Even though both my girlfriend Viktoria and I have wanted all our lives to see the aurora borealis, we sadly missed our chance on Friday night. We had planned a clam digging trip, and it was the perfect weekend for it. It was the last weekend of the season, with one of the lowest tides, and also the weekend of the Long Beach Razor Clam Festival. The traffic getting out of Seattle was quite bad, and by the time we finally got there we were too exhausted to remember about it. We were probably too far south to see it anyway.
Last month we had come down to Westport on a day trip with similar intentions, but we struck out. That day the tide wasn’t as low and the ocean was rougher, and we had a lot of trouble finding the tiny little dimples in the sand that indicate the presence of an underground clam. To my surprise, Viktoria loved the activity anyway. So, I booked this weekend’s trip and came prepared. I got us a cute little place with a kitchenette and an outdoor fish cleaning station. I recently bought a portable electric fridge/freezer. It plugs into a convenient 12V outlet in the back of the Jeep, and I LOVE it. On the way down I set the temperature to 38 degrees and transported groceries for our stay. On the way back I set it to -4 degrees to keep clams frozen all day for the long drive home.
We were just a couple of blocks from the ocean, and we hit the beach about 8:00 a.m. on Saturday for a -1.4 tide at about 9:30. Although plenty of people were walking around with net bags full of clams, we started out with nothing. Finally, a guy on the beach taught me that a clam makes a little triangular wake whenever a wave recedes. With this knowledge I started staring at the waves intently. As soon as I saw one in an outgoing wave, I would spring into action, running towards the ocean to quickly plant my clam gun right over the hole. I had just seconds to dig it out before the incoming wave would flood my clam gun and possibly my rubber boots. The good thing about getting your boots flooded is that after it happens the first time, you don’t really care anymore. Using this technique I started filling my net and Viktoria’s with clams, to her amazement. I was pulling out a clam on about 90% percent of my digs. I never thought I’d have to run fast to catch a clam!
Admittedly, clamming right in the waves is a bit dicey compared to the more common technique of digging them higher on the beach. Most sane people were patiently walking along the upper beach, many of them in tennis shoes, and filling their nets just fine. They were obviously more skilled in this technique, but I only got three this way all day. By the time digging closed at noon we had bagged 26 tasty clams, against our limit of 30.
In the afternoon we cleaned all the clams assembly line style, using teamwork. We went to the town center to get some lunch at the Razor Clam festival, listening to live music while we ate. Long Beach is quite close to the Columbia River, so we made the 25-minute trip down to gorgeous downtown Astoria. We had a lovely dinner, followed by a hike to the top of the amazing Astoria Column. We got back to Long Beach just in time for sunset, and drove straight onto the beach to enjoy it. Brief though it was, it was my first real experience with driving in truly off-road conditions.
Before heading home on Sunday, we stopped by Cape Disappointment State Park for spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean and a lot of information about the Lewis and Clark expedition. Our final stop was the local Cranberry Museum, where you can really geek out on cranberry production and try every imaginable delicacy made with cranberries. The trip home took us along the gorgeous, sparsely populated roads along the shores of Willapa Bay. It was a busy weekend, but one we’ll always remember. For me, weekends like this are why I live in the Northwest.
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