Santa Catalina

Spring 2025

We hiked the Trans-Catalina Trail in Santa Catalina Island in February 2025. In total the trip was around 39.5 miles, with 10,500 ft of elevation gain. We hiked the trail in 4 days and 3 nights, camping at Two Harbors, Little Harbor, and Black Jack Campgrounds. The weather was perfect, and we spotted four different bison.

Day 1

We spent the night in LA, so we woke up around 6:30am and got ready and drove to the San Pedro Port to take the Catalina Express. The boat left around 8:45am, and it was about an hour and a half ride to Two Harbors. On the way a couple of our friends got sea sick. Once we arrived, we checked in and picked up some gas cans from the general store. We also ate a quick lunch of cup noodles and bars.

Luckily we were able to check in early, so we went to our campsite and set up our tents. We dropped off a lot of our stuff and emptied our bags before the long hike ahead of us. Then we started the Silver Peak Trail. The beginning was nice and flat, and we spent most of the early afternoon walking along the coast and enjoying the little harbors that popped out of nowhere and enjoying the sea breeze.

We reached Parson's Landing, and took a break for bathroom and snacks. Then we continued our hike, and hit an extremely steep incline. We took our time, and watched the sun set behind the peaks in front of us as we climbed our way up. When we got to the top we were able to see the full sunset, and it was beautiful.

After watching the sunset, we pulled out our headlamps and made our way back to Two Harbors. It was nice to hike in the dark, but it was also steep downhill so we had to take our time. We initially wanted to eat at the restaurant in Two Harbors, but we got there just 15 minutes after it closed, so instead we dug into our dehydrated food. We enjoyed a couple beers and watched as a ferret checked if we left any crumbs on the table.

Day 2

We slept in to recover from the previous day, and instead of eating breakfast at camp we decided to give another restaurant in town another shot for brunch. We packed up and went, but then found out that the restaurant was closed for the season. Disappointed, we went to the general store and ate some fruits, yogurt, granola bars, and some more ramen before heading out. I needed to grab another lighter, and they charged me $5.86 for a Bic lighter. Talk about highway robbery! I was complaining about this for the rest of the trip.

After eating, we started the hike to Little Harbor. It was a slow incline so it wasn't too bad, but we did take our time since the day's hike was short - less than 6 miles to cover for the whole day. We reached a beautiful viewpoint along the hike, and ended up eating some lunch while enjoying the view.

Further along the route, we saw a bison chilling far away. The whole group walked by it, and I (in the back) saw it but second guessed myself given no one else called it out. But it was indeed a bison just relaxing. This made us happy as it was one of our goals to see a bison on the trip.

It was still early afternoon when we reached Little Harbor, so we set up our tents and relaxed in the afternoon by napping and playing cards. As the sun was setting, we all went to the beach with our dinners, and we watched on a tall rock as we watched the sunset.

We got back, and we lit the campfire. The wood was wet, so it was quite an involved effort to get the fire to start. A lot of foraging for dry wood and blowing on the coals. Finally the fire was going through, and by the time it died we had all been hanging around the campfire enjoying ourselves for 2.5 hours.

Day 3

At 6:30am, I woke up to my friend's face in my tent, excitingly whispering that there was a bison right outside. We quickly got up, and sure enough there was a bison strolling around super close. I got some pictures, but it was so still I thought it was side-eyeing me so I went about my business. We got ready and left camp around 9am after some thorough breakfast.

The hike was pretty relaxing and easy - we made it to the Airport in the Sky around 12pm. We were all starving, so we ordered so much food that it only started coming out around 1pm. It was a variety of bison dogs, bison burgers, and a single salad on the table. We wolfed it down, but ended up hanging out and relaxing until 2:30pm. We played some Cornhole and played with a cat.

It was less than a couple miles to Black Jack campground, so we headed out with our leftovers. We got to camp pretty quickly, and set up our camp and played with a tire swing from a tree branch. We ate a little bit of food, but most of us weren't hungry after eating so much lunch. Then we slept early because we had an early morning.

Day 4

We woke up at 4am, mainly because we had an 11 mile hike ahead of us and we were scared of missing the ferry back to LA. We tried to pack up as fast as we could, but still only ended up getting out of there around 6am. We started the hike out, and watched as the sun rose around the landscape around us. The sky was clear and we watched it turn from a dark blue to a bright pink, and then back to a light blue. As we kept hiking the clouds started to roll through, and it became cold and misty. And then later, they disappeared and it became quite temparate.

By 10am we were basically at Avalon, so we took our time and started to stroll around and enjoy the view. We got into town and reached the marker. We had finished! Along the way, we asked someone where a good place to eat was and he recommended The Lobster Trap. We put it in our navigation and strolled slowly through the town until we got there. We ate a hearty meal, and then continued to stroll around the town to for TCT merch. Unfortunately, I didn't actually see any. I regret not buying some from the Airport. For the rest of the afternoon, we relaxed and played basketball by the water.

The ferry back was a lot easier - it was direct. We were home quickly and ate a lot of BBQ after showering.