PORT ANGELES — Hewn from a solid cedar log, 46½ feet from prow to stern, the “Spirit of Elwha” is no surfboard.
But ride the surf it did Thursday afternoon, crossing the bar at the mouth of the Elwha River on the Lower Elwha Klallam Reservation and riding a few hundred feet into the estuary before pausing off the shore.
“We are the Elwha Klallam people,” skipper Al Charles Jr. called from the stern to a small crowd that had gathered on the bank.
“We’re finally back home.”
The short voyage from Hollywood Beach was the symbolic end of the weeklong journey by Charles and his 18 young pullers that started at Seattle’s Alki Beach.
Heading north, the sleek black canoe called at other reservations, leading tribal watercraft to Port Angeles on the Paddle to Elwha.
It was a single passage for the “Spirit of Elwha.” It was 18 separate voyages for the pullers.
“They were on their own journeys,” Charles said, “finding what was in their hearts.
“They learned what they could and couldn’t do, physically and spiritually.”