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Hood Canal

Day 37 · Completed

Near Lilliwaup

US Highway 101 north of Lilliwaup, Mason County, Washington

Chowder at the Hama Hama Oyster Saloon, and a lift when Lilliwaup had no room

This day on the route

Date
The day
Walking
Walked
10 miles

Day 37, October 13: 10 miles walked, from Robbinswold to a pullout on US 101 just north of Lilliwaup. Skeet and Edna drove her 4.4 miles on to the Glen Ayr Canal Resort, and she walked those miles over the next two days.

Route overview, not turn-by-turn directions.

Gouache view of a clear, stony creek beside a driftwood-covered beach, with blue coastal water, low roadside houses and a densely wooded slope.
Illustration inspired by Lilliwaup, Mason County, Washington.

On October 13 Jeana walked 10 miles from Robbinswold past the Hama Hama Oyster Saloon to a pullout 1.1 miles short of Lilliwaup, where Skeet and Edna gave her a lift to a room for the night.

Lilliwaup sits on the Hood Canal shore. A historical journey from the same shoreline appears in the National Park Service’s account of Olympic National Park: Joseph O’Neil organized an expedition across the southern Olympic Peninsula in 1890.

The report records the party sailing from Port Townsend aboard the sternwheeler Louise on July 1 and traveling down Hood Canal to the mouth of Lilliwaup Creek. The journey was part of a government effort to document an east-to-west route through the southern Olympics.

She walked just under four miles to the Hama Hama Oyster Saloon, where the young woman behind the counter shared a coffee and a cup of fresh clam chowder. Late in the day she learned the Lilliwaup motel had closed during COVID. Skeet and Edna, a couple she had met on the road the day before, stopped at a pullout and offered help, and when no RV park would take a tent they drove her to the Glen Ayr Canal Resort, where the Foundation covered her room.

From the road

Chowder at the Hama Hama Oyster Saloon, and a lift from Skeet and Edna when Lilliwaup had no room

She woke before the sun and took a minute to snuggle down into her sleeping bag to stay warm. It was cold, though surprisingly a little warmer than it had been the night before. By flashlight she walked over to plug in her phone again, to be sure it had all the charge she would need for the day’s walk into Lilliwaup. Breakfast was the Aussie Bites, which were really good, plus a few Girl Scout cookies she had never had before, called Exploremores, and the last of the tea from the thermos. She packed up all the food and containers and put them in the bag for Morgan to take back up to the house.

The sun had just started to rise. On the porch of the little cabin there was enough light to stuff her sleeping bag into its little bag and stow it in her backpack, and to put band-aids on her toes to protect them from blisters. Knock on wood, she says, she hasn’t had a single blister yet on this walk, the first time that has ever happened on a Steps to Marrow journey, and she will stay diligent and careful every day.

She walked just under 4 miles to the Hama Hama Oyster Saloon. Many people along this stretch of highway had told her to stop there, and a sign on the door advertised coffee. As she went in she met two men who had seen her on the highway and wanted to know more. She is so grateful, she says, for the QR code around her neck, which makes it easy to share the website: they snapped a photo of it, and they went their separate ways.

The beautiful young woman behind the counter shared a coffee with her, then asked whether she would like a cup of clam chowder. The woman had seen the Halfway House Restaurant’s Facebook post, so she already knew about the walk. The chowder was fresh and delicious. Her son-in-law, Kyle, Jeana says, must visit the Hama Hama Oyster Saloon; he would love it.

Lilliwaup was 11 miles away, and it was a long day of walking. When there are no cars on Highway 101, delightful sounds rise from the woods and the sea: the growls and chirps of the seals, the calls of the gulls, chipmunks scurrying through the leaves of the forest floor and the woodland songbirds, all blended with the sound of gently lapping waves. She tried several times to record it, but it wasn’t possible with her little phone.

At 4:30 she looked up the Lilliwaup Store. Morgan, at the Girl Scout camp, had suggested the motel behind it might be open, and the store closed at 5:00, so she called to be sure of reaching them in time. A very nice gentleman explained that the motel had closed during COVID and had never reopened.

She was wondering what to do, or whom she might ask, when she walked past a big pullout and was surprised to see a couple she had met on the road the day before. They had stopped to make sure she was all right and to ask how she was doing, and they handed her a brownie and asked whether she needed anything. She explained that she had hoped to spend the night in Lilliwaup but her options looked very slim, and asked whether they knew of any RV parks that would take a tent, or any motels nearby. They invited her to jump into the back of their truck. She had just checked the distance left to Lilliwaup, 1.1 miles, so it was easy to work out how far south they took her.

Their names, she learned, are Skeet and Edna: such a lovely, generous couple, looking out for a stranger. They stopped at several RV parks, but none would let her stay in a tent. The Glen Ayr Canal Resort was 4.4 miles from where they had picked her up, miles she would have to make up on foot. She was so grateful to them: it was late in the day, she would not have reached the Glen Ayr before dark, and the highway’s shoulder there is narrower than her backpack, so she would not have been safe.

