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While there are many risky outdoor activities on the Kenai Peninsula, clamming typically isn't one of them. But last month a family from Palmer found out that even shoveling for shellfish can be dangerous, if proper attention is not paid to the surroundings.

"We were out there about an hour before low tide, and we had two buckets of clams," said Melinda Briggs, in regard to a large sandbar near Ninilchik where she and her clan had decided to dig for clams on a huge minus tide.

Using a four-wheeler, Briggs had crossed about a foot or two of water to get out to the bar, along with her son Chad Edmonds, 31, his girlfriend, Pam Jeffrey, 27, and their five children between the ages of 3 and 7.

Initially, there were several other people clamming on the bar with them, but before long many of them headed back to shore before the tide came in.

Briggs, so busy digging clams and having fun, said she hadn't realized she had let time slip away from her until it was almost too late.

"We looked and the water was over the seat of the four-wheeler. My son screamed 'We've got to go now! Hurry!' We dropped everything and tried to get out of there. None of the other stuff mattered compared to our lives," she said.

They hopped on the four-wheeler and loaded the kids into a homemade trailer hitched to the back, but the water was coming in too fast by that point.

"The four-wheeler started floating, so my son jumped off and pulled the pin to the trailer to try and float it to shore, but it sunk too, so we had to put the kids on our backs," Briggs said.

The water was up to their waists and still rising quickly, but adding to the situation, Briggs and her family were not crossing back to shore where they had gone out, so the mud beneath the water was also complicated their return to dry land.

"It was like quicksand. We were struggling to take every step. I had wader-boots on, and they got sucked right off my feet," she said.

The children on their backs didn't make moving through the mud any easier.

"My son had two on his back, his girlfriend had the other two, and I had the oldest on my back. The kids were screaming their heads off. The one on my back was so petrified, she was choking me, she was holding on so tight," Briggs said.

As they neared the beach, a group of concerned on-lookers took their four-wheelers out as far as they safely could and helped Briggs and her exhausted family reach the shore.

"My son was near hypothermic and his girlfriend had nothing left. She could barely stand," she said.

As to how they managed to all make it off the bar safely, Briggs cited divine intervention.

"God definitely spared our lives," she said.

That wasn't the only miracle related to this incident, though. Amazingly, after having the four-wheeler and trailer swamped, Briggs got both of them back the next day.

"A commercial fisherman saw the tire of the four-wheeler as it was floating upside down. He thought it was a seal at first, but as it was heading for his nets, he checked it out, saw what it was and dragged it to shore," she said.

"A friend found the trailer at low tide. It was upsidedown and almost completely buried," she said.

Briggs said she felt fortunate she and her family members made it safely back to shore, and she said she has taken something away from this incident.

"I learned to watch the tides closer and not to go too far out," she said.

Joseph Robertia can be reached at joseph.robertia@peninsulaclarion.com.