Trans-Catalina Trail (Los Angeles County, California)

A couple of years ago, my friend Gen, whom I've done a few backpacking trips with, suggested hiking the Trans-Catalina Trail. At the time, I knew nothing about Santa Catalina Island, but it caught my attention and I did the research. The more I read about the island and the trek across it, the more it sounded like a great backpacking trip. For the past several months, Gen and I, as well as my friend Miranda, have been making arrangements to be able to hike this magnificent trail. While Gen and I are both pretty experienced backpackers, this would be Miranda's first trip and in the weeks leading up to the trip, she had a few questions, which we were happy to try to answer.

We each arrived at LAX from different departure points. I flew in from Atlanta by way of Austin. Gen came in from Reno. And, Miranda flew in from Boise. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed a bit and they had to wait for me to arrive so that we could share an Uber to our hotel for the evening. They didn't seem to mind too much though. It gave them a chance to get to know each other a bit, as they had only met through me the last time I was in Reno.

Now, checked into our hotel, we met in the lobby to head out for some food and drinks. Might as well check out the local breweries while we're here. Our first stop was San Pedro Brewery. The food was good, but the beer left a bit to be desired. From there, we headed over to Brouwerij West. It was about a mile away, but well worth it. Everything we tried was outstanding. Needing to get up early we headed back to the hotel and called it a night. 

Day 1

Waking early, we made final packing arrangements and then headed down to the lobby with our packs on our backs. We were unsure as to whether we were going to Uber to the dock or just to walk the three quarters of a mile. When the way for a ride looked like it was going to be 15 minutes or more, we just decided to hoof it. Besides, we were going to have many more miles over the next four days. This little jaunt wouldn't mean much at all and it would give Miranda a chance to adjust her new pack a little bit.

Arriving at the ferry terminal well before departure, we relaxed for a bit and tried to help Miranda make the appropriate pack adjustments. Soon though, the boarding call came and we dropped our packs at the cargo hold and boarded the Catalina Express for a 75 or so minute ride to Santa Catalina Island just southwest of our current location. 

The ride to the island was pleasant, but foggy. As we made our way over, we moved through a very large pod of bottlenose dolphins, which caught everyone's attention. The ferry serves alcohol and while I was tempted, I decided better of it. Better to save that for after the hike. After the expected time, we arrived in the small port town of Avalon near the southern end of the island. It's very touristy and there is a large cruise ship just out in the harbor. Presumably, this was a daily stop for the passengers and they are enjoying the quaint little hamlet.

It seems most of the residents here use golf carts instead of cars. Makes sense I guess. We dodge a few as we make our way to local hardware store to pick up some fuel for our camp stoves. When I had made the arrangements, I was informed that iso-butane cannisters are not allowed on the ferry and that we would need to purchase them on the island. This really wasn't a big deal, though they were expensive.

With that and one last look at town, we headed toward Hermit's Gulch Campground and the start of the trail. I opted not to start my GPS track until the campground, but as I would discover later, it seems the official trail actually starts right as you exit the ferry. So, we'll add about a mile to my total distance.

Along the small roadways of Avalon, we encounter a few other backpackers, but only a handful. It seems we will likely have the trail pretty much to ourselves. The temperatures are pleasant enough right now, with the fog still blocking the most direct rays of the sun. As we reach the campground, we decide to stop for lunch. I knew we were going to get in late to our campsite, but I would have rather not stopped here, but majority rules and Miranda needs food. I only eat a clif bar and some cashews, but Miranda fires up here stove and cooks a small meal. Hopefully, this snack will give us enough energy for today's climb, which is pretty substantial.

Soon, we are finally on the trail and shortly thereafter, we climb through the low-hanging fog and clouds and are now in the direct sunlight. It's pretty warm up here, but the views are fantastic. Looking back towards Avalon from a few hundred feet above it, we can clearly see the cruise ship in the harbor and the streets of the little town. 

