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Santa Catalina Island, part of the Channel Island Archipelago, lies approximately 22 miles southeast of Los Angeles. It is 22 miles long and 8 miles across at it's widest point. Catalina Island rises 648 meters to it's highest point, Mt. Orizaba. Almost 3700 full time residents call the island home (2000 consensus), with the majority living in the city of Avalon. Other scattered pockets of residents include the unincorporated town of Two Harbors, near the Northern side of the island and small settlements like Rancho Escondido and Middle Ranch.

With 88 percent of the island's 49.29 square miles managed by the Catalina Island Conservatory, it is possible to roam the Catalina backcountry and see bison, Bald Eagles and the endangered Island Fox, now numbering a sustainable (but still threatened) level of 400 members. 

On May 10, 2007, fire broke out in the sagebrush covered hills above Avalon. A total of 4000 acres and three structures were consumed by the flames, but the city itself remained spared thanks to the efforts of the fire crews battling the blaze. It appeared most wildlife was spared. After witnessing the California mainland's fires of 2003 and seeing the satellite imagery of all the smoke blowing out to sea (directly over the Channel Islands), it was interesting to see the smoke from Catalina this time blowing inland and hazing up our views.

Being scuba diver's, Danielle and I have previously traveled to Catalina to dive at Casino Point. Unlike the sandy bottom of the California mainland though, the Channel Islands are giant rock outcrops jutting out of the ocean and therefore have less "water clutter". 30-50 feet of visibility is the norm with 70 to 80 feet being possible. For this trip, we also wanted to have a no hassle, multi-dive boat excursion. I remembered there was a dive operator at the end of the small pier at the beach area of Avalon, so we booked our Cat Jet Express tickets online and showed up for our 8:00 am departure at the Long Beach Harbor. Unfortunately, it seems as if the prices raise for the round-trip fare every time we go back out to Catalina. I guess it is still cheaper than buying and maintaining my own boat. Other departure points from the mainland to Catalina (and other Channel Islands) include the cities of Dana Point and Newport Beach in Orange County and San Perdo farther north in Los Angeles County.

After approximately one hour, we arrived at the boat pier just to the southern edge of Avalon. We headed to the back where our luggage (dive bag and backpack) was stacked, picked it up and were off. NOTE: There will not be any taxis lined up waiting to take disembarking passengers to their respective destinations as only a handful of Avalon's residents actually have cars or trucks. The main modes of moving about are by foot or golf cart... the latter of which is for rent. Just off the boat are lockers for oversized bags (if you want to rent a golf cart and return) and restrooms. For now, Danielle held onto one handle of the dive bag and I the other and; with my backpack on, we headed for the pier to speak with the folks at the Catalina Diver's Supply dive shop. At almost any point along the boardwalk of Avalon, the Casino dominates the skyline to the far side of the harbor. Some interesting "Casino" facts I found on the Wikipedia website are:

• The Casino was never intended to be a place to gamble and instead, derives it's name from the more traditional Italian definition of "social gathering place"... does that mean MOA is an online casino?
• The 140 foot structure was the tallest building in Los Angeles County, under whose jurisdiction the Channel Islands fall, at the time of it's completion in 1929.
  
• The Casino is so well insulated that people in the theatre (bottom level) could not hear those above in the ballroom (capacity 6000)
  
• It's circular domed ceiling has been studied by acoustics experts from around the world.
  

To say the least, it is an impressive building and unfortunately, one I have yet to step foot inside. I will check it out on my next journey across!

Located on the pier at Avalon is the Catalina Diver's Supply. We met a nice fella named Dan and booked three-tank dive aboard their charter boat; the Scuba Cat, for the following morning. The Scuba Cat is a custom built boat for scuba diving and snorkel excursions. Catalina Diver's Supply offers daily departures from the pier (if there is enough people) that leave at 9:00 am and return by roughly 2:00 pm. Danielle and I felt this would be the perfect way to see dive sites that we, otherwise, would not have the ability to see. The only caveat was that at the time we signed up the minimum number of divers had not been met. I believe it was six divers minimum for it to be cost beneficial to take the Scuba Cat out. Dan explained that we would get a full refund in the morning if the excursion had to be scrapped. Fair enough. 

