Clam Digging

What a fantastic day (again). We spent most of the day digging for clams, and then getting them cleaned. We enjoyed them fried and also in clam chowder, along with Beef Tenderloin and Smoked Salmon. But that's enough information from me....let's see what a couple of boys have to say about today!

We arrived at Clam Gulch. We put on our hip waders and got our gear. Then we walked towards the water. We had no idea what we were doing. We asked many people what to do, and we still didn't know how to do it. We thought we would never get anything. Then we found a person that knew what they were doing. We looked for very small hole where the clams dug into the sand. After we found what we were looking for we started to catch a lot of them. At the end of the day we caught a total of 80 clams! We got back to the lodge and we cleaned and ate the clams. They were very tasty!.....Cody

Today all 13 of us went clam digging at clam gulch. We had a rough time at the beginning finding out how to find the clams. We asked around at the more familiar natives on how to find the clams. Once we got the hang of it, we got our first clam of the day. It was all easy from there on. We dug for about 2 and a 1/2 hours. By the time we were done we had about 70 clams. Later that day we cleaned the clams and made some scrumptious clam chowder and fried clams...Bradley

and now a word from some of the boys...

Today in halibut fishing, we fished in the cook inlet. We ended up getting our limit for the day with a total of 14 halibut. The biggest fish that we caught in the day was 40 pounds and had to get beat with a club to stop flopping. We had almost no luck early in the day, but as the tides shifted, and we found a new spot, we got our limit really quick. After we were done for the day, our guide got the meat prepared and we ate it for our supper.------Aaron

A group of 3 boys (Cody, Alex, & Kevin) and 1 adult (Steve) went salmon fishing. While driving to the boat we saw 2 moose. Finally we started fishing. We caught a couple of dollys (small fish/trout). Finally I got a strike from a King salmon. It took a good 7 minutes to get it to the boat. But as we tried to net it the hook came undone. It got away and that was the only salmon bite we had all day. The guide said it was about 25 pounds…a good fish. So concluded the first salmon fishing day.-----Kevin

We drove towards KCI at an average rate of 65 MPH. The trees of Kansas that we would soon miss were rushing past us. We drove into a fast food restaurant they called “McDonalds”. “Ehh, I’ll take a #2 with just cheese and catsup”, said a boy named Alex. We gulped our drinks and scarved down our food, for this would be the last Kansas food we would have.
Later on, we arrived at our plane. It was a CRJ9000, Super Small. I sat down next to Bradley and across from Steve. We landed at the great city of Salt Lake City, Utah. We ate at the BL Lounge. Then we ran to our Anchorage flight like a speeding bullet. The plane boarded when we got there. We set our weary feet upon the aeroplane. Our eyes flurried with the sight of a gigantor flying dragon amongst our midst. BZ7-2570. It had an LED flatscreen TV on every chair. We watched Dear John, Hurt Locker, and Legion. We played Galagor, Poker, and Legion. It was fun.-----Alex

Today Me, my dad, and Mr. Knott were the only people not fishing. We decided to go and drive around look for a moose. We looked around and saw 3 moose. We then went to the town of Kenai and visited the flea market. There were many vendors and we looked at a lot of them. The one I liked the most was a fur vendor and they had all types of hats and things but the best thing was a black and white fur and tube like thing. It was about the size of a small pillow and it was the best thing ever. Later that day we walked along a rocky beach on the Cook’s Inlet and we found some really cool rocks. After all the driving around we sat along the side of a river and waited for the salmon fishermen and then went back to the cabin.----Devan

Alaska trip...Post II

Here it is Saturday morning, 6:45, and I have already been up for almost 3 hours. Steve, Kevin, Alex, & Cody went King Salmon fishing this morning and I chauffered them to the river. Made it back in time to send off Ed, Gary, Bradley, Logan, Matt, & Aaron for their halibut adventure. Devan, Griff, and myself have nothing formal planned this morning so I thought I would catch you up on what we have been doing.

Ed, Matt, Bradley and myself made it to Sam's yesterday morning about 9:00 AM and loaded up on food. We spent about $650, that coupled with earlier food purchases still puts us several hundred under budget!!! Meanwhile, back at Lake Jewel Nazarene Church, the rest of our crew were working on service projects. Trimmed trees & bushes, painted a door & a cross, vacuumed, pulled some weeds, lost a pair of Gary's gloves....all in all a succesful project. By the way, this piture is from just outside the door of the church.

We left the church at noon and headed to R.E.I. for some last minute supplies, brown bag lunch in the parking lot, and then picked up the satellite phone. Finally left Anchorage at around 2:00 heading south for Soldotna. I must say it was one of the all time scenic drives. Tide was out, so on one side of the road we had the tidal marsh and on the other we had mountains with occassional waterfalls as the drained into Turnagain Arm. Pictures will follow in a later posts but as everyone that took pictures on the drive is now fishing...Ed did get a nice pic of a Moose with her calf....

We made it to the Gone Fishin Lodge in Soldotna around 6:00 last night. Nice place and nice people. Assignments were made, fishing arrangements made, and a spaghetti feast followed.

My personal moose count is 4 cows, 1 young bull, and 2 calves. So far no bears have been spotted. I am beginning to suspect that there are no bears. That the presumed existence of them is a plot by the bear mace industry to proliferate the marketing of more anti-bear materials...

In my experience these types of trips always end up with certain catch phrases that won't die. So far, this trip's seem to be: "aLASka"...& "it was the wrong sized pretzels"...

Now that we are at the Lodge, posts should come more regularly, but that's all for now.

Troop 225's Alaska Trip

Good Morning

Anchorage is a beautiful city to fly into at night. All the lights reflecting off Cook's Inlet was an incredible way to end our first day. It was a long and uneventful day, that ended with us getting into bed about 1:30 AM local (4:30 central) here at Jewel Lake Nazarene Church. Most of the adults are already awake this morning as we prepare to get supplies and head to Soldotna. Let the adventure continue!

2010 Alaska