This really is a workout though, the climb ends up being approximately 1,300' over just the first couple of miles. From there, it levels out a bit, but there are still some ups and downs further on before we reach out campground for the night. Gen and I seem to be doing fine, but Miranda is already showing signs of struggling. We wait for her at the top of the first and worst climb under a sun shelter. Here, we stop for twenty minutes or so and let everyone get a snack and hydrate before pushing on.

As the late afternoon progresses into evening, I begin having concerns that we're going to make it to camp before dark. Miranda is moving very slowly and obviously, in pain. I don't want to leave her and at another shelter, tell Gen to go on to camp and I'll wait for Miranda to catch up and bring her on in at her pace. 

It takes about ten minutes for Miranda to get to the shelter, but she does reach it and I tell her that we decided to split up. We rest for just another couple of minutes and then begin a short downhill towards one of the islands many reservoirs. The sun is just about to set behind the ridge and darkness is spreading pretty quickly. To her credit, Miranda marches on. I know it was very hard on her and I do everything I can to encourage her. She's a trooper though and soon we are traversing the final ups and downs before the campground. Though, it is dark now and we pull out our headlamps.

To our surprise though, we soon run into Gen stopped directly in the middle of the trail with her camp stove out preparing to fire it up. It seems there were two bison on the trail block her path and while she tried to gently encourage them to move on, they were not cooperative. The bison were brought to the island in the 1920's to film a movie and have since grown into a sizable herd, which grazes the islands mountains and ridges. Population control efforts, in the form of birth control, have helped keep them at a manageable size, but in turn have made the females more aggressive. Numerous signs posted all along the trail make this abundantly clear. That said, Gen was not wanting to push her luck and succumbing to hunger, decided to simply cook her dinner on the trail rather than try and push the issue with the bison.

When Miranda and I arrive, Gen decides it might be worth see if the bison have moved on enough to allow us to pass. I take the lead and begin scanning our path with my headlamp very diligently. We are able to make it another quarter mile or so before I see the obvious large eyes of a bison reflecting my headlamp back at me. No, not one bison, but four. And over there on the other side five more. And dead ahead of us three more. It seems we are surrounded by a dozen or so of the big beasts. 

Discussing our options, the ladies are inclined to pitch our tents on a clearing right here and hope we don't get trampled through the night. I can see reflectors on structures in the distance, which from the map and our current location, I'm sure must be Black Jack Campground. It only appears to be a few hundred yards away. I convince everyone that our best and "safest" course of action is to leave the trail and move through some tall grasses towards a stand of trees directly in our path to the campground. My reasoning is that the trees will at least provide us some cover from the Bison should the decide to charge us. 

Everyone agrees and we start making our way through the tick-infested tall grasses. I'm on hyper alert and scanning with the headlamp in all directions. The bison seem curious, but not necessarily aggressive. Seeing they're huge heads, as defined by the distance of their eyes, in all directions around us is somewhat terrifying though. They are big animals and don't generally have a great disposition. The adrenaline is flowing freely through all three of us, but reaching the trees, we feel some since of relief and from there, we are able to quickly make it to the campground. Well, that was exciting.

Once we find our designated campsite, we quickly put up our tents and cook a basic meal. We're all very hungry and quite tired. We put in about 9.7 miles today with a huge climb and a couple others of decent size. It's suppose to be nice tonight and I decide to sleep with out the rain fly on my tent, which allows me to look up at the stars above . . . which lasts for all of ten minutes before I doze off to never-never land.

Day 2

I awaken to the sounds of birds chirping and particularly active woodpecker working on a tree just behind my tent. It's a great way to start the day. Today, will be our biggest mileage day and I want to get an early start. I leave my tent first and make a quick breakfast of rehydrated blueberries and oatmeal. It's actually one of my favorites. I immediately start breaking down my gear and getting ready to go. I think the sound of zippers and such woke the others and soon we are all getting ready to head out.

