The pond that tried to eat me

In a previous post, I briefly described one of the field sites (Niemijärvi) from which I collect isopods. There is a small wooden bridge that goes over the pond/swamp and I usually just use a net to collect isopods from the bridge (see pic…not from today). Yesterday, I did just that, but only managed to collect a few isopods. This morning I returned, but with my rubber boots so I could wade into the lake and collect from areas away from the small bridge. Sounds like a good idea, right? Nope. I took one step onto a seemingly dry piece of ground and, next thing I knew, I was up to my knee in mud. In such a situation, your natural reflex is to push hard with the other leg to try and pull yourself out. That’s what I did. Can you guess what happened? Yeah, I was immediately in mud up to both my knees. At that point I stopped to think about how to get out of there without surrendering my boots to the swamp. I leaned back, found a spot to put my hands where they wouldn’t sink, and pulled one leg out. Once it was out and on solid ground, the other leg came out without too much effort. Great way to start the day…covered in mud with little success in collecting more isopods. Tomorrow I won’t leave the bridge.