Camping, Fishing & Clamming in a Snow Storm - Coastal Foraging in Alaska

Luke here at the Outdoor Boys YouTube channel. For the next several days we're meeting up with friends to go digging for clams, looking for fossils, fishing for halibut, cooking good food, and we're camping in the snow in the middle of May. Welcome to Alaska. You dropped the GoPro over the boat? I dropped the GoPro over the boat. Do you have a magnet? I absolutely love this boat. I'm a little jealous Ivan. This is a nice boat. We love our boat. You can fit a four-wheeler on this thing right? You can fit three four-wheelers on it. Well guys we are going on a little adventure here with the Kilcher family. We've got Ivan, Eve, and their kids Finley and Sparrow. I'll just stick it down there. Oh my goodness, they got kids in the hole. That is so awesome. This boat just gets awesomer. I'm gonna try magnet fishing. It's set it over there on its... Gonna do a little magnet fishing here. You usually don't feel it go clink. That's it. Can you reach down there? There you go. Nice. Happy day. Well Ivan, you know what that means? Not skunked. Not skunked. Successful fishing. I mean we're catching them right off the dock here man. I did something to try to help the weather improve. My wife told me to bring sunscreen and I poo-pooed her and said no no that's not necessary. And anytime I disagree with my wife it turned out to be wrong. So there's a really good chance we're all gonna get sunburned today. All right guys, welcome to Homer, Alaska. We're just gonna head out into Kachemak Bay and into Cook Inlet. So today is supposed to have some of the biggest tides of the year. We're supposed to have a negative five foot tide and when you have really extreme low tides that means good clam digging. Tommy's introducing Sparrow and Finley to our healthy diet here of chips ahoy for breakfast. A sea otter! A whole bunch of them out right there. This area is so beautiful. There's just tons of sea otters and seals. Later in the year you'll see whales. Right now we're going through a kelp forest. See right here? Those are huge pieces of ball kelp. They get like a hundred feet long but they're also edible. You see this? So this is ball kelp. It's got this floating ball on the top. It's hollow and so there's air in it that makes it float up so the leaves can photosynthesize. We'll collect it for our garden too. Yeah. It's really good fertilizer. I made kelp pickles with it before and I really liked them actually. You just basically take a basic pickle recipe and just don't add any extra salt. It tastes salty. Here grab that little piece. It tastes like a salty cattle. Got a good crunch but loads of salt. You know what I'd like to do is a kimchi recipe with kelp. Towards the Alaska peninsula and right out there those mountains are all volcanoes. When I was a kid several of them erupted and dumped ash all over our house. So right now we're only about five six feet of water and you can see these huge mud flats that have been exposed by the low tide. We're gonna see if we can't sneak in. Gotta keep an eye out for rocks. There's a few big ones. So Tom the water right now is about that deep on you. We're out in the ocean. Tom you got the clam bazooka? I just don't want to land in a way that cripples your child. I didn't step on you. Good. I got a heavy load. Oh you scurvy sea dog. There you go. Got the clam gun. So we're looking for razor clams and butter clams. They live about a foot or two under the silt and there'll be a little dimple that marks where they're hiding. Get about halfway down. That might have been it. Keep going down a little bit further. Now put your thumb over the hole and now this is the hard part. You got to pull it up. Okay keep pulling. He's fighting. Now dump it off and now kick it around and see if it's in there. And then sometimes you get close. Right there. See look at this. Yeah see that? See that's the little crunch noise we heard. You crunched them. That's about a medium-sized one right there. That's one razor clam. So this right here is a clam gun. It's just a piece of pvc pipe with a cap on one end and a hole and you shove it down in the silt. You put your finger over the hole and you pull it up and the silt of the clam comes with it. We only have about maybe an hour till the tide comes up and covers us all with water so we got to work quickly. There's only a few hours every year where these clam beds are exposed to the air and we can dig them so we got to