Gen takes a little longer to rise and break camp, but I tell her that I want to get Miranda rolling as early as possible to give us enough time to cover the miles today. She and I leave just after 8 AM, with the promise that Gen will only be a few minutes behind us.

Miranda is not sure about her fitness for the hike and wants to examine her options once we get to the Airport in the Sky, which the trail passes directly by. Well, it would pass directly by the airport if we were able to follow the trail. We follow a dirt road out of camp and after about half-a-mile, the trail diverts from the road. However, I see more bison (now with the sun out, in all their glory) and they are parked right on the trail. I scout down the trail a little bit and tell Miranda to wait at the fork of the road and trail. The big fellas are grazing just a few feet off the trail though and after our encounter last night, I want to give them a wide birth. I return to Miranda and we decide to walk the road to the airport. It will add a couple of miles to our trip, but it saves us a steep climb and most importantly, should avoid the bison. 

The road walk is very easy for me and I manage to get pretty far out ahead of Miranda. As a bikepacker peddles past me, I ask if she saw the woman behind me and was informed that she seemed to be doing fine. With no real way to get lost and an easy walk ahead, I decided to make for the airport and that Miranda will be along at her own pace as soon as she can.

When I arrive, I see Gen's pack against a patio wall at the airport restaurant. Soon she comes out and asks what took us so long and about Miranda's whereabouts and conditions. I explain the detour we took to avoid the bison. It sounds like Gen left more than thirty minutes after we did and that the bison had moved away from the trail a bit more when she came through. She was able to do the actual trail instead of the road. 

We both ask the gentleman tending the bar & grill's cash register about Miranda's options, along with ordering some food. He happens to be wearing a St. Louis Cardinals ball cap and so, we get along just fine. Apparently, much of the island was developed by William Wrigley Jr. (the chewing gum guy), who also happens to have a certain ballpark in Chicago named after him. My new friend catches a lot of slack for supporting the Cardinals, arch-rivals to the Chicago Cubs that play at Wrigley Field. I offer him words of support as he takes our food order. 

I enjoy a terrific blue cheese and bacon burger, a beer, and needing some caffeine a diet coke. Gen orders some kind of seltzer and eats some of my fries. Miranda appears a short time later and we tell her what we've learned about her options. It seems there is a shuttle departing soon for Avalon, but we need to get to Two Harbors Campground tonight, which is the other direction. Three options are available. The rangers, on occasion and when they are not busy, have been known to drive people there - unfortunately, this won't work out today. Option two is to simply do the hike, which Gen and I are determined to do. The final option involves either taking the shuttle to Avalon and then hiring a cab to drive her to Two Harbors or just to have the cab pick her up here at the airport, though they will charge the faire all the way from Avalon. Either way, the cab ride is expected to be a couple of hundred dollars. 

Miranda decides to go for option three and before we know it, she is has already departed on the shuttle. Gen and I finish our meals and reload our packs on our back for more miles. The next few are mostly downhill as we make our way towards Little Harbor. Along the way, we see a gray fox, a king snake, and more bison (from a distance this time). The views are also pretty fantastic from up here, as we are traversing the spine of the island. 

About six miles later, we drop down into the Little Harbor Campground area. While this appears to be a very nice campground, there really isn't anything else here. We take advantage of the potable water to refill our containers and enjoy a quick snack, but are soon looking to rejoin the trail. This turns out to be a little problematic, as struggle to re-find the trail. One of the campers assists us. It seems that most people do the trail in 5 days/4 nights instead of the 4 days/3 nights we have planned. Those folks choose to break what we're doing today into two parts and spend the night here at Little Harbor. Being the gluttons for punishment that we are, Gen and I are going to climb out of this harbor and follow the westernmost ridge of the island for a few more miles before dropping down to the isthmus where Two Harbors sits. 

