It rained pretty much throughout the night, but we stayed comfy in the RV. The outside temperature was 49ºF. We had the furnace set at 60ºF, and it only came on briefly twice during the night that Ben noticed. Once we were out of bed and had the bed put away, we bumped the thermostat up to 67ºF. It was raining pretty much all morning. We are in site 229, which is toward the end of the open part of the campground loop, close to one of the bathroom/shower buildings. There is a sign that says tokens are no longer required for showers, so that is a potential upgrade.
At 11am, we hopped into the Bronco and drove down to check out the Grayland State Park. We were impressed by how large and modern it is. It is many times larger than Twin Harbors, and much more modern. All sites except for 4, have power and water. There are several loops with full hookups (water, power and sewer), while most of the sites closer to the beach in the newer part of the park have power and water. Full hook up sites are $45, water and power only are $40, and dry sites are $30. Our dry site at Twin Harbors State Park is only $20, so we are definitely in the low rent neighborhood. In the future, we may choose Grayland State Park because it has so many more available hook up sites, even though we are generally fine with dry camping for a couple of days.
We continued on south to Tokeland, where we saw an unusual high rise structure in a park. This appears to be a public tsunami refuge for the local residents since there is no high ground nearby.
Continuing, we drove to the end of the road where there is a tiny marina where Willapa Bay oysters grow spat on floating barges, and there is a small public fishing pier with people crabbing. One guy had just pulled up his pot and it was full of small females- no keeper males, but dungeness. There is a cute store that sells fresh cooked crab, oysters and clams, as well as gift items called Nelson Crab Inc, which is in a historic cannery building. We then backtracked a little to the Tokeland Hotel, which was established in 1858.
There is also a very well fed old lab, and an equally well fed old tabby wandering about the public areas. We had lunch, hoping to sample some famous Tokeland Hotel Razor Clam chowder, but were disappointed to hear they had just served the last cup, and it was just 12:30pm when we walked in the door. Ben has been using a Tokeland Hotel clam chowder recipe as the basis for his razor clam chowder so he was eager to sample it from the original source. It turns out it wasn’t even on the menu, but everyone asks for it and they opened at 8am to a busy breakfast crowd.
When we were there, we were the only ones in the dining room until a pair of ladies walked in as we were eating our lunch. We had some fried Willapa bay oysters which were breaded in a cornbread batter that were very crispy, fresh and delicious. We also had something called a Sawmill, which is a sandwich featuring an enormous buttery biscuit with gravy, fried chicken, and a fried egg and a fresh Rockfish sandwich with cornmeal breading, Cole slaw and sweet pickles. Both lunches came with pan fried potatoes on the side. It was all very fancy and delicious, but expensive. The tab includes a service charge to ensure a living wage for all the staff, but our lunch with one cappuccino was $95. That wasn’t even New Zealand dollars either. But it was fancy, and a very pleasant sanctuary from the wind and rain outside.
We returned to the RV to take a quick nap before steeling ourselves to hit the beach in the wind and rain to find some razor clams.
At 2:30pm we suited up in our waders and rain gear and headed out in the Bronco. It was raining pretty hard and the wind was gusting to 25mph, so it was not pleasant. We headed about a quarter mile south of the Bonge Road access on the beach just past a very rudimentary bald eagle nest that was constructed atop a pole erected by a property owner to mark his beach access. The nest was barely big enough for one bird to sit in, but it was determined to sit in it.
According to the tide tables, the tide was going to be at 2’ at 3pm, and we normally don’t find razor clams until the tide had dropped below 2’, so we parked and watched as other people arrived and began probing with their sticks and eventually clam guns. We didn’t see anyone stick a clam gun into the sand until about 3:15pm, when the tide was supposedly at 1.5’. We headed out and got to work. It was very hard at first to see any evidence of clams, but people were starting to find them. Ben got to spotting them as the last sheets of water slid back down to the surf line, when you could spot an occasional siphon forming a subtle “V” just before the next wave would erase it. But as the tide continued down, by about 4:30pm, classic clam shows began to appear, and it got a lot easier to find the clams. The rain had also stopped so we could drop our hoods and have better vision. The wind had also dropped a bit so vision of the sheets of water was improved without the wind rippling it everywhere. We did manage to each get our limit of 15 clams. Some were pretty decent in size, while others were small, but in the end we donated a few small ones to kids who were with parents for additional limits.
We got back to the campground with daylight to spare. Ben was able to steal some water from one of the unoccupied Yurt sites to hose off the clam guns and rack on the back of the Bronco and get some fresh water to clean the clams by giving them enemas with a syringe. We then had a quick bite for dinner, mostly having leftovers, and then processed the clams in the RV. We seem to be getting a little more proficient in getting them cleaned and into containers, saving the snipped tips and guts for shrimp bait as well. Last year’s clam guts really worked well when mixed with some shrimp bait pellets for catching shrimp.
After the clams were put up, we hit the shower, which no longer requires tokens. The water was hot enough and long enough for a decent shower, but we wished we had brought along some flip flops or Crocks to wear in the shower because the floor was pretty gritty. It was certainly roomier than the RV shower, and we didn’t have to worry about running through our fresh water supply.
We were in bed by 8:45pm. We’ll see if the weather is any better tomorrow.
