Razor Clams and Sockeye

We’ve been very busy lately and I have not kept up with the blog.   We spent two rather boring days in Homer.  Last time we were there we did boat tours to two of the islands, Seldovia and Halibut Bay.  We wanted to go to Seldovia again but the seas were really choppy.  Our view on the Homer Spit was beautiful but the spaces were crowded and dusty. The highlight of our time in Homer was a great haircut for Clark and a visit to the Farmer’s Market.  There were many produce vendors there with huge and tender vegetables.   We bought lots of vegetables and listened to the Williwaw Marimba Band for quite some time.

We took Clark to a groomer.  She did a really great job and he looked terrific after. The groomer raises and shows poodles but handled Clark’s manly good looks well.

At the end of the Homer Spit many people were lined up trying to catch sockeye salmon.  A little old lady was the most successful.  She seemed to catch a fish every time her hook went into the water, sometimes getting two at once.

I had had enough of Homer and called Scenic View Campground to see if they had space for us to come
in early.  They did, if we were willing to move after the first day,  “No problem”, says my sweet husband so we headed down the road.  We were greeted with a plate of fresh smoked salmon when we arrived at the RV park.  It was warm and really delicious.

Our goal for this part of the trip was to do as much clamming as possible.  The RV park lends clamming equipment and gives advice on the best clamming hotspots. There was a 95% crash in the razor clam population in Ninilchik and we were sent on to Deep Creek. The limit has been reduced to 25 clams each per day.   If you have never been clamming, it is quite an experience.  The best time to go is during the lowest tides.  We drove as far as we could in the CRV on the rocky beach and then walked toward the sea as it receded, watching for the dimple that indicated a clam was hidden below the sand.  Breland used a big clam gun (it looks like a massive bulb planter) to dig down toward the clam.  Usually by the third try he would come up with a 5-7 inch long razor clam.  I used a clamming shovel and was much less successful.

The tide goes way out in Cook Inlet and we walked quite a bit following the tide out and all along the beach. The air is so very clean, the bluffs tower above you, eagles and gulls fly overhead,  and you can see the volcanoes gently smoking across the inlet.  There are many people clamming on the beach at low tide, easily 500 on the Deep Creek beach.  Everyone has a good time.  A couple of guys took it upon themselves to help me figure out the best way to dig and a laughing blonde woman who had “limited out” kneeled on the ground and shoved in up to her shoulder to get the clams out.

Each day we got almost our limit of 50.  On the first day we brought the clams to a “clam lady”, someone who is paid to clean clams.  That  afternoon we watched people clean the FOUR ice chests of clams they got on a charter that took them across the inlet to a beach where there is no limit on the number of clams you can gather.  Cleaning didn’t look any worse than, say, cleaning crabs, so we decided to do the second day’s catch ourselves.  The RV park owner gave a great lesson with lots of hands-on demonstration and we had fun cleaning the clams with another couple.

The best thing about razor clams is eating them. I fried some the first night and packed them away for many more meals.  We now have a freezer full of sockeye, clams, and halibut.  We plan to buy a small chest freezer so that we can store more fish.

Gayle Clamming

A Venting Volcano

Fireweed and Volcano at Midnight