Canoe Journey Journal

July 16, Jamestown to Elwha

Pullers assembled at 5:30 a.m. and the sky was encouragingly clear to the northwest.

But at an early morning skippers meeting nearly all the canoe families decided not to make the pull up the coast to Elwha. The forecast was calling for high swells. Fishermen from Jamestown were reporting conditions were getting worse on the strait. With the memory of Thursday morning’s close calls still fresh, the skippers decided to play it safe and trailer the canoes.

The water off the beach was glassy and smooth, but Jamestown is protected by a long sand spit that makes it impossible to guage the conditions in the strait.

“It’s deceiving,” skipper Laura Price said after the decision to trailer was made. “It’s so calm and perfect you want to be out there.”

A few canoes did pull west for Elwha. The Port Gamble S’Klallam Canoe Family assembled its young pullers to paddle Noo Kayet a short distance to a marina for haul out.

The Tana Stobs canoe family held a cleansing ceremony on the beach around their canoe to clear away any negative energy left from Thursday, when the canoe was nearly lost. The women of the family circled the canoe with cedar boughs while the men held its sides in support.

We moved camp to the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation in the late morning. The reservation sits at the mouth of the Elwha River, just west of Port Angeles. We camped in the waterfront yard of a tribal friend, with the Strait of Juan de Fuca spread before us and the north face of the Olympic Mountains towering behind.

Canoes began landing in the early afternoon at Hollywood Beach in downtown Port Angeles. Those that were trailered from Jamestown were launched at a nearby marina and pulled to the beach to request permission to land from the Elwha. The canoes that paddled from Jamestown also trickled in. As it turned out, conditions in the strait had been fair.

Elwha is the largest camp so far. Canoes from north and south Puget Sound and Hood Canal were joined by families from Vancouver Island. Some of the Canadian canoes are unbelievably large. We saw one capable of carrying 20 pullers.

Canoe families will have plenty of time to rest in Elwha. We will stay here all of Saturday and depart Sunday morning for Pillar Point.

The rest day will be a chance to regroup, do laundry and relax. Not having to break down tents in the predawn cold will be the greatest luxury of all.