For now, we just needed a place to put our luggage because we were sleeping at the Hermit Gulch campground located approximately 1.5 miles up the the road winding through Avalon Canyon. Dan was kind enough to loan us a cart so I could wheel our large bags over to the lockers at the Casino Point dive site. I hurried over and back so that Danielle and I could enjoy the rest of the day.

We decided to walk along the harbor boardwalk heading back over to the Casino (for me), but instead of stopping, we continued on a little further where there is a nice little rock covered beach and a quaint little bar. It was jam packed with other like minded tourists, so we got our refreshments and found a quiet little corner off to the side of the beach. There were other activities going on with booths set up and bikini clad models for eye candy. The swimming was nice here with an usually steep entry. I remember the waterline dropping so steeply that at just 15-20 feet from the shoreline, I already had to swim. When the tide turned on high, the rollers started breaking just off-shore. I can't remember where we ate on this afternoon, but soon enough, we decided to start our short excursion to the Hermit Gulch Campground and set up our home (a Coleman tent) for the next two nights. We stopped by the lockers at Casino Point and picked up my backpack and were off.  

There are a couple campgrounds on Catalina Island, but Hermit Gulch is the closest one to Avalon. We choose to stay at this location instead of at a B&B or other expensive hotel. It only requires a little more effort to get to, either by taxi or foot. To get there, you basically just start walking to the back of the city of Avalon. All roads keep converging until you are eventually on the only road winding through a small canyon. Still having plenty of light, Danielle and I chose to walk the approximately 1.5 mile road leading to the campground. Hermit Gulch is near the Wrigley Memorial and Cactus (botanical) Garden. I'll talk more about free access into these later, so keep reading! After setting up camp, Danielle and I got to relax and enjoy the nice campground setting. For dinner, we had to deviate from the original plan of cooking camp cuisine. See, I intended to use my MSR white gas backpacking stove to cook the first night's meal, but was told at the Long Beach Harbor that I could not board the Cat Jet Express with any flammable materials. They probably would not have even checked had I said, "Nope", when asked if I had any bazookas, grenades or camp stove fuel, but honesty prevails with me and I informed the employee I was carrying a white gas canister. He promptly told me to put it back in the car or not go at all. Turned out for the best though because I was going to cook one of those crappy dehydrated packets which I have completely sworn off. Lipton noodle packets, chicken (in the pouch, yummy) and lots of Tabasco is how we roll now. So we ate the second night's meal, a tasty MRE, and figured we would eat out in Avalon for the next dinner... exactly what we were trying to avoid with a lower cost trip. If MRE's didn't weigh so much, I would split all meals of multi-day camping excursions between them and Lipton noodle packets, but I'm digressing here... Besides, the next nights meal was at a nice harbor side reaurant.  

Morning two began way too early in order for us to walk down to the dive shop, pick up a cart to retrieve our dive gear from the Casino Point lockers, and wait for the other divers to arrive. Dan happily informed us enough divers had signed on for the three-tank dive. The first site seemed like it was far away, but that was probably from my anticipation to get in the water. Danielle and I had not been diving for awhile, so we just dropped down to thirty-five feet or so, and practiced some self help stuff before completing the dive with a little exploration. I did not take my underwater Sea-2-Sea camera down on this first dive as I didn't want any distractions while re-acquainting myself with the dive basics. There was a sandy bottom here and that brought visibility down to the lower end of around 30 feet, so we were bummed. We surfaced after all the other diver's because of our shallow dive depth. Some of the other diver's dive depth ranged from 70-90 feet and they all reported seeing octopus, large bass and moray eels. We had the company of some Garibaldi and a sunken tire. The next dive was closer to Avalon and alomost right alongside a cliff. A cliff with a massive surge crashing against it. Once underwater though, the surge disappeared I don't remember the name of the site, but it had an awesome kelp forest and tons of fish. At the third dive site we were stopped out in the middle of the water about a hundred yards from shore. There were two large rock outcrops just in the waterline that the divemasters told us we should aim for. So everyone gets their compass bearing on the rock outcrop and jumps in. Problem was, Danielle and I did not have compasses on our rented regulators. Use the sun as a guide we're told. Just keep it to the right and we will be heading straight for the rocks. True... standing on the deck of the boat, the sun is almost directly overhead but definitely leaning to the our right side. I can manage this. We jump in and drop down to the sandy bottom at about 50 feet. And then I look up and every direction I'm facing, the sun stays to my right. CRAP! We decided to just start swimming but, with the sun to our right side, the depth of the ocean floor soon turned to sixty feet. We swam back to the anchor point and surfaced. We felt good about what we had seen and that we had refreshed ourselves with the basics, so we were done. A quick boat ride back and now it was time to feed the beast.

