Clamming at Potlach State Park

Celeste asked if I wanted to go with her and a few other people clamming one day when it worked with our schedules.  So far she had Nicole and herself.  I told her I could go on Thursday because it was one of my days off.  We still had to wait until we found out Ben's schedule.

By Wednesday, we knew Ben could go with Celeste, Nicole and I.  We had enough permits, Celeste was going to drive and pick us all up, Ben and I had to be ready to go by 9 a.m.

The night before I tried to lay out everything and pack some extra clothes just in case it was rainy or cold.  I set aside my boots, rain jacket and some snacks because I didn't know if we were going to stop for lunch or not.

My alarm went off at 8:30 and I got ready as quick as I could.  Ben was getting close when I got a text from him saying he just passed through Tenino.  Celeste showed up a little bit early so I showed her the chickens running around the yard.

Ben got there exactly at 9.  We grabbed our stuff and boots and arranged it in the back of Celeste's car.  We were now on our way to Lacey to pick up Nicole. 

Nicole hopped in and they all decided to get some coffee before we drive up north past Shelton.

We got to Potlatch State Park after 10:30 and grabbed our tools, buckets and boots and headed down the beach to find a good spot to start digging.  Nicole walked through the muddy sand too deep and almost got stuck.

We dug around a little bit and both Celeste and Ben found huge cockle shells!  We added them to our bucket.  We needed to move to another location down the beach.  We grabbed our buckets and moved on.  I found out my boots had a hole in the heel and allowed water inside.  I was not happy plus I had to be careful how far into the water I went.

On the way down the shoreline, I saw some people I knew!  I couldn't believe it.  I chatted with them for a few minutes and asked how well the digging went.  They said it was alright when you went out to where it was rockier.  They were right.  We all popped a squat or sat down and started digging.  We found tons of clams big enough to take home.  We were all allowed 40 each with our permits.  Celeste and Ben opened up quite a few oysters sitting along the shoreline.

I was so excited when I dug up my first clam.  It was just like finding a treasure.  I measured it just to make sure and tossed it in the bucket.  We were out there for a good two hours digging and grabbing as many clams as our permits allowed.   We called it a day mostly because we got our limit and it was lunch time.

We walked back to the car and dumped our harvest into the cooler.  We got out of our boots and I changed into shorts.  We piled in and stopped at the closest mini mart to grab some ice to throw into the cooler.

We decided to go to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch.  It was delicious.

At game night a few nights later, Celeste and Megan cooked our harvest.  We ate our food, played a few games and had dessert.  Celeste said next time we would have to go clamming at Quilcene.

Next Adventure:  Disc Golf at Woodland Creek