And so, it begins. . . . The first section isn't too bad as we traverse some switchbacks climbing out of the harbor where the campground has been laid out. From there, we hike about four miles of relentless uphill with a couple of exceptionally steep sections. Over that distance, we gain about 1,200' feet of elevation. Being on the western side of the island and at some of the highest elevations here, were are faced with a barrage of wind coming in from the Pacific Ocean. In places, it's possible to see the fog or low-hanging clouds hit the ridge we are walking and float up slightly before dropping down into the valleys below us. It's actually quite breathtaking to see, but it makes for a cold hike, given our sweaty clothes.

Along the way, we see a huge number of wild-flower varieties. Gen is a biologist and takes great interest in the flora and fauna of the island. I too find it interesting and always learn a great deal from her. Finally, we hit the high point and begin the descent into Two Harbors. We can see it from a great distance and soon receive a text from Miranda informing us that she made it safely and is awaiting us at the Harbor Club Bar & Grill, the only restaurant in the tiny harbor town.

Once we arrive, we order drinks and dinner. It's uncommon a backpacking trip to be able to enjoy a hot meal that had been freeze-dried previously, but I'm happy to take advantage of it and enjoy a terrific swordfish steak with garlic mash and broccolini. After eating dinner and relaxing for a bit, we pick our packs back up and begin trekking to the campground, which is about half-a-mile away. Miranda had been here for a while before we arrived and has already scoped out our site and put her tent up. We arrive at about 7:15 PM and pitch our tents. The campsite is pretty small, but we'll make due. Miranda gets a fire going while Gen and I put our respective sleeping systems together. 

Tonight, we'll sleep with the ocean waves hitting the shore nearby and to the sounds of seals barking in the distance . . . and some other creature that is apparently being murdered nearby. It's been a good day. With the additional road walk to the airport, I put in about 16.9 miles today, bringing my total to 26.6 for the trip.

Day 3

I open my eyes to a cool morning and I'm happy to be under my quilt, but we must get rolling soon. Today, has another pretty big climb, but much less mileage. I leave the warmth of my tent and make some tea and mango sticky rice. Before my companions rise, I have to fight off some aggressive pigeons looking for an easy meal. I also get visited by one of our neighbors from a nearby campsite. She asks to borrow a light so that she can light up a joint. She offers me a hit, but I politely decline. Pot really isn't my thing. She talks about moving to California from New Jersey and this being her first camping trip. Her friends are more experienced, but she's loving it so far an intent on buying all of the gear necessary to do this on her own. She thanks me again for the use of the lighter and wanders back to her camp.

Miranda and Gen begin to stir and are soon out of their tents making breakfast. While we break down our tents and reload our backpacks, we discuss our plan for the day. Gen and I are going to follow the official trail to Parson's Landing. This consists of about 7.6 miles of more steep ridge walking and another challenging climb. Miranda is going to walk the slightly longer, but much easier road walk from there to Parson's Landing. This will be the path that we all return on tomorrow, but given Miranda's struggles so far, this seems like a wise plan. Wanting to give herself plenty of time, she leaves a little earlier than Gen and I.

Soon though, we are also on the trail, though going a different directly. Our first challenge is finding our way our to the campground and then out of town. The signage along most of the trail has been fantastic, but leaves a lot to be desired in town. Eventually though, we are able to find our path, which takes us across the isthmus to back to the western side of the island and up a very steep jeep trail. 

Along the way, we add and remove layers frequently as the temperatures fluctuate from cold ocean fog as we saw yesterday and bright sunshine like we dealt with on the first day. The views remain fantastic though. As we traverse this norther ridge, we can look down on the western shoreline . . . well, when the fog is blocking our view. 

After getting the steep ascent out of the way, we are forced to make an equally steep descent as we make our way to Parson's Landing, which we can see from quite a distance. So steep is the trail in some areas, that Gen actually falls once and I nearly do as well, though I end up catching myself and jamming my shoulder a bit in the process. Just some scratches though, luckily.