act quickly. See right there how this is different color and it's like a little bit right there? Dig next to it. Oh look at that. It's a butter clam. It's a big butter clam. Yeah I see a bunch of them. Here's another one. So look at that. See look at how the hole opened up. I'm like 70% sure these are called butter clams. I'm going to go and look it up when I'm doing my editing and you're going to find out that I'm wrong and I'm going to have to erase all the stuff where we call it the wrong thing. Oh look at that. Now I've dug razor clams a number of times but I've never really gotten into these types of clams before. There's a number of clams that look just like this. Some are called little net clams. Some are called butter clams and there's a few others. I am pretty sure these are the butter clams but I'm gonna have to go look it up when I get home. Yep there we go. There. Wow. Oh he put up a fight. Oh there. This may be. Oh look at this one. A cockle. Cockles are out. Oh we found a cockle. Oh look at that. That is great. Yeah these are these are great. That's a cockle. Look at that. These things up. This is. Oh look at that. Double hole. Oh there's. Oh look at that. Check it out. There's a sand worm right there. Those make good bait. There you go. There's. Yeah. We're finding a hole. Oh look at this. There's a little baby razor clam in there. Put him back. Yeah we're gonna put him back. If you feel anything you touch it just. Found one. There we go. Look how quick the tide's coming up. The spot where we landed is already underwater. There's a bunch in here. There's another one. The different clams leave a different kind of hole in the sand. The razor clams leave a nice little dimple kind of oval shaped. With the butter clams you just kind of see this where there's like a lighter color silt and when you put the shovel underneath it the hole appears. There he goes. We're supposed he looks like a little baby arrowhead or arrowtooth flounder. He's got that long skinny look. Oh yeah. You guys find any razor clams? They're just. Oh I see he's spinning up. Oh look how big that hole gets. Yeah. Oh scrape. Oh that was a big boy. Look at that. You found a trophy one. See right there. There's one. Oh you see there's the the hole. You found a patch of razor clams? Yeah nice big boy. See right there. We're just gonna keep the real big ones. We're gonna send that one back. Oh yeah there's. There you go. Oh there's a couple in this hole. You can see right there. See look at that. That's a clam right. Okay my pants are starting to fall down. Well that's a nice size razor clam. Nice size razor. And sometimes they'll start digging their way back down. What'd you find Tom? Oh that's the razor clam that I found in his hole. That is the tiniest baby razor clam. He's so adorable. Oh the tides are coming. It's coming quick. You can see how fast the tide's coming in. And it'll speed up as we get closer to mid tide. Oh guys check this out. Guy's like a hermit crab. Look at the size of that guy. Isn't he pretty? That's the biggest hermit crab I've ever seen. See this little hole right here? This is where a sea otter dug up a clam. Because these clams don't sit too far below the surface, the sea otters love to eat them. They'll dive down under the water and dig these up. Tom I think you're gonna be lost to the sea soon. Oh buddy. Here hold this. Hold this. I feel him. Here we better retreat Tom. Ivan's taking the kayak to go head back to the boat to go get the little dinghy to get us all back on there. But the tide's coming in so fast. You found, you got one Tom? Yeah it was a skinny hole in the ground. Yeah a little skinny hole right? Yes. Here dad can you hold me? Oh geez you're in China. I feel him. Oh Tom look right here. I found him. There you go. I got one. Yeah. You got one Tom. Here put it, put him in there. Time to pick up the shovels. We gotta go. Oh I mushed him. I mushed him but there's a razor clam. I think we're starting to get into him because we're higher up on the beach. Running from the tide. Oh that's a brilliant hole right here. Here watch dad. See that hole right there? You're right Sparrow. I gotta go fast. Oh no. Tom you better hurry the tide's coming. We might want to start walking that way. Yeah hey you want me to pick up Sparrow? Yeah that would be awesome. You're a steed milady. All right. Hey Tommy stay close. That tide don't play here in Alaska. It sure doesn't. Over there in Homer they get a 30 foot tide. I thought about