A 75 minute ferry ride from San Pedro brought us to the cozy seaside town of Avalon, where we spent the evening eating delicious fish tacos at NDMK Fish House and wandering around town for while.

The next morning we woke to drizzly weather and after breakfast started our walk out of town and up through Hermit Gulch. With all the mountain mist it almost felt like we were headed into a jungle!

Curiously, the official route of the Trans Catalina Trail has been updated since we did it 12 years ago, pretty much just how I had described at the end of my blog post from back then: the trail now heads directly up from Hermit Gulch (a shorter, more sensible, and arguably more scenic route) and also it forgoes the last (unnecessary) bit at the end to Starlight Beach. Along the way, there's also been at least one reroute that takes a more scenic ridge trail than before. The total mileage has dropped from 45 to 38 miles, but the newer route is definitely more refined.

Fortunately the drizzle subsided during our first day's hike from Avalon to the Black Jack campground near the top of the island. The high campground was still in the clouds when we arrived, and though the fog obscured the views it made for a moody atmosphere as the mist drifted through the trees.

On Day 2, we made the obligatory early lunch stop at the Airport in the Sky restaurant for bison burgers and fries, then continued on a beautiful trail meandering from ridge to ridge until descending to the next campground at Little Harbor, a lovely cove on the western coast of the island.

The wind had been howling all day and evening, and a ranger warned us that 50 mph winds were forecasted for that night! Though we had a prime campsite right near the beach, we (and everyone else camped near the beach) pulled our stakes and retreated to more sheltered campsites further up the valley. Last time we camped at Little Harbor we were terrorized by squirrels; this time it was the wind! So I have yet to experience a relaxing evening here, but nevertheless it's certainly a beautiful spot, windy or not.

If you're not familiar with Catalina, you might be surprised to learn that there are bison on the island! The bison were brought over in the 1920's to film an adaptation of Zane Grey’s western novel The Vanishing American, then they were just left there once the filming was done. But the bison survived and thrived, and still wander the island a century later. The herd grew as large as 500, but biologists determined that the island could only ecologically sustain about 150-200, so in order to reduce the herd size the Catalina Island Conservancy started conducting roundups and shipping bison to the mainland, as well as injecting female bison with contraceptives! (source)

The previous days' rain and wind had cleared out much of the sea haze, so on Day 3 the skies were crystal clear. This made for an absolutely stunning day of hiking the high ridgelines between Little Harbor and Two Harbors, with expansive vistas of the rugged western coastline and sapphire blue ocean.

Catalina Island was occupied by the native Pimugnan people since 5,000 BC, with villages at present day Avalon, Emerald Bay, and Little Harbor. The first European to set foot on the island was the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542. Starting in 1919, pretty much the entirety of Catalina Island was owned by chewing-gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr., who devoted himself to preserving the island and promoting it as a tourist destination, including building the iconic Catalina Casino in Avalon. In 1975 his son Philip deeded 90% of the island to the Catalina Island Conservancy, which he helped to establish a few years prior. (Read more about the history of Catalina Island here).

Since Catalina Island remains conserved and mostly undeveloped (aside from the towns of Avalon and Two Harbors), it makes it one of the few places (if not the only place) where hikers can trek for days through a mostly-natural southern California coastal landscape - something that is likely impossible to do on the mainland.

After a fantastic day of hiking we were all excited to arrive at Two Harbors, where some luxuries of civilization awaited: public showers and a bar and restaurant! After cleaning up, we drank Buffalo Milk cocktails (which were actually invented right here at the Harbor Reef Restaurant) and gorged ourselves on fried bar food. Back at camp that evening we savored our first clear and calm evening to relax on the beach under the dusk sky.

On Day 4, yet another wonderful hike brought us up and over the mountains, from Two Harbors to Parsons Landing, a remote beach towards the northern end of the island. Here the campsites are situated right above the beach. We heard that two days before, on that super windy evening, all the campers here had been evacuated back to Two Harbors as the conditions here were too brutal for camping! But luckily we were able to enjoy another pleasant evening here.

That afternoon as we were sitting at the picnic bench at camp, a fearless pelican landed next to us and started trying to eat our stuff! It failed at fitting a trekking pole into its mouth, then scampered under the table and almost had my foot in its beak before I pulled away just in time! It was quite funny at first, but eventually Larry had to poke it away out of camp with his hiking poles!

That evening Claudia and I hiked up to a high point to watch the sunset. After photographing the sunset and hanging out a while longer up there, we walked all the way back down to Parsons beach only to realize that I left my camera back up at the top! 🤦‍♂️ Needless to say, I felt like quite a dummy as I repeated the whole hike in the dark.

We woke up early on the last morning to pack up camp and walk the final 7 miles back to Two Harbors in time to catch the midday ferry back to San Pedro. Fortunately we had enough spare time for another quick shower, breakfast burritos, and of course another celebratory Buffalo Milk!