Trans Catalina Trail Day 3 – Birthday Sunshine

When Erik and I planned this vacation to hike the Trans Catalina Trail, we picked out these dates because they were six months after Erik had started his new job and they were the first days he was allowed to use his PTO. By luck, it was also my birthday week. I did not complain, I was excited to spend my birthday hiking instead of working.

We got packed up and out of camp early again. As we were folding up the tent, we heard some noises behind us. A male bison was munching on a bush about 30 feet behind us! It was the first one we had seen of the 150 or so on the island. Erik enjoyed taking videos of it peeing as it ignored us and ate its breakfast. We kept an eye on it as we finished packing up and went on our way.

The bison as seen from my tent door. A little too close for comfort.

It was still gloomy and cloudy as we made our way down the trail. We made it back to the airport from the day before and I took advantage of the flush toilets. This was luxury thru hiking!

The clouds started clearing as we stayed on top of the ridges all morning. Eventually we descended into the next campground called Little Harbor that we would be skipping. The campground was right on a beautiful beach cove!

Erik and I took about 30 minutes to sit on the beach and watch the waves come in. It was a beautiful area. If we had known how beautiful it was we may have tried to plan out our daily mileage differently to stay there for a night. It’s hard to strike a balance between researching a trail beforehand so much you can’t experience the magic of the unknown but planning enough so you don’t miss the experiences you may want to have. We soaked up what we could of the area as the sun finally started to shine.

I walked by the water spigot and debated filling up before the next big climb out of the cove. I hadn’t been thirsty the entire trip and water is more weight, so I opted to hold off and wait to get more water until we got to town. I had forgotten how much quicker I would get thirsty now that the sun was out.

We started a big climb up. It was gentle at first, but I was surprised with how steeply the dirt track started climbing. There weren’t any stairs cut in, just dirt and rocks at a steep incline. I quickly regretted not getting water at the bottom, especially as Erik pulled out his water and finished it.

I could feel the sun beating down on my neck as we climbed. I tried pulling up my sun hoodie over my head but the breeze kept blowing it back off. I was glad I was in long sleeves and pants. I knew I would be getting the familiar hiking poles tan on my hands, to go along with a new tan line from my new engagement ring.

The views of the coastline were jaw dropping. Erik observed that we were terribly inefficient on views per mile when hiking the AT compared to this trail. We both kept wanting to stop and just take in the views. The longer the sun shined the further we could see.

The trail luxury continued at the top of the climb with a shaded picnic table. We sat down for a while and enjoyed the views. We both knew this trail was supposed to be beautiful, but we didn’t realize how beautiful it would be in person.

We continued on down the trail to town. Originally we planned to stay there for two nights, slackpacking the rest of the trail the next day. As we made our way towards town Erik jokingly suggested we stay there a few extra days and take the next day off from hiking to just relax and enjoy where we were. I quickly told him that sounded like a great idea and we should see if we could make it reality.

We had plans to go to Joshua Tree National Park after we left the island for a few days, but I had only made a reservation for a backcountry campsite for one night not knowing where we would want to go or what we might get into. It was also unseasonably extra hot at Joshua Tree and almost perfect weather where we were at. We would need four things to come together to put this plan into action: campsite availability at the campgrounds, ferry change availability to get back to the mainland on Friday instead of Wednesday, updates to our rental car reservation, and changing our backcountry permit site at Joshua Tree.

When Two Harbors came into view it solidified our decision to stay an extra two days. The hustle and bustle of Avalon was nowhere to be seen, replaced by an almost empty small courtyard surrounded by palm trees. This was our kind of town. A quick visit to visitor services and our campsite and ferry situation were figured out. A few phone calls and our original car rental was refunded and a new one booked. The backcountry campsite was available on Friday night and able to be booked online. Everything fell into place. Yes, we were those people who plan an impromptu zero day on a 38 mile hike.

I got an overpriced pizza at the general store for dinner before we hiked the quarter mile up the hill to the campground. Our campsite overlooked the harbor where a few sailboats were moored. It had been my favorite way to spend my birthday, hiking and spending time with Erik.