PORT TOWNSEND — Pullers participating in the Paddle to Quinault 2013 will be welcomed to Port Townsend beginning at 9 a.m. Sunday.
The public is invited to watch the ceremonial greetings on the beaches at each of the canoe journey stops as pullers from the Pacific Northwest and Canada make their way around the North Olympic Peninsula and down the Pacific Coast to Quinault lands for a weeklong celebration.
Although arrival times are dependent on the tide, the first canoes are expected in Port Townsend as early as 9 a.m. and will continue through the afternoon, landing at Fort Worden State Park on the beach next to the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.
Participants will travel by van to the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, 4907 Landes St., to take part in tribal dancing, singing and drumming.
The Jamestown S’Klallam tribe of Blyn and the Port Gamble S’Klallam and Lower Elwha Klallam tribes will greet the pullers.
Jamestown Beach
After a one-day stop in Port Townsend, between 30 and 40 canoes will travel Monday to Jamestown Beach off Jamestown Road just north of Sequim. Dinner and tribal dance performances will follow at the Sequim High School cafeteria at 601 N. Sequim Ave.
The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe will welcome canoes Tuesday for two days in Port Angeles.
The canoes will land at Hollywood Beach in Port Angeles. Dinner will follow at the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal Center at 2851 Lower Elwha Road.
After stopping over in Clallam Bay on Thursday, the Makah tribe will welcome travelers at Neah Bay on a stretch of beach along Bayview Avenue next Friday and at Cape Alava on Saturday, July 27.
The canoes will spend two days in LaPush from July 28-29 after being welcomed by Quileute tribal members near the Quileute Marina.
A welcoming by the Hoh tribe is scheduled to be the last stop July 30 before canoes reach Quinault lands.
There, they will come ashore on a site near Point Grenville north of Taholah.
Between 10,000 and 15,000 people are expected to attend a continuous potlatch from Aug. 1-6.
