re: Occam's Shaving Cream
The ground is presumably soft, based on the history of an attempt to create a pond there.
I'm not sure I follow you on this. If the attempt to pond the place failed because all the water sunk into a limestone cavern or aquifer, why do you assume the ground is muddy or soft? If the ground were muddy or soft, I would expect the ponding attempt to have been successful. It's hard to make a guess like that without information on the soil type. The more clay in the soil, the more ponding will occur. The more sand, the faster the water will sink and not pond. Also what kind of precipitation do they get there? Still too many unknowns to rule out dry conditions for the lack of footprints IMO.
With some time I may be able to dig some of this info out.
-Steve G.