50@50 – TransCatalina Trail, Santa Catalina Island, CA
Visiting and experiencing a place is not the same thing. Just like a tourist and a traveler is not the same kind of person. We’re a country of regionalists. In Texas, we think of Californians and shake our heads – the earthquakes! the housing costs! the fires! Why wudja wanna live there?! At least we only have tornados. I have never experienced Southern California, so I set off and found a landscape that exceeded my expectations; a landscape both tempestuous and seductive. This and the next three blogs explore four cultural places: Catalina Island, Torry Pines State Park in northern San Diego, the Anza Borrego Desert, southeast of Palm Springs, and the Central Coast, near Big Sur.
My two days in Catalina Island could easily have morphed into four. Barely surviving the ferry ride, I found that Catalina lives up to the hype. Getting past the initial row of bars and souvenir shops, Avalon is a uniquely EuroAmerican village facing the California coast in a protected cove. Many come to the island for romance, to dive, some just to party; I came to hike. The trails, including the 37 mile TransCatalina trail finished last year, are numerous.
We began hiking a section of the TransCatalina trail at the airport. We didn’t realize how protected the town was until we hiked along the high ridges and the northwest winds battered our strides. The interior terrain is far more curvaceous than I imagined and the “modest hills” proved more challenging than they appear. Still, the cerulean blue waters, rocky cliffs and eucalyptus trees seemed to transport me much further than 30 miles from LA. While the island has been inhabited for 7000 years, European hunters and settlements along the coast eliminated the indigenous trade and therefore their sustainability. The few remaining native people were forced to migrate to the mainland. During the 19th century, hunters, ranchers and miners all tried to stake claims. Catalina’s modern era began in 1919 when William Wrigley bought the entire Island, protecting 80 percent of it as a nature preserve.
In 1924, a few bison were brought in for a Zane Grey movie; they were “forgotten” when the production wrapped up, and about 180 roam free on the island. They seem to favor the trail too, and twice we detoured through the brush to go around a lone bison. (Hint: wear very thick socks) About seven miles into the trail, a group of about 10 or so strongly discouraged our continuing on or in the vicinity of the trail. The road was close, so we hiked the last five miles, down the road to Avalon.
The town of Avalon feels like an Americanized version of a Mediterranean seaside town, bustling with an array of arts, adventure and entertainment, and a diverse mix of tourists and travelers. Looking west to the Pacific from the hilltops, the only travelers seem to be the animals on the island and in the sea. This definitely warrants a return…