Refusing to follow the trail, I decided to cross the Dirty Devil at this spot.  I didn't get very far when suddenly, I was stuck in Dirty Devil Quicksand - It's hard to describe, you'd put your foot down and it would feel solid and then it would slowly keep sinking in.  I'd put my poles in and they would just keep going in.  Finally I fell over and had to crawl out, with help from Joel and Shelby who had run back to help me when seeing my predicament.

Unfortunately, my camera and GPS were ruined.  My sleeping bag and spare clothes remained mostly dry, thank goodness. I also learned a valuable lesson - that if there is a trail there is a good reason for it to be there. At the end of the trail, you could cross the river with solid footing all the way over.