I'm with a small group of people, just getting out of a car on a distant logging road, on the edge of Pamelia Lake. This is Pamelia Lake? Yes it is. I know Pamelia Lake, from a point on the route up Mount Jefferson. There's a distinctive beach there, we should be able to see it. But it's hard to tell, the lake has lobes in several directions.

This lake isn't flat like real lakes, and from what I know of the topography, and we're sort of at the top/north end, and the beach I know should be down near the bottom/south, but I can't see it over the hill. My friends explore different directions, and I take my camera and start wading through the shallow water toward where I should be able to see the beach.

The water is only about 6 inches deep, but suddenly it gets deep and mushy, and I plunge in up to mid-thigh. I quickly retreat back toward the car, laughing now because I'm all wet, to warn my companions to be careful about that.