Catalina Trip Report

Before this trip, my last multi-night backpacking trip was over 7 years ago. This fact alone is slightly disappointing, but there’s perhaps no better time to embrace what nature has to offer than when you need to disconnect from your daily hustle and re-assess your priorities. Since I left my job at AWS only a couple months ago, this was a perfect trip to shake off the rust.

Using my indispensable mapping tool—GAIA GPS—I could plot a prospective route down to every detail; mileage, elevation gain, stopovers, rest points and more. Rather than suffer the full ~36 miles of the Trans Catalina Trail, we opted for a slightly shorter itinerary featuring two nights on the trail, three days of hiking, and a final night in a hotel in Avalon. Since this would be my wife’s and my first time on the Island (and her first overnight backpacking trip), the idea of sleeping in a proper bed after a hot shower made for a very nice bonus and encouraged us to explore the town of Avalon on our final day.

While Catalina does offer plenty of up-scale tourism for Southern Californians, the Catalina Island Company (which operates many of the hotels and restaurants) does a phenomenal job of supporting prospective backpackers who might be on a more strict budget. Their webpage on the TCT offers plenty of helpful info, plus their booking engine lets you select your trip dates and you book campsites for each night. The per person, per night cost of camping on the trail is quite reasonable; about $30 with convenient upgrades like firewood and starters delivered make the trek even more enjoyable.

First, we must prepare

Since we haven’t hiked much this year, I proposed we train over a couple hikes in our local regional park, Mission Trails. First, we set out for about 7 miles with 1,250 feet of elevation gain, with no packs/weight. The goal was to test our heart rate and our pace over a typical stretch of hiking that we could expect for a given day on Catalina. The following week we went a little further, this time with some weight, nearly 8 miles and over 1,600 feet of gain.

Between these two hikes, I was confident we would be physically fit to take on the (modified) TCT. One variable would remain a little uncertain; the weather forecast. During our two practice hikes, we went noticeably slower on the hotter day, even without pack weight and less elevation. Catalina has the same coastal, Mediterranean climate as San Diego, and thus also lacks any meaningful shade from tree cover, so we planned to carry plenty of water, snacks, and sunscreen.

Finally, a couple trips to REI and some inspiration¹ on backpacking meals solidified our confidence; we had the right gear, we were physically prepared, and we were ready. As ready as we’d ever be, anyway.

Only then can we conquer

Thanks to a rather early start (before 5:00AM), we landed at Two Harbors around 10 o’clock in the morning, with plenty of time and excitement to complete our approximately six-mile journey to Little Harbor; our campsite for the first night. The weather was cool and cloudy and the trail was fairly sparsely populated. Most hikers we passed were traveling northbound. We spotted buffalo on two separate occasions and kept a safe distance as we passed.

The campground at Little Harbor exceeded expectations, offering ocean-front views from our campsite and a quaint little harbor with a handful of boat-in campers. A homemade meal followed by a view of the sunset from atop Whale’s Tail was the perfect ending to our first day.

If Little Harbor was the high point of the trip, the next 20 miles of hiking along the ridge of the Island gave us a dose of reality, or at least the reality of Type II fun.² The high temperatures were only a few degrees more than day one, but being in direct sunlight for several hours at a time quickly depleted our mental strength.

After pausing for lunch on a ridge at mile 10 (approx. halfway through day two), we descended towards the milestone of the Airport In The Sky. By this point in the day, we had been passed by several off-road tours, which featured cheery drivers/tour guides (picture a park ranger crossed with a gameshow host) offering friendly quips or words of encouragement. Here’s a couple of non-native species, known to graze the island… or Look at these backpackers! They’re doing great, aren’t they!

The irony behind these encounters—even though they are ambassadors of the Island—was the guides pointed out the lack of Type I fun we were having relative to their passengers. Not. Helpful. As we closed in on the airport, we turned a corner on the trail to find a few dozen buffalo along a hillside. The hiking trail would not be passable safely, so we were forced to take an extended detour around to the airport. Thankfully, the airport restaurant offered a steal of a deal; $11 for a 24oz Michelob Ultra on draft! Naturally, we obliged, refilled our waters, and snagged a couple souvenir stickers to don on our Nalgenes.

The final 15 or so miles over 24 hours were just as grueling, but the occasional spectacular view and ocean breeze kept our spirits up. The descent into Avalon was energizing as more and more civilization emerged all the way down to the narrow streets and bustling harbor.

Although we could have spent another day in Avalon exploring, we had our fill with a drink at the beach club, a glass-bottom boat tour and stand-up paddleboarding before departing back to the mainland. 10/10 would do it again.

Capturing memories & re-living the glory

Through recent travels, I’ve experimented with different shots and tricks to capture moments to feature in a short video to easily relive the trip and share with friends or family. Carrying extra equipment is tricky for backpacking, but worth the sacrifice because, in the words of Alan Gamble, I like to do a little weekend editing.³

Since monitoring our heart rates was a key part of our training, we also figured we should record the actual trip each day on our fitness tracker of choice to keep an eye on whether we were pacing as we expected. The beauty of doing this is that an actual record of our trek (in the form of a GPX track) captured the details of each mile. I found a neat set of tools to help me animate the GPX tracks and feature them within our trip video. Below you can see the overlayed effect:

Another bonus of doing trip highlights is that re-watching them months or years later can bolster the Type II fun, and thereby encourage planning of the next trip. So with that, let’s cover a few closing thoughts and modifications I would make if I did a similar trip in the future.

Tips / Hindsight Modifications

The one-night stay in a hotel was very much planned, but even lacking the element of surprise, it exceeded our expectations. Perhaps I’m biased because our prior 2 nights of rougher accommodations neglected to feature a wine & cheese happy hour, or complimentary beach chairs and towels, but being located just steps from the boardwalk was worth the extra cost for us. For longer stays, we’ll probably seek more modest options. Spending another day in Avalon would have given us the proper exposure to all the activities the town has to offer, like golf, snorkeling, fishing, and more.

For the backpacking portion, I wouldn’t change much about our route, though I might like to add one more night at Little Harbor and upgrade to include kayak or snorkel rentals (which can be delivered to your campsite). The other change I might make is to bring a larger group and pay for a gear haul of our heavier items. This allows the hiking to be more enjoyable (especially when facing midday sunshine) and, at the same time, offers more of the amenities that are typical when we car camp:

• Hammock, camp chairs & our side table (doubles as a card/game table)
• Games, cards or reading material
• Binoculars
• Music speaker & general purpose lighting
• Extra power for phones, the GoPro and lighting

A few extra items I would suggest for similar trips: stash the massage gun in the car for the trip home, along with a jug of water for a car shower, a towel and a fresh set of clothes. In all, I’m very happy with this trip for the mix of adventure and comfort. Who knew all the aspects of an island escape were only a few hours from home?