Skeet went in with her to make sure the resort had a room, and she assured him that in case of emergency, for her safety, the Jada Bascom Foundation would pay for the night. He insisted on carrying her pack up the flight of stairs to the second floor so she wouldn’t have to, and then they said goodbye, knowing she wouldn’t see them south of Lilliwaup. She thanked them again; she treasures meeting generous, kind people like Skeet and Edna on her journey.

She had been in her tent for several days and desperately needed to wash her socks and other clothes, and she needed a bath too, so it was a marvellous end to a long day of walking. As always, she was grateful to charge her phone and her backup battery for the next day’s walk. While her laundry washed, she sat on the resort’s gently rocking dock for some quiet meditation. Gratitude raises your serotonin levels, they say, and her own gratitude rose from deep within, for the chance to help others and to be helped in return.

The Foundation covered her room that night at the Glen Ayr Canal Resort.

The cradle of gratitude is recognising that nothing exists independently.

Jeana Moore
Dark silhouettes of tall evergreens frame a glimpse of calm grey water and a low wooded shore under a pale dawn sky with a hint of pink.An open-air wooden cabin with a steep roof, half walls and steps up to a raised floor stands between tall tree trunks on a forest floor of needles.A weathered wooden sign carved with the name Robbinswold hangs above a tall wooden fence and gate among evergreen branches.Morning light glows low over calm grey water and a long wooded shore beneath heavy clouds, with leafy shrubs and an evergreen in the foreground.A two-lane highway curves away beneath a tunnel of tall trees turning yellow and orange, with a steep wooded bank on the right.A yellow pedestrian warning sign stands at the edge of the highway against a hillside of trees in green and autumn gold.Jeana, smiling, with short white hair, glasses and a yellow-green safety vest over her jacket and pack straps, takes a selfie on the shoulder of a highway lined with autumn trees as cars pass.The highway runs along a wooden guardrail beside a calm bay, with power lines overhead and wooded hills across the water under a cloudy sky.A small tidal inlet with mossy rocks and shallow water opens toward the bay between trees, with a lone bare snag on the far point under a cloudy sky.A rusty open-ended wrench lies on a bed of fallen pine needles and twigs at the edge of the road’s asphalt.Inside a shop, a life-size bronze-coloured Bigfoot statue stands beside a rack of oven mitts printed with a blue mountain pattern.A wide estuary of golden marsh grass stretches toward a calm bay and forested hills under a bright, cloud-streaked sky, framed by a dark evergreen.
Show all 27 photos from this dayShow fewer photos
A river delta of marsh grass and shallow channels opens onto the bay, with a wooded point on the left and hills across the water under blue sky and white clouds.A winding tidal channel cuts through green and golden marsh toward the bay and a long line of forested hills under a cloudy sky.Seen from a high bank, a tidal channel curves through grassy marsh past a piece of driftwood toward the open bay and distant hills.A yellow sign in a window shows a walking Bigfoot silhouette and reads “Bigfoot doesn’t believe in you either.”A dark paper wrapper printed in pale blue with oysters, waves and trees around the Hama Hama logo and “Est. 1922.”A bearded man in a cap, orange gloves and a camouflage vest guides a large wire cage heaped with oysters as it hangs from a hoist chain beside the water.The highway runs along the edge of the bay under a bright, hazy sun, with a dry grassy bank, a road sign and wooded hills along the shore.Old wooden pilings stand in rows in the calm water of the bay, seen through leafy branches from a pebbly shore, with wooded hills beyond.Weathered pilings rise from sparkling water beneath overhanging leaves, with a wooded shore in the distance.The highway curves left between a wooded hillside and a guardrail, with the bay and a tall evergreen ahead under an overcast sky.A carved wooden sign for the Glen-Ayr Canal Resort, topped by a Motel sign, with an RV Park sign and a vacancy board, stands beside the highway with the water behind.Grey, gently rippled water stretches to a long wooded shore under a soft overcast evening sky.The corner of a wooden dock juts into calm water toward a dark wooded point under a pale evening sky.A dark point of tall evergreens reaches into calm grey water under a pale evening sky with soft pink clouds.Calm grey water stretches to a dark line of distant shore under a layered evening sky.
Distance walked
10 miles
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Sources

Local history and background reading for this stop.

  1. Olympic National Park administrative history — checked Sep 5, 2026
The flyer: STOP BLOOD CANCER set in tall letters over a dark plum page, a quote, and a QR code beside a text-to-join line for the U.S.One standing face of the table tent: the same headline and quote on the left, a large QR code on the right.

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A coffee counter, a church foyer, a break room, a race table. Every sheet carries the code that opens Jeana’s walk, and a number to text for anyone who would rather not scan — no app, no wifi, nothing to hand back.Every sheet carries the code that opens Jeana’s walk — nothing to install, nothing to hand back. The number to text printed beside it is for joining NMDP, which registers people who live in the U.S., its territories and the freely associated states. If you live anywhere else, find your country’s registry.

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