Episode 42 - Catalina Island 🏝️
A mega day hike across an entire island? Yes please!
There are a considerable, yet finite, number of things that are universally regarded as being truly epic: landing a water bottle flip on the first attempt, randomly finding a $20 bill in your pocket, or eating brunch at every UCLA sorority, to name a few.
So let’s go ahead and add one more to that list: walking across Catalina Island in a day.
I know what you’re thinking:
Dennis, that is, in fact, so epic
How did you even get the idea to do all that in the first place?
What a great question!
I first heard about the idea for this hike from Brooke, who heard it from another one of her friends.
The general idea is that on Catalina Island, there are two main cities: Avalon, and Two Harbors. Avalon is the main city and home to ~90% of the island’s residents; Two Harbors is on the other side of the island and is the main port there.
The island can only be accessed by ferry (arriving from the Long Beach area) or plane (via a small airport in the middle of the island), and there’s a neat thing about these ferries that makes such an epic hike possible. The first ferry arrives at Avalon at 7:15 am, and the last ferry leaves Two Harbors at 4:45 pm.
Oh my goodness, the epic plan is staring at us right there! Get to Avalon on the first boat, hike ~25 miles across the entire island to Two Harbors, and catch the last boat back. Wow! The crowd is in awe at such an epic quest!
And the best part? If we don’t make it to Two Harbors in time, we’re stuck on the island, and our epic story becomes all the more legendary.
Stakes high enough for ya? Let’s fucking do this.
Monday, February 24th, 2025
Since the ferry was departing Long Beach at 6 am, our small but mighty group of four (myself, Brooke, Vieri (French roommate), and Finlay (Scottish roommate)) needed to depart around 5 am to make it to the terminal on time.
Conveniently, we all slept in the same room, so getting up super early in the morning (4:30 am) was a lot easier than it would’ve been otherwise. And due to some genius strategic planning beforehand (translation: we packed up our bags the night before), it was surprisingly easy to get ready. We got up, got dressed, got out the door quite quickly, and packed into Brooke’s car to head to the port.
Parking was super chill and easy at the terminal, and we were on the ferry in no time at all. A few things to note about it: the seating was packed like on a plane, but the chairs were actually comfortable. The coffee was delightful and cheap, and the sunrise was stunning from the back deck. And since we still had ~45 minutes until Avalon (the entire ride took about an hour), we could just chilled and napped in the process.
Our ferry pulled into the Avalon port right around 7 am, and just like that, we were on the island! It was honestly pretty surreal to be there (I’ve been wanting to visit the island for the last few years and just never got around to it), especially since it was my first time in the city. My first impressions were that it was a super cute Mediterranean-esque town, with lots of houses built into the cliffside and beach decor everywhere. Since the town is so small and the streets so narrow, everyone drove around in golf carts!
We got some pastries and bagels at a coffee shop, checked out the massive Catalina Casino (which was actually so cool!), and headed to the trailhead. By this point, it was around 8:15 am, and time for the actual trans-Catalina hike to begin!
The entire trail is about 36 miles long, and cuts straight across the island before doing another loop around the northern end. Most folks backpack the entire trail over the course of a few days, but because campsites were expensive and we had classes to go to (in theory), we were only planning on doing the first bit to Two Harbors. And so off we went!
The first 2ish miles were straight uphill, climbing about 1500 feet before opening up to some stunning views of Avalon Bay and the rest of Two Harbors. We took a ton of pictures and a short break, then carried on.
And honestly, the rest of the day proceeded quite smoothly — we briskly hiked across the entire island, taking breaks for food, snacks, and water along the way.
At around the halfway mark, we reached the mini airfield on the island, nicknamed the “Airport in the Sky”. Finlay and I got some ice cream from the convenience store there, which we ate with Vieri and Brooke on a bench in the shade. We were feeling a bit cooked by this point, so Finlay shared his extremely-dense-in-sugar-and-definitely-not-healthy-but-they’re-British-so-it’s-ok candies with us. To resolve any doubts as to their efficacy, Finlay proclaimed, “Brooke, those bitches will perk you right up!” — now that’s what I’m talking about!
Things continued smoothly from there — we saw a huge truck get stuck in the dirt near the Black Jack campsite around mile 15, and due to a time check, cut inland rather than descend down to the Little Harbor campsites. This saved us about 3 miles, and Brooke a ton of stress. Nice!
Later, due to a slight navigational blunder on my end, we walked a half mile along a steep cliffside (classic) before rejoining the main trail. Right afterward, we turned the corner and saw Two Harbors unfold below us! 2 miles and lots of downhill later, we arrived in town with great happiness and pride. We got some ice cream to celebrate, ate our packed “lunch” (it was 4 pm) sandwiches on the beach in celebration, and took a dip in the freezing ocean (at least I did).
Our group got onto the ferry victorious, took a few pictures on the boat, and immediately fell right asleep. I woke up in Long Beach, saw the port cranes unpacking a container ship (it was so cool), got an Uber back to the car (our ferry back dropped us off at a different port than the one we departed from), the Uber driver was French so Vieri chatted with him, and it was an uneventful ride back to UCLA.
And just like that, 15 after we left that morning, we made it back to campus in one piece. Thanks for joining another exciting Adventure with Dennis, and I’ll see y’all soon!
Best,
Dennis :)
Some other highlights, in no particular order:
There were cacti growing EVERYWHERE, all over the island and all along the trail.
We saw bison on the island! Apparently, they were imported as props for a movie in the 1920s, but then escaped and have just been living there ever since.
After the first 10 miles, the dirt on the trail became super shiny from all the mica and quartz in the soil. I loved it!
This quote of mine, which I said after reaching a major plateau: “Paris has Chateau D’eau, we have Plateau, let’s go” Yeah, I know it’s pretty stupid 🤦♂️
Eggs are $15 in Two Harbors. wtf
If it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen:
Some tips for hiking the Trans-Catalina Trail:
You can find the trail map here, which was pretty much all we used. You should definitely download it offline.
There isn’t really food on the island besides Avalon and Two Harbors, so take that into account when planning your hike/backpacking trip. The central airport has some snacks, but not much else.
There’s plenty of water along the trail!
Campsites are super expensive and hard to get. Book in advance, and you should be fine :)
And with that, it’s time for me to go. Good luck!
Some more pictures:
