This spring the corn field behind my property is flooding like it never has before, and some of that water has extended onto my property. So last night I decide to take my new Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx GPS out to obtain a track of the perimeter of the flooded area (turns out to be a total of about 50 acres under water).

So during this walk I'm at most about 1/3 of a mile away from my house - I can see it during most of the walking. I brought with me a camera, cell phone, the GPS, and my EDC (whistle, sparker, mini-Rittergrip). I'm wearing my barn boots, which are standard calf-high pullup rubber boots.

At about halfway around the perimeter I realize that the only way to get to the "other" side of the water's edge is to either walk all the way back around to where I can from, OR walk across a 25 foot section of fairly shallow (8 inches maybe) flooded land. Being lazy, I decide to cross the shallow. Well, three steps into the water my left leg drops about 3 feet into a hole in the ground. Luckily I stoped the fall by jamming my right knee into the muck. The good news was that I didn't fall over completely.

So slowly I manage to wiggle my left boot out of the hole and get enough of a foot-hold to stand up and wash the muck off my hands. Only after standing up did I (1) feel amazed that I didn't drop the GPS, (2) realize that although my left leg was caked in mud and my right leg was wet, the water never even got above my front pockets - my wallet, cell phone, car remote, and camera were all completely dry. Whew!

I finally manage to cross the shallow spot without any more problems, and then I start looking for a non-muddy place to pull my left boot off and try to remove some of the muck. All I could do was balance on my right leg while doing my best to dump out some of the muck and water. Then I'm off again to walk the rest of the perimeter ... with every step it was squish, splat, squish, splat.

Though it was pretty cold and windy (my hands were cold having to hold the GPS out), but my wet legs didn't feel all that cold - probably because of the walking.

Now I'm getting tired because it is much harder to walk with two wet boots caked in mud, and it is getting dark (I started out much later than I'd planned). I started thinking that I could easily imagine how someone who was lost and in my current state of wetness and discomfort could loose track of time and not realize how late it was really getting. The night creeps up fast since my eyes are adjusting to the darkness pretty well. It would be very easy not stop soon enough to find adequate shelter.

As I walked I'm looking around the edges of the field thinking about where I'd go for shelter if I really had to. There just isn't much there, though there are brushy areas. But to setup a shelter in such brush would take time and a much bigger knife to cut branches than my mini-Rittergrip (yeah, Mr. "I don't need a huge knife" admitting it would speed shelter building up). I also had the sense of "I've got to keep going" that is probably felt by so many who are lost and don't just stop to rest or seek shelter.

An interesting night last night, and the total distance walked turned out to be 2.6 miles. The good news is that I was able to return to my truck, strip off the yucky boots, and drive home, but it makes me appreciate the peril of the "unexpected" happening.

By the way, those electric boot dryers sold made by Peet (I got mine from Cabelas - $35) work wonders for drying out soaked boots! They were dry by morning.

Ken