Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska A Popular & HORRIFIC way to die in ALASKA.

Absolutely this!

General advice…
If you had to affect rescue for a stuck HUMAN (not scruffy the 12 year old wonder mutt) spread your weight as wide as possible….like your walking on 10’ soft snowpack, snowshoes, boards, tarps, cardboard, evergreen fronds, ANYTHING that allows you to spread your weight and NOT apply too much weight on a footprint sized spot.

Water-jets are the best way to get unstuck.

Sorry, but that does not really apply to this mud... move quickly and stay moving. Do NOT step into a low spot! Once a foot is stuck you are in trouble.

It's been gnawing on me ever since you made this post about your kids to share a story here I was told by a man that rescued himself from being stuck in the mud flats.

He was a beast of a man, over 400 pounds, he'd just moved in with his parents whom were my friends.

He was 42 bed ridden and dieing of advanced complications with diabetes, go figure, he died a few weeks after we had our conversation.

He told me he use to fish, he'd wade out into waste deep water and stay all afternoon. He said it was common that he sunk in the mud a bit but it'd never been a problem until it was.

He'd been in the same spot for a extended time and hadn't realized how deep he'd sunk into the mud until he tried to free himself.

With his every move he sunk deeper, it seemed there wasn't any way he'd be able to free himself and there was a rapidly moving incoming tide. He had some sorta floating tackle box on a tether that was tied to his waist.
He pulled the tackle box in close to him and was able to get both his arms over it and began forcing it under his chest.

It gave him just enough buoyancy that he stopped sinking and was able to start gaining ground with his efforts to free his legs.
He said he was keeping his head tilted back to keep the water out of his mouth and nose before he finally broke free and was able to swim to shore.

He never fished again, it scared him bad.

I never forgot sitting there listening to him tell me his story, it was a horrific near death experience for him.

It makes me think the average guy in a average shape should be able to accomplish the same as this obeist man that was in poor health.

If he just had a buoyant device of some sort that'd support his weight.

I found these 'Restubes' on Amazon, there are a couple different sizes but uninflated either would fit easily in the bottom of a day pack or float bag or whatever you always have along on such adventures. It's the type of thing that could just stay there so you don't have to remember to bring it along.

I know all mud isn't created equal and it might not always work but it'd beat the hell outta having nothing.

With a length of light weight paracord attached it'd make a suitable rescue throw device anyway.

In my near drowning briefly described above, my truck broke through the ice, and I went to the bottom of the lake (45' down) trapped in the cab. There were things in the bed of my truck that floated when the truck sank. One of those items was a 5 gallon half full propane tank that was to fuel my ice fishing tent heater. When I finally escaped the cab of the truck and swam back up to the hole in the ice, I was able to use the floating propane tank as a support in my effort to get out of the water and back on the ice. Took about 10 minutes to work my way out of the water. If I'd had no propane tank, I don't think I would have been able to extricate myself.

Excellent post JeffA.

“Quicksand”, TA mudflats, etc ALL adhere to the same principle of physics as the others, it is a supersaturated, fine substrate that transforms based upon water content, the forces of physics as it relates to the “vacuum” are no different just because it’s in Alaska. TA is most definitely a dangerous place and it can “grab” you faster but if you understand that hydrodynamics and the physical properties of the buoyancy of the human body apply in the “magical Alaskan mud” as it does everywhere else in the world then use that to your benefit if you get stuck……..STAY OFF THOSE MUDFLATS!

I’ve taken enough classes, received enough certifications and responded to enough accidents to know that there isn’t something special about TA glacial silt……before someone wants to regurgitate some bullshit they think makes it special I’ll trust my certifications, licenses, training (including from Anchorage FD trainers) regarding swift water rescue, SCUBA rescue, Marine Patrol….as well as REAL LIFE experience dealing with stuck individuals in many “rescues”. TA has huge tides and fine mud but that doesn’t negate the scientific forces at play and render it magic mud! That’s as polite as I’ll be when a know-it-all wants to spread bullshit by denying FACTS! Everything in my previous post regarding A STUCK INDIVIDUAL APPLIES if you’re stuck.

It’s the tide (or exposure) that kills you not the special magical TA mud. 😉

And yet, it’s different. 😏 😉

What is it that makes the mudflats of Cook Inlet so unpredictable and so dangerous? Geologist Susan Winkler of the United States Geological Survey said it is the unique character of the grains of silt that are washed down from surrounding glaciers.

Winkler, who recently transferred to the USGS Denver branch, spent several years studying Cook Inlet sediments.

"The grains are highly angular. When they're deposited, they're in contact with each other in a delicate balance," she explained. "When you step on it, you cause it to become more mobile. Then, when it resettles after you've disturbed it, it tends to be more compacted around your foot. The grains are so angular that they're just locked together.

"You have these grains that are just balanced and they have lots of water between the grains. When you disturb it, the grains rearrange themselves and the water flows out and when they rearrange, they're more compact."

https://akfatal.net/Dickison.htm

Thank you.

Yes, it is.

Sorry, did not mean to twist your thong.

I am not going to fall back on anything but facts and will simply state TA glacial mud is different in many ways as wolverine's post states. Sticking more appendages in the mud as you sprawl does not work. The increased agitation just sinks you faster.

I have spent significant time out there on the mud flats with individuals engaged in figuring out the science.

It would appear that holding a hooligan net in waste deep water somehow provides a mystical protective force against the TA mud, completely invisible to those desperately trying not to run over the careless net jousters darting across the Seward Hwy.

Nope, not a bit of mystery. The cuts with significant directed current have the fines washed out leaving a solid bottom of sand to gravel.

There is still mud there, but not in the conditions needed to sink you.