Following the Old Coach Road

Sunday, 14 March 2009

Who hiked:  me

Hike route: Trailhead across road from West End Bison Corral on Little Harbor Road, ends in Two Harbors

Time:  approximately 2.5 hours

Estimated distance: ~4 miles, according to the Catalina Island Conservancy map

Temp:  low 70s, overcast

I did this hike before I started thinking about my hiking blog, so I don't have as much information from the hike as I normally would. 

I began this hike right after we had finished with our aid station for the Catalina Island Marathon.  Boy, the walkers and runners in that race have some guts... that is one tough race!

I started the hike at around 9:00 AM. Hubby and the Things drove me to the trailhead, which is directly across from the Bison Corral.  The trail heads up from here, past the microwave tower, through a gate, then down the other side into Two Harbors.  I also hiked the 0.9 mi spur trail (Cat Harbor Overlook) that goes out to an -- yes, you guessed it -- overlook at the mouth of Cat Harbor.

The Bison Corral is a good place to see shrikes, though I did not see any on this day.  About one-third of the way up the trail I did see a Catalina Island fox, which would turn to look at me, then run a bit further up the trail, then turn to look at me again.  It did this a few times, then crept off into the underbrush.  The trip up was a bit tough, but not too bad.  I stopped a couple of times for breathers...  The trail that goes up and over the ridge (excluding the spur trail to the Point) is an old road.  A hundred years ago, tourists would travel from Little Harbor to Two Harbors in stagecoaches along the Little Harbor Road.  At that time, the road then turned up this mountain and then down the other side into Two Harbors.  It must have been really exciting to be in a stagecoach drawn by six horses, careening down the Old Coach Road into town!

At the ridge, there is an intersection with the Trans-Catalina Trail.  It is a bit confusing here about where one should go, and I walked a bit toward Little Harbor along this new trail.  I figured out my mistake quickly, however, and reoriented myself toward Two Harbors without much time lost.  I walked back toward the microwave tower, turned on the left fork (northwest) instead of heading up toward the tower, and proceeded along the ridgetop.  I passed through a gate for the fence that transects the island here, then walked toward Ballast Point.  To go straight to Two Harbors, one merely turns right at the next fork and walks down, down, down the mountain and into town.  I decided to walk out to the Point, so I headed up the small rise along the Cat Harbor Overlook trail.  I've hiked this part of the trail several times; it is a ridge of small rolling crests.  None of them would be particularly challenging but for the fact that one has just hiked straight up to reach this point!  But I walked out to the Point and sat down to take in the view for a while.  

I don't see the point in hiking if one is not going to stop and look at things, regardless of if those things are birds, insects, plants, or views.  Sometimes I don't make very good time because of my penchant for stopping, as Hubby has reminded me on more than one occasion, but I do enjoy myself much more than I would if hiking was merely how I got from here to there.  Besides, thinking about what kind of time I'm making on the trail makes if feel competitive, and I don't need that!

I retraced my steps along the ridge to resume the trail down into Two Harbors.  It is more or less straight down, past a settling pond for sewage treatment and a perennially green patch of eucalyptus and shrubs that are watered with the sewage effluent.  This is a great place for hummers, though one can mostly only hear them as they squeak and whirr about scolding and chasing each other through the grove.  About the time my knees were threatening to give out from the relentless downward slope, I was at the Banning House.  I then walked past the Little Red Schoolhouse, the playground, and up the small hill (which felt much bigger now) and to my home for lunch.

Not a bad way to spend a morning.