Category Archives: outdoor stuff

One of the things that our friend S has been talking about doing is checking out digging razor clams on a late afternoon/evening winter low tide. The combination of weather, lower tides, and timing seemed to be just about right yesterday, so we joined him on an expedition to the beach near the wreck of the Peter Iredale to dig clams.

If clams could be found, that is. It was a blustery, stormy day with a couple of rain squalls blowing through and a constant wind that made it hard to identify clam holes. We poked around on the beach for about three hours from 3 pm on, following the tide down while we could see, then going back up closer to the pickup to look for clams using lights.

One clam. It wasn’t the usual firm summer sand underfoot, either, but a softer, more saturated sand that slid away from under heels if you stayed in one place for more than a few seconds. I got vertigo staring at the water-saturated sand after dark and had to spend more time studying the surf–despite the dark and the clouds, the moon above the clouds kept things well lit.

The wind was also stiff enough to push me a little bit, and a couple of times when the surf came up, even though it was calf-high it was still pretty strong. I kept a sharp eye out for sneaker waves just because of the mood of the ocean this time of year. Didn’t get too cold, but I was wearing my ski base layers underneath heavy jeans and a sweatshirt, plus a vest and a rain suit added to my tall boots.

At one point I did get a lovely shot from a sunbreak, early on:

Afterward, we stopped at the Pig n’ Pancake and I had lovely gluten-free blueberry pancakes with blueberry compote and bacon. Yum.

We’ll try this again, but maybe not on such a windy day!

(on the Oregon coast, in winter, yeah. Riiiight.)

For the first time in a couple of years, we had a hunting trip where we could see the mountains the whole time. Not just the Wallowas, but the Seven Devils.

We also stayed in a nice little cabin at Wallowa Lake–for three adults, that ended up being the cheapest and most pleasant alternative. Once again, we kind of went through the homesick phase while we were visiting the County. Even though we only lived there for six months over thirty years ago, that six months was when we lost our hearts to the place. It made us heartsick to leave, but it was the best thing to do at the time, as a young couple without the means or experience to make it in the ranching world. I was nowhere near being able to make it as a writer, and we just didn’t have the supports to try to make it in other viable areas.

But we’ve always dreamed of going back, of living the kind of outdoor life we’ve always loved to do. Despite all our dreams of other places, the Wallowas have had our hearts for years, and the Wallowa country doesn’t let go easily. It also provides fodder for gorgeous pictures.

The required Grouse Creek picture–setting of “Cold Dish,” recently reprinted in Netwalk: Expanded Edition.

Another hunter girl pinup pic.

No buck deer spotted where we could see them this year. No grouse spotted, either. That was okay. We had a good two days back in the woods and at the lake. I got two nice hikes in, one on Saturday afternoon where I spotted kokanee and did some writing.

On Sunday morning, the family wandered down to the lake and we spotted a pair of eagles.

And a lot of daydreaming about other types of lifestyle happened, too.

Nonetheless, it was a lovely visit and an all-too-short relaxing time. At some point I hope we can spend more time in this heart place. But the reality of that is still very far away, especially for people like us with responsibilities, duties, and–well–obligations.

Dreaming is still pretty darn nice, though.

And now it’s time to get back to work.

This morning we drug ourselves out of bed very early, sped around the house, then got on the road quickly to meet our friend at his coastal place. Once we switched everything over to his truck, then we headed for the beach and yet more adventures in razor clam digging near the mouth of the Columbia River. DH commented that this is the most often he’s gone by the wreck of the Peter Iredale ever…same for me as well.

After navigating a rather rutted out soft sand passage to the firm pack sand, we drove several miles north on the beach, past the Peter Iredale, almost all the way to the jetty. This was an excellent but not necessarily great low tide, but still rather nice to try to hit around 7:30 am:

At first the digging was slow. After initially getting a smaller clam, I hit quite a few dry holes. Then I followed our friend over to a spot on the beach which was just packed with big clams. DH joined us and we managed to get a limit for all three of us–45 clams–in less than an hour. It was nothing-nothing-nothing–then hey, look at that! and we were digging hard and fast, twisting the clam guns into the sand quickly yet delicately.

Oh, and I found two whole sand dollars. I’ve never found whole sand dollars on the beach before, so that was really cool–and they’re nicely marked.

There were a lot of tiny little crabs on the beach this time. I saw a couple of things that might have been tsunami debris, but they might not have been, either. Spotted a big freighter working its way across the Columbia River Bar and another one headed out. There did seem to be a bit of traffic on the river for certain.

A fascinating thing happened when I was rinsing my clams for the last time. As I pulled them out of my bag, one of the clams extended heshe’s foot. While a clam’s foot is webbed, the edges are a bit stiffer and can dig. Well, this clam waved its foot aggressively, grabbing at the sand for three attempts to dig in, then pulled it back in.

We stopped at the Pig-n-Pancake in Astoria for breakfast. They have heavenly gluten-free pancakes, so I pigged out on blueberry pancakes, bacon, and a half-slice of ham. Hey, after doing all that clam digging, girl’s gotta carbo load, y’know. Wet sand is pretty dang heavy.

Then we headed for our friend’s house to finish off letting the clams clean themselves, rinse them, then clean them. Three limits is 45 clams, so here’s what 45 good-sized razor clams looks like:

There were a lot of big clams this time around, many more than from the past two times we’ve gone out this clam season. And we’re starting to get the hang of how to dig razors without breaking the shell. That said, it’s easy enough to break the shell even if you back off with the clam gun and go in by hand–the process of pulling the clam out can take a bit of work to get them without breaking the shell.

Nonetheless, we got a lot of nice clams today. It’s our last expedition of the season, because it closes in mid-July and there aren’t any good tides that match our schedule between now and then.

It’s been a good first year digging these razor clams. I think I like it better than digging for the big blue or quahog clams. It’s easier digging clams in sand than in bay mud.

We put our share of the clams away in the freezer, for a taste of early summer sometime this fall and winter. That batch will be enough for clam fritters and clam chowder. November or December…mmm. A chance to remember a perfect clam day.

Today we joined our widower friend in a first exploration of potential fishing sites on the Nehalem River.  And see wildlife like, well, eagles.

We were almost to Jewell when the first of this pair flushed from the right hand side of the road and flew across, quickly followed by another that flew down the road for a few feet before joining this one.

They were still there when we got back from visiting the Jewell Meadows elk meadows.

Final wildlife count for the day: Seven eagles, starting with the two we spotted on our way to Clatskanie, plus the five after.  Nearly 100 elk between the bull herd of around 34 and the cow herd of around 60.

Lots of cool river views.

And the fishing?  DH hooked into a small steelhead that flipped off his hook.  I got a distinct strike, fish grabbed the lure and started to run with it, then slipped off.  One pole died (a cheapo from 30 years ago), two or three lures eaten by snags or river bottoms, and lots of pictures.  Raccoon tracks everywhere and I think I found an otter slide.

Much fun was had by all.  It’s been a few years since we’ve been fishing, and I actually spent more time fishing and less time wrestling with the line this time.  Sweet.