Parson's Landing is right on the beach and apparently, we got very luck with the dates of our trip. We were told by the folks at the visitor center that a storm had come through and wiped out the campsites a few weeks before. The campground has been closed up until today and we'll be the first to stay here since everything has been cleaned up.

When we arrive, Miranda is already here and has her tent erected behind some stacked stone windbreaks. It's extremely windy here and we'll all need to take advantage of these windbreaks to do much of anything. As it is early still, I decide to pull out my camp chair and enjoy a little nap behind one of the windbreaks near our fire pit. It's just about perfect and the rocks forming are even somewhat comfortable. Gen explores a the shoreline a little bit and later tells of a dead seal she discovered just down the beach a bit.

I'm not exactly sure how long I slept for, but I don't imagine it was more than an hour. When I awaken, I decide to put my tent up and get some dinner started. It will be mac & cheese for me tonight. We get a fire going and while the ladies relax, I head up to the pit toilet with some of my new water-expanding towels to wipe some of the sweat and dust off of myself. I'm sure it doesn't help with the smell that much, but it sure does make me feel better. 

Returning to camp, I decide to turn in pretty early. My back has been bothering me a little bit and it will be good to lay down on my sleeping pad. Though I toss and turn all night long, the sounds of the ocean waves battering the shore just a few feet away from me is somehow relaxing and I doze off for the first of what will be many times tonight. Total mileage to this point is 34.2 miles.

Day 4

I really didn't sleep well last night. The temperatures were fantastic and the crashing waves should have helped me to a good slumber, but with my back aching pretty badly, every time I moved, I felt pain. It also could have partially be anxiety. We have to catch the ferry back to the mainland at 11:45 AM this morning, which means we need to get moving early. I don't think the ladies appreciated my wanting to get up so early, but they understood my reasoning. 

By 5:00 AM, I'm already starting to breaking things down from inside my tent. We're all skipping breakfast here at camp this morning. If we get back to Two Harbors in time, we'll see what's available there. I'm ready to go about thirty minutes ahead of the others and end up waiting on them for a bit and watching some pelicans diving into the water nearby. Miranda, knowing she might need extra time, hit the trail just before 6:00 AM and I follow a few minutes later. Gen takes a little bit longer. 

The road walk, which is officially part of the Trans-Catalina Trail, is very, very fast. It's a very easy grade all the way back to town and I'm pushing nearly four miles per hour as I make my way towards the ferry. It only takes me about two hours to get back town, which includes a few stops for pictures and a quick water stop.

As I enter town, I head for the visitor's center to check-in for the ferry, which won't depart for a couple of hours. Miranda, who knew of a short cut from the day before, arrives just a few minutes after me and we head into the breakfast bar to order some food and more importantly, mimosas!!! Breakfast is okay. The bacon is good, but the eggs weren't seasoned and at my request they added cheese to them, which meant laying a cold piece of cheese over the top after the eggs had already cooled enough to prevent it from melting. Ah well. 

Sitting here with Miranda sipping on my mimosa, I'm thankful for the opportunity to have hiked this magnificent trail I don't know how many more years of this stuff I've got in me. I'll turn 50 in a few weeks. Damnit! I'm going to be doing this as long as my body lets me. With that, I order a second mimosa . . . and its' damn good. 

Soon, Gen arrives and gets her own breakfast. The ladies also order something called a a Buffalo Milk, which includes Kahlua, vodka, creme de cocoa, creme de banana, and milk. I try it, but meh, not really my thing. We relax for a bit while awaiting the ferry's departure and our return to the mainland. It's been a fantastic hike and Miranda, though she struggled, should be very proud what she accomplished on her first outing. In total, I hiked 41.9 miles on this trek. Each would have had slightly different mileages since we took different routes at different points, but regardless, it was a great experience and I couldn't have asked for better company.

The boat ride back to San Pedro is fairly uneventful, but we do get to chat with some others that have finished the hike. We see more dolphins in the distance and soon step back onto the pier. Tonight, will be full of drinking, food, and celebration, but first . . . hot showers!