Day 34 · Completed

Quilcene

Jefferson County, WA

Quilcene’s river, bay and hatchery history

This day on the route

Date: October 10, 2026
The day: Walking
Walked: 13 miles

Day 34, October 10: 13 miles walked, from Discovery Bay to Quilcene. Christie drove her past the Highway 104 interchange, which Christie did not feel was safe to walk; Jeana made up those miles with ones walked earlier.

Route overview, not turn-by-turn directions.

Gouache panorama of a road descending through small homes and conifers beside winding tidal channels and a broad blue bay, with wooded hills beyond. — Illustration inspired by Quilcene, Jefferson County, WA.

On October 10 Jeana walked 13 miles into Quilcene, with a detour to the Quilcene fiber fair after Christie brought back the socks she had left behind. Jan let her put her tent in her barn.

The Big Quilcene River connects this area with Quilcene Bay and Hood Canal. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service describes the national fish hatchery’s work raising coho for release into the river, as part of a wider network of fisheries and treaty obligations. The river is both habitat and a connection between inland and marine waters.

The hatchery was built in 1911. An agency history published in 1999 traces its role in propagating salmon and other fish, while the current account explains its coho program. Together, the two accounts trace a century of fisheries work beside the river.

The county’s later water-quality work around Quilcene and Dabob bays followed another part of that relationship, looking at the freshwater sources that reach marine habitat. It is a landscape where river, settlement and bay need to be understood together.

She was halfway to Quilcene when Christie texted that she had left her socks behind, and offered to bring them, take her to the fiber fair in Quilcene and drop her back to walk the rest of the way. At the fair she talked with people about NMDP, and Christie introduced her to Jan, one of the organizers, who let her put her tent in her barn that night and washed her clothes.

From the road

October 10, 2026

Forgotten socks that led to a fiber fair, and Jan’s sheep saying goodnight

She surely was happy to have slept inside the little shed, inside her tent, warm in her cosy sleeping bag, because when she came out in the morning it had rained, and it was still raining. It takes her about an hour and a half to pack up her tent, get all her grooming done and be ready for the day’s walk. She had her tent, sleeping bag and sleeping mat all packed onto her backpack when she saw Christie coming back from walking the dogs.

Christie invited her up for a bowl of oatmeal with pecans and maple syrup and a delicious latte before taking her to Discovery Bay to do her walk for the day. They visited about current events, told stories and talked about liner socks. One of the staff at REI had suggested new liner socks for her walk, and she loves them. Not everyone is interested in hiking apparel, she says, but Christie was, so Jeana showed the socks to Christy before putting them away.

Then they headed out for Discovery Bay. Christie explained that she wanted to drop her past the interchange of Highway 104 and Highway 101, because she didn’t feel it was safe to walk. Jeana told her she accepted her opinion as a local who knew the roads. Later she remembered that on Day 18 she had walked an extra 3.6 miles out of necessity, so she put those 3.6 miles toward the 3.0 she had missed by bypassing the interchange.

She was about halfway to Quilcene when a text arrived from Christie with photographs attached: Jeana had left her socks at Christie’s house. Christie knew how important those socks were to her walk, and she said, “Let me bring them to you, and I will take you into Quilcene and we’ll attend the fiber fair. And then on the way back, I’ll drop you where I picked you up, and you can walk the rest of the way in.” It was a marvellous idea, and that’s what they did.

The fair was great. It was very well attended, and she met so many people to talk to about NMDP, the U.S. National Marrow Donor Program, and about the Jada Bascom Foundation and the work it is doing to save lives. Christie also bought her lunch, and Jeana was so grateful, because she doesn’t always have a midday meal.

One other important thing Christie did was to introduce her to Jan, one of the women who had helped to organise the fair, and Jan offered to let Jeana put her tent in her barn that night. Christie had been magnanimous: she brought the socks back, bought Jeana lunch and helped her find a safe place to put her tent for the night.

Christie dropped her back out on the road, and Jeana walked into Quilcene and made her way to Jan’s farm. Jan raises Jacob sheep. She has them sheared and someone processes the wool for her, then she spins it — and it is beautiful.

Jeana and Jan had a lot in common. Jeana is just a bit younger than Jan, and they grew up in the same era. Their paths had been very different, but they have ended up in a similar place in their lives, which felt congruent to them both. Jan gave her tea and a snack of belVita biscuits, and the sheep all came over to say goodnight before Jeana climbed into her tent.

So overall, forgetting my socks turned out to be quite a blessing.

