In the concluding episode of the "Brown Bears at Silver Salmon Lodge" series, the host (Speaker A) recounts the final three days of a weather‑forced stay at Silver Salmon Creek Lodge, highlighting a record 24‑foot high tide, persistent rain, and the challenges of being "weathered in" on remote Alaskan terrain. The narrative blends practical advice—such as investing in high‑quality rain gear, waders with tied‑on boots, and neoprene booties—to enable low‑angle bear photography in muddy, wet conditions, and recommends adding buffer days to travel itineraries to accommodate weather delays. The episode also features a brief wildlife sighting of a mother bear and cubs, followed by a detailed, hands‑on demonstration of cleaning, preparing, and cooking razor clams—the same food bears consume—illustrating survival‑style cooking techniques. Interspersed throughout are promotional segments for the creator’s merchandise, prints, mentorship program, and affiliate links to photography gear. The video concludes with the group finally departing via bush plane, reflecting on the overall Alaska adventure, and announcing plans to organize future group trips, inviting viewers to join a waiting list via the website.
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Hello and welcome to the last episode of Brown Bears at Silver Salmon Lodge. This episode is not very long, um, because our last 3 days that we spent there were bonus days, um, because we got I guess weathered in is what you would call it. Um, the clouds were low and it was pouring down rain, so they couldn't fly in to pick us up. Um, we did have one option though. Um, some people a couple camps down, they ended up with COVID and they wanted to get out, so they hired a helicopter and they wanted to know if we wanted to split the helicopter fee with them, which was $2,500, and then we would ride back to the mainland with them. And they have COVID, so we opted to stay. And we just decided to stay and wait it out because I can definitely think of worse places to be stuck. So anyways, this video, um, I also have a time lapse in this video that shows a short version of the time lapse of the high tide because we had a 24-foot high tide while we were there. Um, one of the largest for the year. It was Pretty amazing. So my suggestion is that if you're going to Alaska on a bear adventure, or any kind of adventure really for photography, I would buy yourself and your camera gear some really good rain gear because at any given moment the skies just open up and pour down rain. And I, Jeff and I both opted for waders so that we could get down low in the mud and grum and yuck and everything to get some low-angle shots. So I ended up with wader boots, which I was debating on whether or not to get the slip-ons or the ties, and I'm glad I got the ties because the mud there is really sticky, and a couple of times I almost lost these shoes even though they were tied on. And the waders, you'll become an expert of getting in and out of these things because as soon as you get up in the morning, you put them on. Come in for breakfast, you take them off. You go in, you put them back on. And then you come— then you leave for lunch, you put them back on. And you basically, you get the idea. It goes on all day long until you go to bed. But I would recommend the neoprene booties with the boots. It's a little extra money, but in relation to how much you're spending on your trip, this will make a difference whether it's a good trip or a bad trip. Because I guarantee you get an inexpensive pair of waders that rip or tear on you, or uncomfortable shoes to wear, you're going to regret it. But anyhow, that's one of my suggestions. for Alaska, along with, um, leaving a little extra time at the end of your trip for coming home, just in case you get weathered in. Because both trips to Alaska, we've been weathered in by 3 days. Seems to be a trend. So next time, I think we're going to book our extra 5 days on the end of the trip instead of the beginning of the trip. That way we're good no matter what. So anyways, let's get on to the video and go get your popcorn and enjoy. It's only about 10 minutes long, so hope you enjoy. Talk to you later. So today we were supposed to head out, but as you can see behind me, we have quite a bit of rain and fog and So we got an extra day of going out and shooting. We found mama and her cubs right here behind me, and I have a little video of them as well. So we'll see if we get out today. If not, maybe tomorrow. Okay, so just a quick break to remind you to like, subscribe, and ring my bell so you will get notified the next time I post a video. And also, don't forget, we have merchandise below— t-shirts, hats, anything else you could possibly think of. We have prints at our website. Have a mentorship available now at my website. That's something new. And, uh, we got lots of affiliate links at the bottom. We're affiliates for Topaz, f-stop, ProMediaGear, Amazon. I mean, I got a lot of links down there. Go check them out, and if you buy from my links, I get a little bit of a kickback. Not a lot, just a little, but every little bit helps. So if you're shopping, shop from my links. Thank you. Bye-bye. Hello, so we are Weathered in again today. We are going to try and get out, hopefully maybe to Sedultneft, and then a bus ride to, uh, Kenai, and then a little charter plane back to Anchorage where we can get the rest of our luggage and hopefully fly out Wednesday. And head home, but it is very stormy out. We're waiting for the clouds to get a little higher so that the pilots can fly. Since we fly in little bush planes, little Cessnas, This kind of weather affects their flying. So keep your fingers crossed for us that we get home today, or at least get out of here today so we can head home. See you later.
