Skip to main content

There Must Be Something of Value in Mud

Well, I certainly failed to "meet spec" on the recent cold mudhole debacle in Colorado. Yes, it was disgusting and uncomfortable -- but so what?  Let's see if I can redeem myself today.

But first, consider how absurd the situation was. It was cloudy and rainy and only got into the 50s (F), even in mid-day. I was wearing thermal underwear and a skull cap, but just couldn't get warm. In August!  I refused to go out to the tow vehicle and retrieve my winter parka; I also refused to turn on my propane heater. Finally I crawled into bed in mid-day and watched "Lawrence of Arabia", so that the mere sight of hot sand and deserts and camels would cheer me up.

What is valuable or meaningful about mud? Perhaps mud is the best example we have of true progress, in the form of gravel roads. It is easy to look up the date that certain gadgets or machines were "invented." (This is usually a bit misleading, since a working thing is a combination of technologies, and which exact combination constitutes "the invention?") Still most things are easier to date than gravel roads.

For instance I had a grandfather born on a Midwest farm in the year 1900. Most Americans were farmers in that era. How many roads in his county were better than simple dirt roads? Imagine the isolation and inconvenience that that involved. Why, it must have isolated them for weeks or even a couple months in the late winter!

It is true that horses do OK with muddy roads, at least if you are riding the horse. But they couldn't pull a wagon or carriage through that goo or slop. How did a family go to town on Saturday or to church on Sunday?

Consider how much the world changed in our grandfather's era, compared to our own. We are brainwashed to believe that a new gadget of some sort is proof of how rapid progress is. But look how trivial gadgets are compared to the inventions of two generations ago! Even in my youth, the "invention" (meaning widespread acceptance in middle-class homes and cars) of air conditioning was a drastic thing, compared to version 8.2.05 of some operating system or a minor change in the form factor of an iPad.

Although it is just human nature to take miracles like gravel roads for granted, it is still very nice to take a vacation from such ingratitude.  Real camping provides many opportunities of that type. It's a pleasure that mainstream, comfort and status-worshiping motorhomers will never experience.


Comments

Jim and Gayle said…
Yes, the invention of gravel roads would be about the only redeeming quality of mud. We had more experience with mud this summer than we ever care to have again. Lesson learned!
Don't blame you for moving on- hope you found a drier place.
Gayle
Sondra said…
I live on a dirt road, I hate the gravel the county dumps in some spots of the road, its hard to walk on and its bumpy! Sand is the best...clay is horrible.
You guys are still thinking like Floridians. You think that aridity is wonderful. You just wait! There will come a time when you appreciate the monsoons, and when you yearn for mildew growing between your toes. (Clorox and dental floss work best.)

Moving on? I only moved to town for two nights of urban boondocking, and to let the rains go back to normal patterns. Also, I lost 1000 feet of elevation and am now in sagebrush, rather than the forest borderline.
XXXXX said…
I lived on paved roads my entire life. Now I live on a gravel road and I think I'm in heaven because it signifies that "the crowd" won't come here for that very reason and that suits me just fine.
Most summer days here are 60 degrees, at least partly overcast and misty. That suits me just fine too.
Mud is actually pretty interesting if you stop and take time to learn about what's all living in it, at least here at the coast. Which makes me wonder about mud in other places as well.
Yes indeed, gravel roads do work as a "screening device", don't they? They send the frivolous motorist to somebody else's road.

I believe Edward Abbey interviewed Joseph Wood Krutch just before the latter died. Both men disliked the paved "auto loops" that the national parks were building at the time. Krutch thought that national park roads should stay gravel to screen out the mass-tourist.
XXXXX said…
Mud gets a bad rap simply because it is inconvenient to us humans. Not for any real reason anymore but because we are spoiled and wish to separate ourselves from any perceived inconvenience that nature imposes on us.
My curiosity was spiked and I tried to find a book on amazon about the importance of mud and couldn't find one. I'm taking a class now on life in the coastal zone and mud planes are a very important layer between the ocean and the land. It's a bridge full of life and full of species that can transverse both salt and fresh water, who are part of the web of food and prey, etc.
Jim and Gayle said…
Actually we didn't mind the afternoon thunderstorms for the first week or so since it cooled things off and kept down the dust. But then it became all day rains and deluges, which brought the mud and gave us cabin fever. After we left Flagstaff we learned that they had the wettest July on record since 1919, so we weren't just being whiners!
TomInBellaVista said…
speaking of your grandfather's era, I once got a lesson on the practicality of horses and wagons. Touring my hometown for the last time with my father, I spotted a long hitch rail outside the county court house. My derisive reaction, prompted the following from my Dad: "Son, those old farmers weren't dumb, after a Saturday night in town, all they had to do was untie the horse and climb in the bed of the wagon. The horse knew the way home." No DWI's in those days when the horse did the driving.
I know what you mean about sand. If it's mixed in the right ratio with dirt, it's pretty good for the road.

Today I was mountain biking in an area where the dirt is mixed with decomposed granite "sand". It's really good stuff because it is coarse, non-round, and has nice corners. So it improves a wet dirt surface by quite a bit.
If you are formerly TomInOrlando, welcome back!

Your anecdote is reminiscent of the photo-cartoon-poster of the ol' drunk cowboy slumped in the saddle, with a dog in front, doing the driving.

The had plank roads in the old days. I wonder what those were like. They must have been noisy.
edlfrey said…
My mother didn't say anything about noise but she did tell me a story about traveling across the dunes west of Yuma, AZ.
Her father moved the family from southern California to the Sulphur Springs Valley in southeastern Arizona in 1916 to homestead some land. My mother said that they carried planks with them to put down when they came to a section of dunes were the plank road was cover with sand. It was a big problem keeping that plank road open, I would guess there were similar problems with others (most likely water related versus blowing sand).
The dunes WOULD be a good place for a plank road, wouldn't it?
Anomous said…
"I am firm. You are obstinate. He is a pig-headed fool."
Katharine Whitehorn

I think you are definitely obstinate Boonie. LOL Good luck coping with your present mud environment.