Crossing boggy areas - a query

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

My recent benchmark and adventures coupled with recent weather trends, have taken me more often than I would like though boggy area.

 

From crossable flooding (say 10' long by 8" deep) on woods roads to less easily crossable areas in log yards and skid roads (20-30' by 12" - but with grass on top), and finally to beaver ponds where the standing water and mud underneath may be several feet in depth.

 

Beavers take out a road

 

Often in boggy areas, say along the US-Canada border swath, you can sometimes manage to step on the grass and vegetation and sometimes move on to the next spot it before you sink. Or some times not. Sort of like tip-toeing in heavy boots.

 

Places like this

 

I just got a pair of 16" Bean boots, and even they just put off the inevitable.

 

What do pros do? Surveyors, forest engineers, loggers, boundary perambulators? What to they do? What do you guys do?

 

I have opted out of the Fisherman's hip boots or complete (arm pit?) boots for fear of falling over and drowning. Besides I could hardly hike the miles before during and after the boggy parts in such.

 

Here's an idea: for vegetated bogs, wear snow shoes or something similar, and try to keep above the vegetation and not sink? But I have visions of the snow shoes getting stuck in the mud and my days ending with the bottom (of me) drowning and the top (of me) being eaten alive by bugs.

 

Should I contemplate a rubber raft for big areas? Or would that be a wasted effort getting the thing in and out.

 

Anyone have any clever solutions? Thanks.

[+Kabuthunk]

Don't know how well it applies to some situations, but when I go after a particularly boggy geocache (those being my favourite type), my "solution" is to wear sandals, and just let my feet get wet. As you said... boots only put off the inevitable. So I say... accept the inevitable! Your feet will dry off after a few minutes not in the water anyway. I also have zip-off pants that will 'convert' into shorts easily, so I can just do that if I think it'll be higher than 'pull pants up to knees' height.

 

If it's mosquitoey, as it usually is around wet areas, my normal option is "ignore them and move quickly", but I suppose you could always bring some socks (with sandals, yes, I know, but eh), take them off when you get to the wet areas, and then put them back on after your feet dry.

[AZcachemeister]

Don't know how well it applies to some situations, but when I go after a particularly boggy geocache (those being my favourite type), my "solution" is to wear sandals, and just let my feet get wet. As you said... boots only put off the inevitable. So I say... accept the inevitable! Your feet will dry off after a few minutes not in the water anyway. I also have zip-off pants that will 'convert' into shorts easily, so I can just do that if I think it'll be higher than 'pull pants up to knees' height.

 

If it's mosquitoey, as it usually is around wet areas, my normal option is "ignore them and move quickly", but I suppose you could always bring some socks (with sandals, yes, I know, but eh), take them off when you get to the wet areas, and then put them back on after your feet dry.

 

Or maybe...

Snow-shoes?

A really small pair could provide the flotation you need without being too bulky to transport, or too unwieldy when worn.

If a commercial product is too expensive, maybe you could rig something using the lids from a couple of 5-gallon buckets!

[+Black Dog Trackers]

Yuck !

 

Maybe a couple of fairly thin 2 feet x 8 feet pieces of plywood with a 8 foot 2"x2" down the center of each and screwed on. Drill a hole through each end of each board and attach a 12 foot tether rope to each hole. A lot of weight. Maybe there's some kind of lightweight plastic analog of such boards.

 

Maybe you could do a survivorman kind of video of your boggy adventures!

[+NorthWes]

Here in southcentral Alaska I wait until freeze-up and then travel. Unless I'm moose hunting... but I've learned to not be crazy-stupid and try to cross areas too wet for my LaCrosse Ankle-fit "Burly" Knee Boots (I just bought a new pair yesterday... only the 3rd pair in the last 24 years... they're worth the money). Besides wet feet, if you cross an area too mucky to be easily-navigable in those boots going in to hunt, just imagine what it's going to be like on the trip out with a hundred-pound pack (over and over again, until more than a quarter-ton of meat is out of the field). No - best way to travel boggy ground is after freeze-up (and need I say, the ice had better be thick! If you think getting wet's bad in the summer, finding out stiff water has a hole in it with you in the middle in the winter is a definitive Bad Thing).

[+Rumpled]

As I live in a desert, I've not encountered too much of this.

For the first picture, I might try skirting to the left; either in my 4x4 truck or on foot. Depending upon water depth, which is difficult to tell from pic.

For pic #2, I'd try to skirt either treeline where it might be a bit drier. Or sandals it straight up the middle.

 

I do a fair bit of trail running, and I typically just storm on thru any water and hose my shoes off later.

[kayakbird]

Boots are never tall enough.

 

A river runners breathable drysuit would have been nice today as I got in deeper and deeper to verify that the concrete posts that I could see in the drain ditch really was WARROAD SB AZ and its WP - AI1907.

 

A note on my first benchmarking trip to the Minnesota northwoods. A GPS 0.25 mile to go is way more difficult here that it is in the high plains; but the berry picking is much better here. Mike