Ninilchek

We have been camped at Ninilchik (nin-nil-check) for the past couple of days.  Ninilchik is popular with those who like to gather clams.  When the tide is way out, we are told thousands of people cover the sandy flats to dig clams.  Today there were several hundred out on the flats.

Clamming

Alaska has several clams that are popular for those who gather them.  There is the butter clam, Pacific littleneck and the razor clam.  I like clams but I don't like how you have to gather them.  You must go out on the mud/sand and look for a little vent where a clam resides.  You then dig down to the clam and retrieve it.  That doesn't sound too bad until you watch the operation.  I saw people down on the mud with their arms in holes up to the armpit reaching for clams.   Some of the people we met were planning to come here and fill their freezer with clams.  I think I will buy mine.

We met a couple here at the campground who just got back from clamming.  They say the clams are smaller than usual this year.  They got their limit and were getting ready to clean them.  They have been here two weeks gathering clams.  They freeze them up for the winter.  She says she only gets the clams that are near the surface.  She said you have to be fast though because the dig down deeper real fast.  That is why so many people are up to their armpits getting them.  She says if they go deep, she looks for another one.

Mt Illiamna in background.  Another volcano 58 miles way.

Yesterday, after leaving Captain Cook SP, we drove back to Kenai to resupply.  We love Alaska because it is so RV friendly.  Stores and gas stations have water and dump sites on their property and it is free to customers.  This is a big deal because the only campgrounds you find water and sewer dumps at are commercial campgrounds.  We like the SRA (state recreation area) campgrounds because you are out in the wild with nature.  The drawback though is they have no dump station and water is by the old pitcher hand pump.  They have no electricity in remote areas so they can't provide those services.

We fueled up, dumped, filled the water and propane at Tesoro.  Then we went over to Walmart to pick up some other things we were out of.  While there, we ran into a very friendly Alaskan couple, Denny and Annie, who stopped to chat for an hour or so.  We love talking to Alaskans.  You learn so much about life here.

Moose lights.

I noticed that Denny had these huge lights on the front of his vehicle.  They are the same lights I see on all the state trooper cars.  I asked what they were for.  He said they are moose lights.  They are one million candlepower each.  In the winter is when most moose are hit by vehicles.  They like to walk on the highways because they are like people when it comes to taking the easy route.  Deep snow each side of the highway also makes it difficult for them to get out of the way when a car comes along.  In the winter it is dark most of the time.  Without moose lights you don't see the moose far enough in advance to avoid them especially if the road is slippery.

Do you see Redoubt?  It is the volcano that erupted a year or so ago.  It is 54 miles away.

Denny turned them on for me.  They are very bright even in the daylight.  He said you have to turn them off when a car comes.  He has his rigged up with an old fashioned floor dimmer switch.  Young people won't remember those.  Denny can dim the lights fast and turn them back on just as fast.  He said you can see a moose a long way off if he is looking at you.  Their eyes light up like big yellow bulbs.  Along the highways you often pass signs that tell you how many moose have been killed in the past year on a certain stretch .  There are thousands of moose killed all over Alaska from what these signs tell me.  If you hit one, you could be killed.  Two thousand pounds of flying moose meat will leave a mark.

Lighthouse overlooking our campsite.

We camped on a hillside SRA that overlooks Ninilchek last night.  This morning we moved a couple of miles to a SRA that is right on the beach.  It is packed with locals and their ATVs.  They run up and down the beach.  Some go off to collect clams.  It is a very active place.  We love places like this.  You can do some real quality people watching.

My lovely wife.

You also see some strange sights.  Like the big machine with huge wheels that launches boats when the tide is way out.  It runs down the beach to the water with the boat trailer and pushes it out and launches the boat.  It also runs down with a trailer to retrieve those who are returning on low tide.  The tides here are 20 to 30 feet.  The water is way out there when it is out.

Tide is out.

Tide is in.  The boat in the photo is over land I walked on earlier.

Our campsite is right on the beach.  Soon the water will be lapping near our doorstep.  I was walking around out there a while ago but soon that same area will be under 30 feet of water.  In the distance, on the other side of the inlet are three volcanoes.  Redoubt is right across from us.  You may remember when it blew its stack a year or so ago.  Ash fell all around the area.  It closed air travel in the area also.

We went for a walk up the beach.  We came across some coal on the ground.  There was a seam of coal on the hillside behind us.  Darlie picked up a couple of pieces for our campfire.  We will see how it burns.

Chunk of coal.

Update:  We put the coal on our fire and boy did it burn.  We had two huge chunks.  It lasts for hours.  We went back and carried some back for another day.  Darlie got some real nice sunset photos tonight.  I will post one tomorrow.  We got to watch a movie tonight.  I haven't used much of our mifi alotment for the month.  We still have 2.5 G left and only one day to use it.  We will watch David Jeremiah in the morning and maybe another movie tomorrow night.  Some places our mifi is too slow to watch video.  Tonight we are in a good place cause it worked just like DSL.

It is midnight.  The sun just set.  Time for bed.  People are still doing things outside.  They never sleep in the summer.