putting on my hip waders and I didn't. So I've got about now I think I need to hop in. You can help by rowing. Yeah. So guys what do you think? Was that cool? Yeah that was awesome. You like running for your life at the end? Was that cool? Yeah. Ah great. Anytime you get clams and you don't die it's a good day. I got silt and sand everywhere. Are you guys good with lunches? I don't know if you need any extra anything extra. As always I brought a ton of food on this trip and I got some stuff I'm pretty excited about. Strawberries and check it out dark chocolate dessert hummus. I don't know what that is but I'm excited. It smells like pretentious frosting. I love it. Oh boy. Oh my goodness. That's so good. Ride this train with us. It's a good it's a good train. Look at you. Sparrow you have your priorities straight. Oh yeah. They need to start selling it in five gallon buckets. I know. I'm gonna be a good boy not just eat chocolate hummus. Ivan you want to try doing some fishing? Just saw some dull porpoises rising. Look there's an old cannery over there. Back in the days before they had refrigeration they would have these canneries out here right next to the ocean so they catch the fish and can it and then they could ship it out all over the world. I think somebody still lives there. There's a sauna right there. Well it's getting a little close to dinnertime and we're gonna try to set up camp and build a fire so we're looking for firewood. What do you guys think? You think we get some off this? Well we did the fun part now for the hard part. I know. That is a pile though. All right. Okay sure. There we go. You want any macaroni salad or potato chips? Yeah put potato chips in the burger. It's pretty good. We got one ready right now. That rod just got another bite. Not a big bite but a bite. Perfect. A little seasoned fish fry. All right try some of these clams. The belly clam bit was real good. Yeah. We realized we made an important mistake. We forgot the pie on the boat. These brave men are going to go get the pie. They might just take the pie and leave us. I know. Yeah. Getting some more hits on the rod. With the pie. With the pie. We have an apple toffee pie here because uh hey we camping style. Would you like whipped cream? Yes. You tell me when. All right. There you go. Perfect. I thought something was messing with it. A nice little flounder. That's not a bad one. Look at that. Nice little flounder. They don't get a ton bigger than this. What do you think? Should we send them back? Yeah. I think so. Yeah they're kind of mushy. A lot of people steam them. Interesting. Steam them or fry them. Not skunked. I will not leave you stranded. Oh I appreciate that. I can change. Come back. The tide's going out aggressively and the boat's gonna get high and dry soon so they're gonna head out and move the boat and they're gonna sleep on the boat tonight. But me and Tom are gonna sleep over there. I think it's time to set up our tent but we can't set it up on the beach. The tide's gonna be really high tonight. I estimate the tide line's gonna be somewhere around here. Right here looks like a spot. Wow look how much the tide's gone out. Fiery. It's pretty late. We got to get up early in the morning so I'm gonna go to bed. I'll see you guys in the morning. Well this isn't right. It's not supposed to be snowy. I'm glad I put all this wood under the tarp. It was a little cold last night wasn't it? Yeah. I got some mid-truffle hot chocolate here. Take that and be warm my son. We're making chocolate pancakes. All I'm doing is just adding hot chocolate mix to the pancake batter. Here hold on. There you go. You like that? Yes. All right enjoy. You found a fossil? Oh yeah you did find a fossil. Look at that. What is that? Like a little bit of a shell in there. I think the Kilchers are tired of watching us eat pancakes without them. Well I'm glad you guys made it. I know. There you go. See the key is to put sugar on top of your sugary pancakes with extra sugar. I'm kind of the dietary version of the drug dealer that hangs outside of elementary schools. That's pretty good. We got the syrup. Look at that. Mount Vesuvius of whipped cream there. Well we got breakfast in us. I think it's time to clean up and get out of here. We're gonna go try to go fossil hunting. Awfully snowy for the middle of May. I'll take us out a little deeper. Row row row your boat. Determined individual. Oh it's nice and warm in here isn't it? Yeah well I think we're getting used