covered with thick black tidal muck halfway up my thighs.

The long walk back took forever! [I just looked it up on bing/maps and it appears the walk was about 1/8 of a mile through the deep mud. The bottom left of the photo is where I parked and the far right is the clean water. This picture is obviously NOT from low tide.]

At the car I was exhausted and prayed no one was going to come walking by, or stop to check on the car parked on the side of the road. I splashed water on my legs and feet, wiped off with a towel and threw my old clothes on. Then I bagged the muddy clothes, tried to splash rinse the sides and bottom of the bucket as best I could and drove home. At home my shower took over 20 minutes as I scrubbed and scraped to free my fingernails and toenails of the grimy evidence that would surely be noticed in my white-collar workplace the next day. My morning alarm came WAY too soon and I was exhausted all the next day at work.

So although it was an awesome tactile experience, and the excitement of the day thinking about the fun I'd have, the drive there and the actual first splay into the filth was a drug-like high of overwhelming excitement and elation, I'm not sure when (or if) I'll ever venture to the tidal mud again. In my fantasy mind I'd live across the street from the tidal flats and just hop in whenever I pleased, but that will never be my reality. I'll just have to enjoy these little snippets of mud fun and cherish them in my memory for years to come.

I just wrote out a long reply to this with tips on how I do it but as soon as I hit "preview" the UMD asked me to log in - WTF - I'd just been looking at my bloody sales figures, how could I not be logged in??? And it dumped me at my profile page, post erased. And then "Back" doesn't work, just endlessly shows my profile page.


Short version: Buy some 18.5 litre water cooler bottles off eBay, fill them with hot water before heading out, use them to wash off with instead of trying to get to water that's beyond mud.

Buy a plastic waterproof suit and wellies to come back wearing, means you only have to get head and hands clean at location, suit protects your car interior, shower off in suit and take it off in shower, so clean it and you at same time.

Hope this helps?

Haha - funny ( the carb Story)

Carbs are the worst, always going to your ass

or, come and get in my warm, sanitised, crab free indoor mud tub with room for three and nice and deep complete with privacy, heating and shower next door

also if you really have to do outdoor mud you don't need that much water if you take shampoo too. 1 litre if you have a friend to guide you, 2 litres if on your own. put the shampoo on without using any water and rub some on your body as well. have a rub over with each splash of water and save about 500ml for a final rinse....that will get you clean enough to get home for a more thorough shower

I have a truck, so space isn't a concern for me... but generally when I go, I fill a cooler with warm water from the tub and bring along a pint-ish plastic cup to use as a shower. At 85 quarts, it's more than enough for two completely-covered people.

Or if you're somewhere with trees / poles you can have a half-decent shower...

http://www.outfitterssupply.com/Solar-Camping-Shower/productinfo/WCA142/

Wow some great tips. Maybe I'll return to the spot with shampoo and some water bottles just for the experiment!



Bob, you do outdoor mud in Florida??? DO you have to worry about gators???

I highly recommend it. my clean off procedure can be seen in one of my downloads where I'm out in a random country field covered in paint, custard, beans... mainly paint. A lather up with shampoo, rinse with 1 litre water and some dry clothes later with a quick stop off at a supermarket to use the hand dryer as a hair dryer I was able to walk back into my house 20 mins later with no one noticing. Done the same with mud at least three times and it's easier to clean off than paint

No. But, I never venture out into the kind of territory they'd be in, either.

@candycustard you had me at crab free mud tub!!!

Recommend a kayak.

After one of my mud-larks and washing off in cold water I had to go back in the warm mud to get warm again.