Missouri River Corps of Rediscovery: Creatures of the mud

Mud. It defines our existence as the boundary between water and land. Mud is the event horizon separating the universe of wet from the universe of dry. To cross the threshold in either direction we must become creatures of the mud.

How many times have I stood on dry land with clean feet, staring at my canoe moored in the mire only a few feet away? No matter how well organized we may be, there is always some small item needed from the canoes that requires yet another trip through the mud. I wonder how the men of the Lewis and Clark Expedition managed to cope with it all the time.

While we camp on land, our canoes remain in the mud, especially my heavy dugout canoe. It is like living with a moat of mud bisecting one’s house, where the kitchen stove is on one side of the moat, while the fridge, pantry, and sink are on the other, where our bedrooms are separated from our dressers, where the bathtub can only be accessed by wading through the mud both before and afterwards. Doing laundry, either in the river or rarely in town, is a futile effort for creatures of the mud.

In the upper reaches of the Missouri, the mud was black, rich with organic matter, and typically only an inch or two deep, yet the problem was fundamentally similar.

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