As more than a dozen Northwest tribal canoes cut through the waves on their journey to Taholah this week, a group of Lower Elwha Klallam youths is taking the path less traveled — on foot.
Eight teenagers, accompanied by four adults, departed Sunday from Whiskey Bend to follow a traditional native trade route through the Olympic Mountains toward the Quinault reservation.
The 47.9-mile route will lead them along the Upper Elwha and North Fork Quinault rivers in Olympic National Park, putting them in Taholah, in Grays Harbor County, shortly before canoes arrive for a potlatch celebration Aug. 10.
“It’ll be quite an adventure,” said Samuel White, a Lower Elwha tribal member and tribal police corporal who does youth intervention with the tribe.
The seven-day hike winds along a route traditionally used by the Lower Elwha for trade, plant gathering and arranged marriages, White said Saturday.
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