Now he's got a foot in there. He doesn't want to put it out for me.
So you said there's a stomach you got to clean out?
Yeah, on the inside. So the foot has part of the stomach in it.
Huh.
There's just a zipper here, so you take scissors, you cut up here, cut this part off. There's another hole in there that you open up and it becomes one big flat piece of meat. They're real good. Wow.
And the bears make it look so easy.
Yeah, they do. All they do is just— The shell's really brittle.
Uh-huh.
And so the bears break them, but we try our hardest not to break them because then you get sand in the mussel.
Oh yeah.
Clean that all out, cut it out.
Huh.
I think that's the only one that really broke. The rest of them look pretty good.
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Uh, those are from earlier, our 7 clams.
That's bear food.
Yeah, they're about to go in the boiling water.
They got to do quite a bit for them to eat them, but the bears just peel it.
I got to take all the shells off first. They come right out after blanching them, which is nice.
There's quite a bit of food in there for those bears.
Yeah, right?
No wonder they eat them.
You're always surprised how much there actually is in one of these. Yeah, we got, we got clams and those are really small compared to—
Yeah.
And they have, they have 4 points where they connect to the shell, so the blanching is what disconnects them, but a little bit got stuck there. So when you see the seagulls going behind them, that's what the seagulls are picking off is these little spots. Because the rest will be taken by the bear. Right, the bear eats the rest.
Yeah.
That's not, not much to go for.
No.
Oh, he has a full stomach. You have to dig deep for these? Uh, a little deep. Yeah, about— we're getting them about 12 to 18 inches. That's almost a foot. Yeah, more than a foot. Yeah, so yeah, there's— now I gotta go find some scissors and I'm gonna cut a couple pieces, places, and they're gonna fold out into nice big pieces of meat. And then, um, I gotta clean out the stomachs and then, uh, we're ready to go. I think we're gonna fry them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just a couple of them.
Do you bread them or?
Yeah, yeah, we've done we've done panko. We've done the one you make from pancake mix tempura.
Uh huh.
I like panko the best, but yeah, Joanne said she was gonna fry them, so I'm gonna let her do it. Yeah. I'm just cleaning any little debris off. So the first cut goes up. This is the zipper. So right up, and you cut that little top piece off because nobody wants to eat that. And then one more cut, so that's one big piece. And then you can do it inside out. And make a cut right above the stomach. That's gonna just open all that up. And now cut there, cut the stomach off, and you gotta get anything that's not white. Just this membrane here. There's— So that's all edible? It's one big piece of clam.
Huh.
Hmm.
Very interesting.
Yeah. And then the tongue— the foot, I mean. I'm gonna cut this brown stuff off, which is gonna open the foot. And then this is the sex organ. See it? That clear thing coming out? That's the sex organ. Don't get domesticated. Cut through it so it opens up into a nice piece of meat, and then you got to get all this stuff out. This is all stomach and— Yeah, this is, this is the stomach. Yep, intestines, all that. Or you can open it out through this too. It is, they really are. And there's a lot. I mean, that's all in one clam there. I mean, that's 2 nice pieces of meat. So if you were ever deserted on a beach with razor clams, you could do pretty well.
Nice.
Yeah, you will survive on these things.
Yeah, if you don't freeze to death first.
There's a show alone On History Channel. It's basically a survival reality show.
Uh-huh.
And so they drop people off on a, uh, and they have to— whoever's the last one to tap out wins. And so they go for like 2 and a half months usually.
Uh-huh.
The winter, just eating what they could find and trying to stay warm.
Wow, that's really interesting.
I think I'd do well.
You probably would. So here are the razor clams cooked. Same thing the bears eat. Bear food. Here I go. Hmm, actually, I can see why the bears like them.
Really?
They're really good. Wow, I could eat more of those. Oh, that's good stuff. So today we are on day 3 of Winter World, and looks like we actually get a plane out of here. So we are packed up and ready to jump on the bush plane and get back to Anchorage. See you in a bit. Day 3 of weather lockdown. We are finally headed to the airplane so we can go catch it on the beach in the rain and fly back to Pudai, where we catch the connecting flight to Cape Breton if everything goes as planned. All right, so that's pretty much a wrap on the Alaska adventure. It was an amazing trip, and I'll be looking forward to do it again in the near future. We are trying to hopefully maybe run a group to Alaska in the next couple of years. I'm on a few waiting lists, but it's kind of hard to get into a waiting list. You got to wait for somebody else to not go that year. But if you're interested in going, Go to our website, which the link is below, and subscribe to our email, and you'll get a newsletter when anything new is going on. We won't fill your email box full of junk, and I won't sell your email either. And so that's pretty much it for the trip. I mean, we made it back to the mainland safe and sound, and Now we're ready to go again.