to warm. That beach full of rocks over there is supposed to have some fossils. It says it's low tide. We're gonna go see if we can't find some. How did you like it? Best weather ever. I found a crab leg. Look at the size of this muscle. Must be a gym bro. Check it out. You got a starfish. It's a sun star. Sun star. Nice. Oh yeah yeah. Dad look at this. Oh gotcha. It's a little shrimp. Can I hold it? Yeah sure. Yeah yeah put it back in there. Let it get bigger. Oh look at that. Oh my gosh look at it. Well yeah see. Don't let him. They get a lot bigger than this. That's awesome. Do you feel he's vibrating? Yeah they grunt. They kind of do this. Look at that. Cool crab. Ivan says that's a decorator crab. I've never seen one of those. Those are huge muscles. You must work out. I do. I've got the biggest muscles on the beach for sure. Oh yeah. I don't know how he can carry that kayak now. Oh I know. He's got this big muscle. Now we came to this beach to try to find fossils but the hard part is the rocks are starting to get covered in snow and it's really hard to tell if there's fossils in them or not. Oh look at this right here. It's a giant ammonite nodule. Perfectly round that is. So an ammonite is a giant spiral prehistoric squid thing. When you find their fossils they're encased in like an egg of this clay sediment. It's a really good chance there's an ammonite fossil in there but I'd need a sledgehammer to pop it open. You know it's harder to fossil hunt when everything gets covered in snow. You guys find some? Oh yeah look at that. There's like an imprint of a shell right there. Oh yeah. It's a fossilized shell right there. Okay look at this like a whole layer right up there. Oh here's some shell right in here. This is all shell. This whole layer right here. Oh look at this right here. Oh that's a big one right there. That looks like an ammonite. Yeah that's the impression left behind. Oh look at this thing. That looks like it's gonna burrow into my ear and lay eggs. Yeah if it burrows into your ear then you become extremely suggestive. I saw this in a movie once. And there could be a lot more fossils here but they're all covered in snow. Now this may be hard to believe at home but some of us are a little bit cold. So I think we're gonna head back to the boat. You know there's just something about this spring weather. You know gets y'all excited to get out. I'll tell you what it got a little nippy. But we saw some fossils and some cool tidal pools. No it was worth it. So much gelatin. It's mousse raspberry jello. That sounds awesome. It's cheat day so I oh thank you. So if you're gonna eat this much chili Finley you got to keep your rain pants on. Keeps the farts in. Is that sunlight? Look at this. I'm outside and I'm not hypothermic. All righty. About 120 feet or something. Yeah. You got something? I got something. Oh Luke's got something. It's a cod. Oh it's a cod. We like cod. Yeah cod's good. Look at that. Well the nice thing about cod is they run in schools. If there's one there's probably more. Oh there you go. There you go. Oh nice cod. There we go. There he is on. Nice one though. Nice. There we go. Got a halibut. Nice. Not too big of one but that's a decent halibut. That's a decent halibut. Tommy's got one here. All right. There's a big school of cod under the boat and they're eating sand eels. That's a sand eel. That's a sand eel. That's all sand eels. We did pretty good but the current's ripping too hard so we got to move spots. Just go for it. Yeah let's go. I feel like I got something. Oh a sea robin. Okay. Oh he's pretty. That is a pretty one. Look at that. Just give him a little nudge. I'm like he's so fast. Well we tried that for a little bit. Didn't see much action but I think it's time to get out of here. We've got a couple kids that are pretty tired. It's hard to believe we were being snowed on a few hours ago. Ivan thanks so much. That was a great time. Thanks for coming Luke. If you don't know Ivan actually has a YouTube channel where he does a lot of adventures like this. If you guys want to see that I'll put a link in the video description below so make sure to check out his YouTube channel. Now we have to go home and clean everything. So much wet and muddy. All right thanks Ivan. If you like that video make sure to check out the Outdoor Boys YouTube channel where we have hundreds of videos just like this. And if you want to see our newest adventures make sure to click subscribe so you'll get notifications.