Wednesday, August 20, 2008 --- 1:50 p.m.

According to the Portage Daily Register:

LAKE DELTON - An Illinois woman visiting the area for the day became stuck in mud past her knees in the Lake Delton lake bed Friday.

"I thought I was going to sink no matter what and my kids were going to watch me die," said Bettina Sailer, 42, of North Aurora, Ill.

Sailer was visiting the area for the day and was walking the lake bed with her husband and two children.

"Our goal was to cross a creek," she said. "We saw the signs that said ‘Caution, sinkholes' so we were careful."

As the group approached some flowing water near the public beach on Park Drive, she started toward the shallowest part of the creek.

"I took a step and didn't sink," Sailer said. "I took a second step and didn't sink. My third step, my shoe went in a half-inch."

She said this wasn't unusual because her shoe had been sinking somewhat while she was walking the muddier spots of the lake bed.

"When I took another step, I went down to mid-calf," she said.

She put her weight on her back foot to pull her leg out of the mud. But when she did so, her other leg sunk to mid-calf.

"I said, ‘Oh my God, I'm sinking,' and my husband said ‘You're kidding,'" Sailer said.

After only a few seconds of struggling, her 5-foot frame was sunk up to her knees. She told her husband he needed to call for help.

"When my husband called (911) he said, ‘You aren't going to believe this,'" Sailer said. But the dispatcher said if it had to do with Lake Delton, they had heard just about everything, she said.

While the family waited for police officers and firefighters to arrive, she took the sling off her previously injured shoulder and attempted to pull herself out with long branches nearby.

"They threw me a dead tree branch," Sailer said. "I pushed on it and it sunk." Her family threw her another longer branch and that sunk, too.

When police officers arrived around 4:15 p.m., an officer made his way out to her, after sinking down to his ankles himself. He told her the fire department was on its way, and that they'd probably pull her out with a rope.

While they were waiting, an electrical worker who was doing some work in the area saw what was happening and brought his extension ladder down to help her out of the mud.

"I pulled myself onto it and crawled out," Sailer said. "I was stuck for 45 minutes. I felt bad that the fire department and police department had to be involved."

Delton firefighters arrived on scene and allowed her to wash herself off with its hose. Despite the sticky situation, Sailer didn't let the mud ruin her day.

"We went back out there," she said. "But I stayed away from anything that wasn't solid dirt."