Boat Plans Only: twanoh

Two days ago I joined the Puget Sound Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association at Twanoh State Park on the Hood Canal; a long, skinny finger of the southwestern Salish Sea.

The park derives its name from the word tewa´duxq.
Twana, Twanoh or tewa´duxq refers to the territory that encompasses the entire Hood Canal watershed. It is comprised of nine First People villages of which the Skokomish is the largest and where most descendants reside today. The Skokomish observe their hereditary and treaty rights throughout this territory.

Before becoming a state park, the land was logged in the 1890’s and a meandering trail through the forest reveals springboard notches carved in cedar trees from early logging practices. Further exploration of the campground and day use area highlights historic park buildings which were constructed in the 1930’s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

The beach is seeded with oysters, which can be harvested by permit. There is an excellent launch ramp and the winds on Saturday were a perfect 15 knots.

Great park facilities, excellent food, incredible sailing conditions and wonderful company.

A perfect day.

I had the pleasure of crewing with Joel Bergen in his Navigator, Ellie. You may find it difficult to believe - Ive never sailed in a John Welsford designed boat before. Needless to say, Ellie lived up to expectations and then some. Joel is a very congenial companion and allowed me the tiller and freedom to sail where I wished.

What more could a Doryman want?

Joel put together a quick video, which Ive borrowed to share with you.
(Thank you, my friend!)

For his version of this story, please visit Joels Navigator Site.

And finally, the slideshow:

You might get as many reactions to eating oysters as there are religions in the world. There may be no more hedonisticly pleasurable food known to gastronomes.

Ive heard that a hedonist is the follower of any ethical system in which some sort of pleasure ranks as the highest good. The Epicurean identifies this pleasure with the practice of virtue. Of course, anything that is pleasurable is, to some, morally suspect. At least, thats how I feel when eating oysters who lived free and filtered clean seawater only yesterday...

...like a mortal eating food intended for gods. I like to loiter around the cook, in the smoke of the hot oiled pan, stealing morsels of the little buggers, raw. If I happen to be the cook well, youd better get your share while theyre too hot to eat, because I already had mine and might eat your share, too.

Add to this, good company on a beautifully inspiring spring day with unparalleled sailing. That would be the Twanoh State Park messabout, and the Puget Sound TSCA. I, for one, could wish everyday to be this good.

The Puget Sound Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association is a heady title for a very down-to-earth group of small boat affectionatoes. You must be a hearty soul to gather in all weather, on the Olympic Peninsula, for fun. Twanoh Park is on the Hood Canal, in the Olympic rain forest. Human denizens of this climate have, for centuries innumerable, grown webbed feet and developed seal skin. The name of the park derives from the First Nation Twana tribes, better known as the Skokomish.

A large portion of the beach at Twanoh is a huge shellfish midden. A midden is, by Middle English definition, a refuse heap. Imagine pre-historic gatherings of humans on a rocky beach, where the tidal current runs strong and clean and the oyster and other mollusks are so plentiful all one must do is sit in the sun on the beach at low tide and eat your fill. Possibly after such a meal, you would be led to ponder why the Greeks are credited with the definition of gastronomia.

It would take years, nay millennia, for people to eat enough oysters to create a landfill of shell, at low tide, to form a peninsula that is high and dry at the most extreme high tide. In such a place, of which there are many still on the Salish Sea, if you repose in a meditative, contemplative posture, you can feel generations of satiated souls at your side. Such is Twanoh, Hood Canal, Salish Sea.

Even if you are not a history buff, or given to prosaic hyperbole, you will enjoy this fine Washington State Park. The launch ramp is first class, as are the old timber shelters suitable for family gatherings such as this. But if you show up on a weekend toward the end of April, on a blustery day with weather challenges from warm and sunny to gale force rain, while you watch over a plateful of some of the best food youll ever eat, or test your abilities at reefing and riding a squall, youre at the TSCA Twanoh Oyster Messabout.