Jeana Moore

A small weathered wooden cabin with a peaked roof and covered porch, where a bright blue Adirondack chair holding a clear bag of fruit stands beside a packed maroon and gray backpack marked STEPS TO MARROW, among slender trees.

A yellow and white STOP BLOOD CANCER banner with a large QR code hangs from the back of a packed backpack on a wooden porch, a blue chair and a cabin window behind it.

A green highway sign reading Quilcene 11, Shelton 62, Olympia 82 stands on the grassy roadside in front of a weathered wooden fence and trees turning orange and gold.

Heavy gray and white clouds fill the sky over a stretch of water ringed by forested hills, with a gravel lot and grassy bank in front and three small signs by the water, one reading Discover Pass Required.

Rippled silver water spreads below a hillside thick with dark evergreens and leafy trees just starting to turn, framed by small-leaved shrubs and reeds on the near bank under a pale gray sky.

A two-lane road with a double yellow center line crosses the foreground beside dry golden grass and a bright green field, with a forested hill beyond under a blue sky with puffy white clouds.

A bright green field edged with dry golden grass and low hedges stretches from the roadside toward a dense stand of tall evergreens and a utility pole, under a blue sky with scattered white clouds.

A two-lane highway with a wide paved shoulder runs straight ahead between steep, tree-covered banks, the right side in sunlight and the left in shade, toward a distant valley under a clear blue sky.

Tall brown cattail seed heads rise from a stand of dry reeds in the foreground, in front of a hillside of dark evergreens and yellowing leafy trees under a blue sky with white clouds.

A close view of several brown cattail seed heads on tall stalks among dry, pale reeds, with a weathered gray dead tree trunk standing in the shadowy woods behind them.

Low clouds hang over dark mountain slopes beyond a forested shoreline and a strip of blue water, with a marsh of brown and gold grasses filling the foreground under a big cloudy sky.

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A slow, dark stretch of water winds through a marsh between clumps of tall green and golden grass, lily pads floating near the bank and a log lying across the water, with dense trees behind.

Still water reflecting the trees winds through a marsh of golden grass, with lily pads floating in the foreground and a line of bare silvery dead trees standing in front of dark evergreens beyond.

A single bright red-leafed tree stands out beside a small building on a shoreline of dark evergreens, below a steep forested mountain with clouds drifting across its shoulder and a strip of blue water in front.

Across tall dry grass and a strip of blue water, a shoreline of dark evergreens holds one bright red tree, beneath a forested mountain and a sky heaped with white and gray clouds.

A close view of thick brown cattail seed heads among tall green and yellowing blades of leaf, with a wire fence and a sunny green pasture showing through behind them.

A pale cream horse with a long blond mane and tail stands in a sunny green pasture, its head turned toward the camera, in front of metal gates, wooden fence posts and a blue barrel.

A woman with long blue and green hair and green-framed glasses plays a tall wooden harp with a scrolled top, her ringed fingers on the strings, beside a brick wall and an amber glass lamp.

A slender dark snake with pale yellow stripes running its length lies in a loose loop on rough gray asphalt.

A two-lane road curves away between tall evergreens and trees turning orange, the sun glinting through the branches, with a white camper far ahead and a narrow shoulder running along a grassy bank.

A two-lane road with a yellow center line sweeps past a tall stand of leafy trees, their leaves turning bronze and gold, with tall evergreens beyond under a clear blue sky.

Looking down onto a narrow, still creek edged with bright green growth and crowded with fallen logs and upturned root masses, between steep banks of grass, shrubs and gravel.

A dense stand of tall, straight evergreens with pale bare lower trunks rises beyond a grassy clearing, a power line crossing in front of them, under a blue sky with white clouds.

Late sunlight slants through a row of leafy trees turning yellow and orange beside a two-lane road, long shadows stretching across the asphalt and fallen leaves covering the ground beneath the trunks.

A green sign reading Little Quilcene River stands on a post above a metal guardrail, against a thick tangle of evergreen boughs and big yellowing leaves.

Looking down at a dark, shining stream flowing beneath overhanging branches of large lobed leaves turning yellow and orange, with ivy and green shrubs crowding its banks.

A black metal sign hanging from a wooden crossbar shows the cut-out silhouette of a horned, spotted sheep between two evergreens, its lettering blurred, above long green grass.

A quiet paved lane curves between tall evergreens and shrubs toward a weathered barn, a fence and a mailbox in the distance, with a forested hill beyond under clouds lit gold by the low sun.

Distance walked: 13 miles

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