Man Gets Stuck in Lake Michigan Quicksand and Comes Out with New girlfriend
Everyone in a relationship will know how love often works in mysterious ways, but quicksand isn’t typically involved, right?
Typically, no; but never? Also no. Just ask Mitchell O’Brien and Breanne Sika, a new couple, for whom falling in love first meant falling in quicksand.
O’Brien, 37, and Sika, 36, were both single and interested in the other, but under impressions the feeling wasn’t reciprocal. This carried on until a mutual friend asked them why they didn’t go out on a date together?
Deciding to visit Van’s Beach, located in Leelanau County north of Traverse City, the perspective couple were hoping to find Leland blue stones—a bizarre and seemingly natural beach treasure and relic of Michigan’s industrial past made up of blue glass and various chemicals.
“At one point, Bre points to a spot on the beach which was right next to the water, and she goes, ‘That looks really dangerous,’” O’Brien The Detroit News. “I didn’t realize she was referring to a singular spot; I thought she meant the whole area. I ended up turning around and walking straight to that spot to see if there were any stones in the water.”
Sinking immediately up to his waist, it was the second time O’Brien had been caught in quicksand in his life. He was fortunately able to remain calm enough to think of a plan.
After trying to dig the sand out from under his waist only for it to be replenished with every cold wave that splashed onto his back, Sika tried to help pull the man out. This also failed, and the two were left trying to call 911 with spotty cell service.
At one point, Detroit News reports that the operator thought they were telemarketers and hung up on them, but eventually they received connection enough to explain the situation.
“At the end of me telling them what’s going on and where we are, I said ‘I think my girlfriend is calling as well,’” O’Brien said. “She’s like 20 feet away, and she was saying ‘My boyfriend is here, stuck in the sand.’ It was the first time we had called each other that.”
With rope, pushing, digging, and pulling, three rescuers eventually got O’Brien free from the soup that appeared to be a mixture of sand and Jello.
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Quicksand or quickmud occurs in sandy or muddy areas where the understory—whether of rock, seabed, leaflitter, or something else—has eroded away, usually due to water running beneath it. The hole creates a vacuum that quickly fills with material, and any disturbance, for example from a footfall, creates further vacuums that suck the material and the disturbing object down into it.
This is why the number 1 rule if stuck in mud or quicksand is not to fight it or try to struggle free, since every jerking movement will pull you down further, faster.
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To survive this ordeal, always seek to escape in the same direction you entered from. You won’t be able to take a step, jump, or generate any forward motion, so the best option is usually to simply allow yourself to fall flat onto your stomach. If you have a backpack or a walking stick, hold it in your hands and reach them towards the ground where you want to move to, then began to wriggle your waist and torso until you can free your legs.
When O’Brien got trapped, the weather had been in the 40s, and in mid-April, the water temperature was below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Though shivering in the cold, O’Brien retained his sense of humor, and asked Sika to take a picture of him since “nobody’s gonna believe us.”
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