We were up at 6 and on the road by 7:15. It is about 90 minutes to the ferry and the traffic was light. We arrived an hour before our ferry departs and were surprised to see that the ferry is going to be almost full.

It feels good to have our backpacks on, it has been awhile.

We load up and begin the 90 minutes ride to the Island.

The seas couldn’t be calmer and we were entertained by 100’s of dolphins surrounding the ferry before we arrived to the Island. It was a 90 minute ride till the sights of Avalon came into the view.

The iconic Casino was seen from the water as we pulled into the port of Avalon.

The Casino which is known world wide was built by William Wrigley not as a place of gambling but as a place for entertainment. There were movies being shown when we arrived.

There were plenty of tile mosaics thru out the town. The first one we noticed was one as we departed the ferry.

The Catalina tile company has produced these tiles.

Our first stop was to check out the Trailhead which is where the Catalina Island Conservancy is located. The Conservancy is in charge of maintaining and preserving 88 percent of the island.

We meandered thru the streets of Avalon quickly realizing that we were not here doing the tourist season. A lot of the stores were closed and the streets were fairly quiet. We found a nice Mexican restaurant to have lunch and checked out more tile mosaics that showed life on the island.

We thought that we might linger in the town more and have dinner later, but decided one meal was probably enough for the day and headed to Hermit Gulch Campground. It was located a little over a mile away. This campground is closed Tues.-Thurs in the winter time so more planning was necessary.

After setting up our tent in the almost empty campground we headed up to the nearby Wrigley Memorial and Botanic Garden. We soon discovered some interesting history behind this island. William Wrigley of Wrigley gum bought the entire island in 1919 paying with cash. The island had recently been devastated by fire and he set out to rebuild the town of Avalon and develop the area as a tourism destination. The gardens have plants from all over the world with informative placards .

We were quite familiar with the Boojum tree from Baja, this tree was one of the biggest that we had seen. Must be due to the available water.

At the top of the gardens is a memorial to William Wrigley. We were impressed with the size and the beauty of the tile and stone work.

Time to head back to the tent and make sure that we are well secured from the native foxes and ravens. Each campsite has bear boxes to put food and gear in to protect them from unwanted visitors.

No bears, just ravens, foxes and squirrels

Jan. 22

We were ready to depart by 7 and to get moving as the morning air was cool and damp. One thing great about all the campsites are that they have bathrooms and potable water. No need to bring water filters. We started out with a 1500 foot climb that brought us to a great view point of the water below us.

There had been lots of rain in the previous weeks and mud slides on the trail were evident. In fact last week the trail had been closed for several days due to rain.. Today though the sky is quite blue and the sun feels good. The trail goes between being on a narrow path and road walking.

The trail is mostly exposed, but today before arriving to our campsite we had a couple of sections that gave us some shade.

There were several hikers on the trail, but overall it was pretty quiet. As usual when we stop to talk, the subject of trails come up and we learned about a trail in Japan called 88 monuments. Might have to do that one someday. Another question that seems to come up is have you seen any buffalo? In 1936 a herd of buffalo were brought to the island for a Movie. When the movie production left, the buffalo stayed and have now become part of the attraction of the island. We saw one today that was a couple hills away. We are hoping to see some closer, but not too close. There are plenty of signs warning about the dangers of buffalo.

We were warned by hikers that we are going to have to ford a small stream and will most likely get our feet wet. We hadn’t expected that and indeed by the time we got to our campground we had to spend some time drying out our shoes.

It was only 11 miles to Happy Jack Campsite which has nice flat campsites, water and shelters. We met a couple of hikers who were just getting back into backpacking and the trail had tired them out. I will agree that this trail is quite hilly.

Jan. 23

There had been a forecast for high winds last night so we secured the tent really well. There had been wind but not like the prediction. We were up by 6:30 and the plan was to go to the Airport in the Sky for breakfast. The trail as usual was up and down as we worked our way to the airport. Eric, one of the hikers that we had met yesterday joined us for the hike today. We almost made a wrong turn when we started following the road to the airport versus the trail. We were glad when we realized our mistake as it would have added quite a few miles to today’s hike.

The airport was built in 1941 and then not used till after WW11was over. It was used for many years till it needed to be upgraded. A large donation was given for the upgrades and it was repaired and reopened in 2019.

Along with the hangar there is also a restaurant which has great breakfast burritos. We took some time enjoying the dining area and observing the hummingbirds taking advantage of the red hot poker plants.

Finally it was time to hike to the Little Harbors Campground. Several sources commented that this was a favorite. We will get to stop back here when we return to the airport in the sky for our shuttle back to Avalon.

It is only a 5 mile hike from the airport in the sky to Little Harbor so todays mileage is only 8 miles.

One of the common mammals is the Beechey Ground squirrel. This one was definitely enjoying the sun today.

