Canoe Journey Journal

Tad Sooter photos

July 14 – Port Gamble to Port Townsend
25 nautical miles

Seven in the morning feels even earlier when you’re standing in knee deep in saltwater. So members of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Canoe Family were relieved when the call came to push off the beach and begin paddling.

Forty Port Gamble S’Klallam pullers assembled at the beach that morning and rotated between three canoes – Noo Kayet, Kloomachin and the Trevathan family canoe.

We were one of the last groups to leave the beach and canoes were already scattered to the horizon as we pulled north up Hood Canal. I started my day in Noo Kayet and the morning chill was soon dispelled by steady paddling under a hot sun.

We had our first man overboard just an hour into the trip. The Kloomachin had pulled alongside one of Port Gamble S’Klallam’s two support vessels to bring on new pullers. As it pushed away from the boat, Kloomachin tilted severely (as it often does) and a young puller fell backwards into the water. The puller swam to the support boat, climbed back into Kloomachin and kept paddling.

At 10:30 a.m. we stopped Oak Bay park, near Indian Island, for an early lunch. From there pulled up the canoes entered the narrow channel between Indian Island and the mainland, which serves as a southern entrance to Port Townsend. The canoes shared the channel with a steady line of powerboats and plowed through wake after wake.

The water was calm in the bay and the canoes made steady time past Fort Flagler and across the Port Townsend ferry lanes. After shooting photos from a support boat for a few hours, I joined the crew of Noo Kayet in the bay.

The sun was unrelenting and young pullers in the canoe were tired and wrestless. We passed downtown Port Townsend and turned northwest toward Fort Worden State Park. Ahead we could see the white strip of beach and barely make out canoes unloading. The closeness of our goal made the last half hour of the trip interminable and pullers were having trouble keeping time.

When we finally arrived at the beach we were greeted by drummers and dancers. The crew carried Noo Kayet up to the line of canoes at the driftwood line with the help of bystanders.

It was only a little past 1 p.m., but already a tent city had blossomed on the hillside above the beach. We found our ground crew pitching tents and cooking an early dinner (or was that a second lunch?) of spaghetti.

There were hundreds of tents packed tight on the lawn and a melee of activity. Shuttle vans were making trips to town, children were playing soccer and a few drum circles were starting up.

A hamburger and hotdog dinner was served and after a canoe family meeting I had enough time to wander the camp and explore bunkers in the park before crawling into my tent for the night.

Drumming and singing circles continued until 11 p.m. then the camp finally began to quiet. Our wakeup call would come at 5 a.m.