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| The Palisades |
I hiked from Avalon on the Hermit Gulch Trail to Lone Tree overlooking the Palisades. I recommend the first part of the hike (Hermit Gulch Trail), but the Lone Tree leg was mediocre. Overall though this is a good hike to get you up and out of Avalon, with fabulous views of the town, the mainland (visibility permitting), and San Clemente Island. Because of its eastern exposure, it is probably best to hike this trail later in the day, especially in the warmer months of the year.
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| Click to enlarge elevation profile |
Date: 2 November 2011
Who Hiked: Me
Route: Hermit Gulch Trail - TCT - Lone Tree Trail
Time: 1300 - 1615
Weather: sunny, clear, warm (70s)
Distance: 5.65 miles (measured on GPS)
Elevation Range: 368-1612 ft
After a productive morning spent sketching out our 2012 vacation (Sequoia/Kings Canyon/Yosemite here we come!), I started out for Avalon, stopping for lunch at the Airport. After ordering a buffalo burger, I sat on the patio, watching hummers at their feeders, and reading my new book (Flim Flam by James Randi). Lunch was tasty, as usual, though I suspect the price of a buffalo burger will soon be higher than I am willing to pay. Apparently bison meat is in short supply, thus price hikes for your favorite bison products are in store -- so get a buffalo burger while it is only stupidly expensive rather than absurdly expensive.
After lunch and a short bask in the sun, I drove the rest of the way to town. I parked at the entrance to the Wrigley Botanical Garden, and walked back on Avalon Canyon Drive toward the Hermit Gulch trailhead at Hermit Gulch Campground. By 1:00 PM, I was on the trail.
The trail starts at the back of the campground -- there is a sign for it at the road. The trail is easy to follow, though the start is crowded with fennel, a nasty invasive plant on the island. (I feel a bit guilty for admitting this, but I like the way it smells. It's still a nasty invasive plant that needs to go!)
The day was warm and sunny and I was a bit paranoid about snakes sunning themselves in the verges of the trail -- just where I wouldn't see them. Having been scared out of my gourd on one occasion by a rattlesnake, these conditions make me hypersensitive. And it's the idea, not the reality, that gets to me -- once I find one or see one, I no longer worry. Makes no sense, but there it is.
Anyway, the trail is easy to follow and is significantly less steep than most Catalina trails. There are even switchbacks, something that I didn't think existed on the island! (See this post for a commentary on un-switchbacked Catalina trails.) And the trail is shaded, though much of that was because the sun was behind the ridge by the time I started my hike. The morning sun must hit the trail full-on, so I recommend this hike for later in the day.
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| Switchback cut-off |
1) Hikers -- please do not cut across the switchbacks! Erosion is unavoidable on trails, but cutting off switchbacks exacerbates the problem. If hiking those last six feet of the switchback is too much for you, perhaps you should slow down and take a breather.
2) Pack out your TP, people! The trail was littered along its entire length with toilet paper. I know that the trail might seem like the middle of nowhere, but it isn't -- lots of people hit this trail (apparently in more ways than one). So if you have to piddle, please put your TP into a ziploc and throw it away later!
At about 0.8 miles, I thought that the mileage reported for this trail (1.7 mi) must be wrong -- after all, I could see the ridge trail (called Divide Road) above me and it was certainly not a mile away. But then, I went around a corner at about 0.9 miles, looked ahead, and thought, "Ah, right. Not the ridge over there -- the ridge waaaaay over there." At this point, I had left Avalon proper and entered Conservancy land.
The last half of the trail seemed steeper than the first half -- though the elevation profile shows it all to be about the same degree of steep...
There was not a lot of wildlife along the trail -- perhaps largely because mid-day is not a good time for animals. I did see some yellow-rumped warblers in the bushes and a red-tailed hawk riding the thermals overhead. I heard a pair of ravens vocalizing far below the hawk, then watched one of them spiral up toward the hawk until it pulled nearly even with it. At that point, the hawk began moving to the northwest, followed by the raven who, by that time, was close enough to dive-bomb the red-tail... The pair of ravens ushered the red-tailed hawk away, all the while saying the raven equivalent of "Hey, get out of my yard!"
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| Alligator lizard Elgaria multicarinatus |
I also saw this beauty -- an alligator lizard -- in the middle of the trail. He posed quite nicely for me, until I got too close, and then he slalomed off into the bushes.
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A tenth of a mile later, I was at the junction between the TCT and Lone Tree Trail. Lone Tree did not have an auspicious start -- it went straight up hill. But, because it follows the crest of the ridge out to Lone Tree, it then went straight down hill. I continued in this fashion -- straight up, then straight down -- for the next mile. And to be honest, I was having a tough time motivating myself to continue. Because it is completely exposed, the ridge was hot and sunny. I was tired. When I was trudging uphill I thought my heart might explode. When I was skittering downhill, I worried about falling and breaking my leg -- and then I'd have to drag myself back down the hill!
But I was going to see the Lone Tree, dammit, so I kept going. It sounds inviting doesn't it? A tree? Perhaps some shade and a place to rest a bit to cool off and have a snack? All the while enjoying a view of San Clemente Island and maybe San Nicolas Island?
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| THE LONE TREE |
I did take a break for about 10 minutes, then at 3 PM packed up and made my way back along the ridge. The whole hike was significantly easier on the return. My knees weren't even too sore by the end.
At 4:15, I was back at the campground trailhead, my first foray into the East End complete! I will definitely be back for more, the disappointment of the Lone Shrub not withstanding.
Birds seen: Northern raven, Red-tailed hawk, Catalina quail, Spotted towhee, Yellow-rumped warbler, House finch
I did not know that there was such a thing as an alligator lizard. I thought it was just one of those terms made up by the group America (in Ventura Highway) when they were stoned. Most of their lyrics sound like hallucinations. In my defense, they were probably hallucinating when they wrote "alligator lizards in the air," because those things don't fly.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that hallucinogens were involved in the writing of that song and "A Horse with No Name".
ReplyDelete