Story Photos
 Photo by Roger Werth Sunrise and Jessica Fletcher's new bed and breakfast lodging, the Inn at Lucky Mud, offers wildlife, solitude and meeting space in the Willapa Hills of Skamokawa. |
Serious wallowing
Saturday, April 3, 2004 6:40 PM PST
By Cathy Zimmerman
Printable version
E-mail this articleSKAMOKAWA --- When Sunrise and Jessica Fletcher settled their 40-acre property up Skamokawa Valley Road 31 years ago, they called it Lucky Mud -- a name they plucked from a Kurt Vonnegut novel.
God made mud.
God got lonesome.
So God said to some of the mud, 'Sit up!'
'See all that I've made,' said God, 'the hills, the sea, the sky, the stars.'
And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around.
Lucky me, lucky mud.
-- from "Cat's Cradle."
Now Sunrise, a musician, and Jessica, a teacher, have realized a dream in that lucky Willapa mud.
After constructing their first house ("hand-built in the rain with a handsaw," he says), raising two sons and sharing the land with three other households, the Fletchers have turned a family inheritance into a new, 4,000-square-foot bed-and-breakfast called the Inn at Lucky Mud.
"It was delightful to get to do this," said Jessica.
She and Sunrise are no strangers to enterprise. They've been Wahkiakum County activists for decades, sharing their music and working on the annual Skamokawa revue and the renovation of Redmen Hall.
Even the inn reaches out to the larger community.
The house, a grand but gentle presence on a knoll overlooking a pond, has three guest rooms with private baths, a conference room, private quarters for the Fletchers and a spacious common area with living room, dining room and kitchen.
Jessica designed it on paper, then worked with contractor Jim Bjorge of Puget Island and neighbor Jim Mendoza as builders.
The Fletchers traveled to France and Italy (Sunrise's grandfather was from Sicily) to soak in the style of European inns.
They chose Carrara marble for the entryway floor insert and fireplace surround. The floors are local alder, installed by Scott Smith of Pro Hardwood, and woodwork throughout the house is fir, alder and cedar.
In the kitchen, white cabinets have counters of cherry, and the work island is topped with wood from an apple tree. "It's so hard we can cut on it," Jessica said. The counters have not been stained but left with their natural red tones.
Sunrise practically bursts over his new stove: a six-burner gas Viking professional model that puts out "15,000 BTU's!" he said.
He does the inn cooking, including homemade bread and dishes from his family's Italian heritage. Breakfast is included in the inn's rates, but the Fletchers will negotiate to cook other meals. A smaller prep kitchen is required by health rules, and that's where they butcher fresh salmon delivered by neighbor Kent Martin. "We're kind of spoiled," Jessica said.
The living room walls were finished in "Old-World stucco," by Redmill Drywall in Kelso and painted a warm, pale green by Jessica, who did all the painting in the house.
The seating area makes a cozy island in a big space: It's soothing to be in a room that's not over-stuffed. A piano is against one wall, an antique desk that belonged to Jessica's mother on another. Other than that it's just floor-to-ceiling windows and wooden trusses left visible in the vaulted ceiling.
Guest rooms are large, with painted cement floors (the heating system is underneath them) and thick rugs. Queen-sized beds have down quilts; desks, rockers and reading lamps make the rooms as functional as they are comfortable.
The inn's innards are lovely, but its wild setting is something else.
The rolling property sits in its own valley, surrounded by the deeply clefted Willapa Hills and woods, where the Fletchers have put in hiking trails. Rushing streams cut the acreage, and the site, originally a homestead, has poplars and chestnuts that are more than 100 years old. A kitchen garden produces vegetables and garlic and an herb garden is planned.
The Fletchers used a swampy gully to anchor the inn.
"We redug the pond -- that was the first step, so we could situate the house properly," Sunrise said.
The inn's bay windows and lower-level guest rooms with private terraces overlook the water, and the herons, kingfishers, ducks, deer and wild turkey it draws.
Recently, the Fletchers said, 14 elk showed up for breakfast.
Since they opened a year ago, the Fletchers have had guests from OIympia and Seattle, Montana, Idaho and Alabama, they said, all of them happy with the rustic solitude and proximity to fishing, birding, hiking and kayaking.
"I think they see our Web site, and they self-select," said Sunrise.
Finally, the couple have hewn two "disc golf" courses into Lucky Mud, with the help of their son Adam and professional disc golfer Lowell Shields of Mountlake Terrace, Wash.
Disc golf is a sanctioned sport in which players throw Frisbee-like discs from set points toward stations that are about three feet tall. Players use different discs for different challenges, as in golf.
The professionals are so good that they can throw a disc in an S-curve, said Jessica. "It's very difficult."
That's why the Fletchers chose to build a 9-hole "fun" course as well as the 18-hole course, which winds through the woods, for serious players. Since they completed it, the Fletchers have started using a new nickname for their rural paradise: "Club Mud."
BREAKOUT
What: Inn at Lucky Mud, a bed-and-breakfast lodging
Who: Proprietors Sunrise and Jessica Fletcher
Where: Skamokawa
How to get there: From Longview, take Ocean Beach Highway (SR 4) 35 miles west to Skamokawa. Turn right on Skamokawa Valley Road (just past Redmen Hall) and go six miles, staying to the right at any forks in the road. As the road becomes more narrow, you will see a sign for the inn. Turn left and follow the road at least 1/4 mile. You will see the large, sand-colored inn ahead and to the right.
How much: Room rates are $80 to $110, including breakfast. Other meals negotiable.
Upcoming events:
• May 15 --- The Professional Disc Golf Association is 24 years old, with players and chapters all over the United States and Canada.
• May 21-23 --- "Basic French for Travelers," a weekend language course instructed by Jessica Fletcher, with French meals and musical entertainment. $200 per person, double occupancy.
Contacts: (360) 795-8770, www.luckymud.com
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