Road trip to Joyce and Sekiu.

C.B. Cara and I took a road trip to Sekiu, an old fishing village from way back.

 As a boy of about 12, I accompanied my Parents, Dad’s Cousin Harold (Sy) Syverson and Shiela his wife, fun people, to Sekiu, the ultimate place for Salmon fishing. This was the one and only time my Mother would ever get this close to nature, something less than a five star hotel was to her “roughing it’. She would also go clam digging, but that is another story.

Highway 112 just west of Port Angeles is designated a Scenic Byway and it sure fits the bill. Running parallel to the Straits of Juan de Fuca, a large body of water separating us from Vancouver Island, Canada. It also leads to the San Juan Islands and the Puget (pewjet) Sound. Ships of all sizes, U.S.Navy surface ships and Trident Submarines regularly use these waters as well as Killer Whales, other types of whales, Salmon, Halibut etc. Here I go getting hungry again.

The original Clallam County Seat was New Dungeness (yes, the famous crab name), named by British Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver. That area is now called Sequim (skwim). In 1890 the County Seat was moved to Port Angeles where it remains today.  Logging is key to the survival of the area; it is also where to board the Ferry for Victoria, Canada, they even have a Dairy Queen.

The most interesting place along our way is Joyce, Washington. The Joyce General Market is celebrating 100 years of continuous business. It is all original; parts of the inside came from the Markham House Hotel which was in the now extinct town of Port Crescent. After failing to capture the Clallam County Seat, the town was totally abandoned by 1893. John Joyce opened the store and promptly named the spot Joyce, clever.

Inside are treasures beyond belief. Post office boxes claimed from the old Markham Hotel; one old character behind the counter said it was circa 1850, before the Postal Service came into being and was run by a private company. Among the vast assortment of past memories was a Chain Saw, hanging from the ceiling, it was about 10 feet long. After the old guy told me it was the world’s first chainsaw I did some research. A German engineer named Emil Lert invented what was called the first chainsaw and opened a company called Dolomar which flourishes to this day. The chainsaw hanging from the rafter was indeed one of these beasts. The engine looks a little like an early Volkswagen, it put out 8 horse power and weighed 128 pounds, ugh!

 
We found Sekiu, a speck on the map, with lots of boats and fishermen. We had a crappy lunch and headed home. We stopped half way back to let Cara have a run on the beach, the waves petrified her, what a wimp.