Northern Lagoon at Miles Inlet

June 14 (Friday)
In the morning we made some hot tea, and took it with us in our kayaks for an early morning paddle. It was a beautiful sunny morning, no fog, which was a first in awhile, and also different than forecasted. We headed for the northern and larger of the lagoons here, and since the tide was low there was a waterfall flowing out.

Bubbles from the waterfall heading into the lagoon.

We were able to find a spot to get out just down from the turbulence from the falls, and portaged our kayaks, one at a time, over the slippery and somewhat unstable jumble of rocks covered in very sharp barnacles. 

There are several different types of barnacles, I can't remember all of their names, but the ones that were at the rapids are the ones we have come to expect near areas of continual current. They are much longer and have razor sharp edges, much more dangerous than the regular seashore barnacle. We both got minor cuts from them, and we have decided that leather gloves should be brought along for our portages in the future. 

Inside the lagoon we found a lot of life, including a type of anemone that we were surprised to see. The bottom was very muddy, and they were on rocks scattered across the bottom of the shallows, sometimes almost buried in mud. We also saw some sea cucumbers just after the rapid area, and collected three to have with dinner. We saw many, many crabs -- Rock, Dungeness, Box, and Graceful crabs. The lagoon was somewhat larger than I had expected, so many bays that since we basically followed the shoreline the whole way around going slowly to try to see everything it took us a couple of hours.  

Looking out of the lagoon with the water now flowing in.

By time we made it back to the lagoon entrance the rapids had switched directions, and was now flowing into the lagoon. The rocks that we had used to portage on the way in were fully submerged. To make our way out of the lagoon we again took one kayak at a time around the first part of the rapids, which now had two distinct parts. Instead of carrying the kayaks we pulled them through the water since it was deep enough for them, just flowing too fast for us. Jason walked ahead pulling on the line, and I came along behind with one of the paddles, pushing the kayaks away from shore so he could pull them along. It actually worked quite well. We paddled across the halfway-back eddy, and then repeated the process for the next part of the turbulence.

Stopping to try a few casts at the change in direction of the rapids.

Back home we went out to pull up our circle trap, which we had left in last night. We expected it to be empty, and we were going to reset it. We were amazed to find four rock crabs and two good-sized Dungeness.  Of course we kept the Dungeness, and reset the trap.

Dungeness crab on the left, and Rock crab on the right.

 Difference between the Dungeness crab claws and the Rock crab claws.

While we were out we spotted an old tree with a massive nest at the very top. It was home to an osprey, and we enjoyed watching it circling. At one point an eagle flew over, and we watched as the parent osprey lured the eagle away from the nest and then gave it the slip when it was out of harms way.

When we pulled up our crab trap later in the day, we had four more large Dungeness and more rock crab. Wow! We let the rock crabs go, and kept the Dungeness. We cooked up our six Dungeness of the day, and spent some time cleaning them all, and freezing two bags of crab. Yay. Such a pleasure to clean in comparison to the rock crab, such a treat! We had crab, some fish from yesterday’s catch, and the three sea cucumbers from the lagoon trip for dinner. 

Dungeness crab ready to be prepared for the freezer.

Now about the sea cucumbers, I wanted to give a bit of a description as to how we deal with and cook them. I know some of you think it is weird that we would eat them and I picture you thinking that we are just eating them like a cucumber. Or maybe you think we cut rounds off like a cucumber, I don’t know, but I know they are odd and slimy creatures, so it’s understandable that you might be confused at our choice, especially when we have an abundance of awesome fish and crab. So, first, here is a picture of what a sea cucumber looks like in case you have never seen one. 

Now you basically cut it lengthwise in half, and clean out the insides, and you are left with two halves. On the inside are lengthwise strips of muscle, there seems to be six per sea cucumber. 

Strips of muscle inside the sea cucumber.

Now you just have to fillet off the mussel strips. 

Sea cucumber muscle.

To cook them we usually dip them in a seasoned flour mixture and fry them.

 Delicious!!!!

(More to come soon.)