In desperation for more beach glass to fill my wedding favors, I convinced one of my bridesmaids to take a trip with me and Gretel out to Glass Beach. No one had accompanied us out to the beach for well over a year. We always made the trek alone.
I grew up in this area and have been to this beach many times over the last 20 years. This time we saw some things that I had never seen before.
Soon after we left the parking lot a new sign appeared. This sign, in any fashion, has never been on this beach before. I have never seen any naked people here either so the sign implies a new thing.
As we were walking down the beach we heard a muffled sound like people talking. There was no one on the beach with us though so we looked out into the water. We spotted a canoe.
When we looked closer we could tell that it was a Native American dugout canoe. Although we could not hear them clearly at this point, we assumed that the sound we heard was chanting.
The local Jamestown S’Klallam tribe has some authentic dugout canoes that the use for ceremonial purposes. I had not heard anything about them using them (if they do it is often mentioned on the news) and have no idea where this canoe was headed. I had never seen one of these canoes in person – not at any ceremony and especially not randomly while walking the beach. THIS was very special indeed.
We kept walking and suddenly another canoe appeared……then another and another and another. There was a steady stream of them. At our final count there were somewhere about 15. As their numbers increased, some of them came closer to shore and were easier to hear. We could then clearly hear them singing a Native American chant and beating drums.
They were still going by when we stopped in one area to hunt for glass. We were out there for about an hour and the whole time we were “meditating” on beach glass to Native American chants. It was so surreal.
The add to my list of “first times”, we sadly didn’t find much blue glass that day. What we did find was more yellow and red pieces than I had ever found before. Unfortunately, those are not my wedding colors and I will have to return to the beach at least one more time before the wedding.
Gretel and I enjoyed having someone else to walk with. I know at least for me the walk felt like it was faster. It was certainly more enjoyable. It was nice to have a witness for all of these first too so people didn’t think I was crazy 
I was still curious about the Native American canoes when I got back to so I did some research. The best I can tell, we saw part of the 2012 paddle to Squaxin Island. The website says “many nations and people are participating in this event”. As it turns out, we may have had the privilege of seeing a tribe from further north on their journey…which would make our sighting extra, extra special.
Me, me, me…I wanna go! When is the wedding again? how many weekends are there? I can take the Pt Townsend ferry & meet you. Dieter is a horrible car rider so I might have to bring Kia instead.
That would be awesome! It’s tricky because you have to hit a low tide though….and I am busy most weekend. Are you only available on weekends? The tides will be low enough on Monday 7/30 through Thursday 8/2 and I can go on those days. We would have to start walking between 7 and 8 am and I would need to leave Port Townsend by about 130 pm. That gives us enough time to walk down there briskly and spend about an hour picking up glass.
I checked and those are the last low tides before my wedding on August 10th anyway. We could always go in September though just for fun.
What a cool outing! It sounds like it was definitely worth the trip, even if you didn’t find a lot of glass.
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It was worth it…although I am worried now I won’t have enough glass for my wedding gifts. There a 4 more days of low tide before my wedding so I plan on making another trip. I sure hope I can find someone to go because it makes it way more pleasant.
How neat! Does Gretel ever go in the water?
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Not really. Chester HATES the water. Gretel doesn’t mind. When we hike, Chester will calculate a leap across the stream for several minutes before he jumps (or he expects us to carry him over – which we do sometimes). If Gretel doesn’t think she can easily clear it in one jump, she will jump right in the middle of it and back out. At the beach she loves birds. She will get her feet wet in the water to get closer to them. I haven’t tried to get her to swim though. I don’t think that she LOVES water but she doesn’t seem to mind. Maybe I should try the swimming thing
That is cool. I bet your friend was glad she came. You should ask her next time you go. When you first said you were going to the beach with a bridesmaid, I thought you meant Gretel
She is a marine scientist so I had to keep her focused to even get her out there past all the rocks and tide pools. Ha, ha. We also saw an otter way out on a rock. We couldn’t get a picture of him so I didn’t mention it here….but it was another first!
That must have been totally awesome, especially when you heard the chanting!! Great that you got the pics so we could see a Canoe too!!
Hope you’re having a fun day
Your pal Snoopy
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It was actually pretty amazing. The best part was the surprise and randomness of it.
What a special day. Sounds like you had no reason to be disappointed for not finding more glass.
The big nude bathing place in my town is our city reservoir. The police are trying to crack down. But I always wondered if the reason our water tastes so good is because it’s nudie water.
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Yikes…the City reservoir? I hope no one is peeing in there
That’s so neat!
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Sounds like a great day. I would have liked to see the canoes.
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This is truly awesome…imagine hearing the sounds as you lose yourself bending over looking for the beauties that you found…you know red is rare and valuable people..keep that in mind!
Ron
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The red and yellow pieces I found were very tiny though
At least they weren’t naked canoers!
I’m super jealous of your glass beach…I don’t much find glass when I go to the beach anymore. On one hand, it’s a good thing, because it means that the ocean is less polluted by garbage dumping (at least where I go). On the other hand, finding beach glass is such a wonderful and somewhat mystical thing. I have a (pale) blue piece that’s just about the entire bottom of a bottle! I do like the dark cobalt blue glass best, though.
The pieces I used to find 10 years ago were pale blue and about the size of a 50 cent piece. Now you are very lucky when you find one the size of a quarter. The most common colors to find there are clear, green and light blue.
That is so cool that you got to witness that! I bet it was like you were in another world when you were searching for glass with chanting and drums in the background!
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It WAS very surreal. Brought me back to my hippie days too. Ha, ha.
Sounds like an awesome day! I’m intrigued about the glass tho’. Where does it come from?
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There used to be a garbage dump near one of the cliffs. Eventually the water eroded into it causing all of the trash to fall in the water. The dump is all gone now. Has been for years. That is one reason it is harder to find glass out there – no more supply.
Wow, very cool. What a great site to witness. I have lived in WA pretty much all of my life and I have never seen a Native American ritualistic ceremony like that before. Nor have I ever been to one of the ‘glass’ beaches in WA either. Apparently there are two glass beaches surrounding my current city – so I will have to let you know (when I go) if I find anything
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Yeah…be sure to scope them out so you can take me when I come to visit
That sounds like it was a great outing. After reading the beginning I thought for sure you were going to see some nude sun bathers. Sorry you didn’t find any glass for your wedding. Hopefully you have better luck next time.
Take care,
Colby
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Hey Gretel, Hey Chester, Jet here.
Gretel what an enchanting (get it? BOL) visit to the beach… sounds pawesome. Sorry Mom didn’t find the quantity or color of beach glass she needed. (creative idea btw)
Interesting sign change… glad you encountered cool canoes instead!
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Yeah….much better than naked old hippy men
How much fun!!! Sorry you didn’t find much glass, but it sounds like the trip was amazing!!!
~Higgins
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It’s always a good time. I love a good hike on the beach and Gretel loves all of the birds.
Roooo this sounds like a pawsome place to go for walkies, and you were really lucky to see the canoes – I just hope you won’t run into any naked people soon *Waggy tail*
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Well, we might be going out again next week so we will see
DREAMY – I love love love moments like that. Must say … that sign … HAPPY NAKED TIME!! ahahahahahahahaaa….
How cool! I have always wanted to find beach glass but never have. And I live near the beach.
How are you going to use it at your wedding?
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We has a beach with some of dose signs near us. I wonders what dey means???
~Sassy
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