There is a restaurant conveniently located on the pier (forget the name but it's the only one) so we decided to try it's fare. Avalon has some pretty neat shops to walk around in, so we decided to stroll around. Most of the shops obviously cater to the island and ocean theme but some have unrelated "boutique" selections. We returned to the pier to discover a marlin fishing tournament was going on. Some teams were just arriving with their catch and they were in the process of getting their fish weighed. The lovely Miss Catalina was on hand for the group photos. We finally walked back to the Hermit Gulch to get ready for our dinner out. HINT: Program the number for the Avalon taxi into your cell and call them to get picked up if you don't want to walk back into town. Danielle and I decided to use the taxi service after we were finished eating and ready to return for the night. We ate at a nice restaurant with an outside area on the edge of the harbor. It was a little colder than we had anticipated but enjoyable. Enjoyable except for my joints started to feel funny... 

Back at camp, we moved our stuff into one of the canvas walled cabins of the Hermit Gulch Campground. We weren't trying to be sneaky, we were actually told by the camp host (I think he was a ranger) that it would be permissible. See, our sleeping mattress took a crapper on that first night. Duct tape could only go so far. So when I saw the camp host earlier in the day, I decided to make some small talk before asking if we could "borrow" a cot from the canvas cabins for us to sleep on. I explained our predicament and instead of moving out a cot, he told us to just move all of our stuff into the canvas cabin. The camp at this time of year was pretty much deserted, so we happily complied. The cabin we moved into, was canvas on all four sides with a plywood floor. The cots were a little creaky but my joints were what felt the worst. Stupid on my part, but I think I was experiencing some mild decompression sickness. You should always make your deepest dive the first. ALWAYS!!! On our first dive of the trip, though, Danielle and I had descended to only thirty-five feet to reacquaint ourselves with the basics. Remember, I said this allowed us to stay at that depth for a lot longer that if we had descended to eighty feet. In fact, we went so out of order that our second dive was to about fifty feet and our third down to the bottom at sixty. I will not get any sympathy from more experienced divers for this one! Keep in mind that this was a self diagnosis, but the feeling in my elbows and other joints kept me tossing and turning all night long... and Danielle because we shared a cot. Eventually (sunrise) the feeling passed.

One of the thing I discovered from my friendly chat with the camp host was that a hiking trail to the ridgeline of Catalina Island began from the far back corner of the campground. He told me to take it all the way to the top and then connect with other trails to loop back around toward Avalon. Pretty cool sight looking down at the opposite side of the island. I could see fishing boats far below and on the horizon was another of the Channel Islands (San Clemente Island, I believe). By walking to the ridgeline and then looping back around to Avalon Canyon, I droppd down to the Wrigley Memorial without crossing through the Botanical Garden and entry (fee) gate. I was the only one up there. The Memorial itself is amazing in it's construction. Erected to commemorate William Wrigley Jr. (the chewing gum guy), the memorial was mostly constructed of materials from the island that he loved so much. The foresight of William Wrigley is probably one of the reasons Catalina Island has so little development. So give a silent thanks as you chew on that piece of spear-a-mint. I didn't see anyone else until I was walking through the botanical garden back toward the campground where Danielle was waiting. Turns out they didn't have to pay admission as the botanical garden gate was not staffed. Oh well, my route was more scenic. After that, we walked one final time back to Avalon, collected our dive gear from the lockers at Casino Point and headed back to the mainland.