Straits sampler

After getting our things packed up at Hobuck Beach, Marc, Tiffany and I set up the shuttle. We drove first to the boat launch at Pillar Point and ate some lunch, then drove the other van back to Clallam Bay. We put in at the little park in town, me on the SUP, them in a double kayak.

It’s a wonderful stretch of water between Clallam Bay and the Pillar. It’s that 9 or 10 miles of shoreline that has no road, no houses and no sign of human habitation. Compared to the rest of the shoreline around there, most of it fronted by Highway 112, it is the wilderness of the Strait, seemingly untouched.

The kelp beds are still immense along tis coast, haven’t died off much yet for the winter. My fin catches on the glossy golden-brown fronds and slows me down so I head farther out into deeper water. Marc and Tiffany stay close to the cliffs, paddling along in the gentle rise and fall of the swells. We stop for 20 minutes or so on a rocky point, on a beach made out of sandstone bowling balls. A quick snack and we are back out there, paddling into a slowly falling tide all the way.

Not long after our stop, the wind arises from the west and begins to build quickly. Within 15 minutes, I have a 10-knot tailwind and 8-foot swells that push me vigorously toward the destination. Up until that point, I have found it difficult to stay even with the double, even though they aren’t pushing all that hard. Now, with the wind as the leveling factor, I catch up to them, then start to pull away.

We all finish together at the launch and load up for the shuttle once again. The late afternoon sun hangs comfortably in the sky as we drive, and all is right with the world.

(You can read a previous trip report for the same area here.)