PORT TOWNSEND — Although he had traveled far since dawn, Ray Grier still had a spring in his step when he arrived in town Monday night.

Reaching Point Hudson, he planted his walking staff on the beach, found a stick and wrote three initials in the sand.

Then he lighted a heart-shaped candle, put it on a piece of driftwood, and sent it out over the waters.

The flame burned brightly for a few minutes, then went out, much like the life of his friend in whose memory he walked.

“I didn’t know her long,” Grier said. “She was like a meteor flashing through my life, a brilliant light of inspiration.

“Then she was gone.”

30 mile trek from Sequim

Grier, an artist, cartoonist and veteran Kinetic Skulpture racer, had just traveled from Sequim on foot, a distance of 30 miles.

The trek was the conclusion to a series of walks Grier started May 20 and completed on Monday, his 62nd birthday, in memory of Marsha Menard, who died two weeks short of her 30th birthday.

But Grier far surpassed his original target.

“My goal was 200 miles,” he said, “I did that by June 7.”