This was an interesting trail that along with the normal up and downs it followed some nice ridges. We had assumed that we would have a lot of down hill since we were heading down to the beach, but we were wrong. I guess we should have checked out the map a little closer.

At one point we were hiking on a trail that had some steep drop offs and along the trail were obvious signs of recent buffalo tracks. One warning about buffalo was always to have an escape route. This section would have been difficult so we were hoping that we would not encounter any buffalo.

When we got thru this section, we saw the backs of a group of buffalo, they were right on the trail so after observing them for awhile, we headed cross country to rejoin the trail further down.

And then we saw home for the night.

Not a bad place to set up camp. Little Harbor lives up to its reputation.

Our campsite was right on the beach and we watched the sun set as we finished dinner.

The coast is beautiful and rugged.

January 24

We left camp early before the sun rise as we were going to the town of Two Harbors and then on to Parsons landing. The mileage today would be 12 miles, the longest mileage yet. The trail out of Little Harbor was steep, but at least there were switch backs.

When we reached to the top of the first hill we had some flat trail walking with beautiful views.

It didn’t last long as soon we were climbing higher. We had to go up and over the center of the island before dropping back down to Two Harbors.

At the top was a nice picnic shelter where we stopped and had breakfast before heading down to Two Harbors.

Two Harbors can be quite busy in the summer, but today only a well stocked grocery store was open.

We needed to stop at the visitor center to pick up a combination for a locker at our campsite tonight.
There is no potable water there so for a $25.00 fee the rangers will stock your locker with 2 gallons of water and wood for a fire. There are only 8 campsites there so campsites here can be difficult to obtain in the peak season. We had heard that campsite # 1 was the one to go for. When we arrived to the visitor center I asked if perhaps it was available as we had reserved another site. She checked and said it is yours. Nice!

There are two ways to get to Parsons. one is a road walk and mostly flat, the other way has some steep parts that are going down towards the campsite. We opted for the road walk and will return via the steep section to Two Harbors tomorrow. (going up)

Really nice that the island is mostly protected from development.

It was a pleasant walk as walked along the ocean. Several camps were along the route including a well known Boy Scout camp.

We were lucky to get a photo of a native fox on the island. They are mostly nocturnal.

Our campsite came into view and we headed down to the beach. Thankful that the wind isn’t blowing. Most of the campsites have rock walls built for protection agains the wind.

Home for the night! We had our own little cove.

Jan 25

We were up early and headed down the trail by 7. The signage was a little confusing and what we thought was the trail wasn’t the one we wanted. We soon figured it out by checking out our map app. At one time we had thought about going to the very end of the island, but were warned that the trail had washed out and hadn’t been repaired. So it was up and up as we made our way away from Parsons Landing and headed back to Two Harbors. The trail was indeed steep so using the good old rest step we made our way to the top and had breakfast.

Down below we see our last night’s campsite.

Great place to stop for breakfast.

It was mostly down hill from here and soon we were heading past the landfill. One of the hikers told us that if we hadn’t seen any buffalo yet there was a good chance we would see one at the landfill. Sure enough one was chowing down on the grass. I guess they like human food as well.

When we arrived to the town we decided to head over to the store and eat a take out pizza. Eric was there waiting for the ferry.

As usual meeting people on the trail is always a highlight.

The conservancy campground was closed for repair so we stayed at the town campground. Fortunately it was almost empty. if all the sites were filled it would be wall to wall tents.

Tomorrow we have a short hike to Little Harbor.

Jan. 26

We didn’t feel the need to have an early start as we just were hiking back to Little Harbor tonight. We had good cell service here so got caught up on emails and the news. We haven’t missed much! The forecast is calling for wind and the seas are already kicking up waves. We are hoping that it is a one day event. As we headed up and away from town, the wind was definitely picking up. We knew that once we reached the ridge we would be quite exposed, so we decided that we would take the road to Little Harbor instead of the trail. It was an easy decision as by the time we got to the turn off we were bracing ourselves against the wind. The road walk was fine and we only saw three cars. A highpoint was the large herd of buffalo that we saw along the road. This was the biggest herd yet. We were lucky to have seen buffalo everyday of the hike. Little Harbor again met high expectations. There was only one other camper in the campground. We met some volunteers at the campground who were picking invasive plants. The Leader told us that we were here at the best time. In the summer it gets hot for hiking and rescuing over heated hikers is common.

Jan. 27

Our last day on the island. We headed out after sunrise and made our way back to the Airport in the Sky. It was only a 5 mile hike so we had plenty of time to get there.

Back to the airport for sandwiches and ice cream. Our shuttle ride was scheduled for two. We departed right at two and headed back to Avalon where we tried the ice cream at two different stores. The seas had calmed which is always nice.

Our ferry left on time and we arrived back to Dana Point where Beth and Ryan were waiting.

It felt good to have gotten to experience the beauty of the island and have great weather as well!