Travel On to Avalon for a Wealth of Walking Delights

Today begins the third week of Coastweeks, a celebration of California’s splendorous coastline. The California Coastal Commission proclaimed Coastweeks in an attempt to foster public awareness of the many beauties--and many issues--found along the state’s 1,100-mile shore.

One good way to celebrate Coastweeks is with a coast walk. Santa Catalina Island, with its steep brush and cactus-covered ridges, clear waters and beautiful coves, is a walker’s delight.

Catalina’s terrain is rugged and bold, characterized by abrupt ridges and V-shaped canyons. Many of the mountaintops are rounded, however, and the western end of the island is grassland and brush, dotted with cactus and seasonal wildflowers. Bison, deer, boars and rabbits roam the savannas.

This day hike is a good introduction to the island; it samples a variety of terrain, inland and coastal. Transportation logistics are a bit complex, but the trail is easy to follow.

Directions to the trailhead: Several boat companies offer ferry service to Catalina from San Pedro. For more information about ferryboat schedules and island services/accommodations, call the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce, (213) 510-1520.

From Avalon, travel to the trailhead via a shuttle bus, which departs from the Island Plaza located on Catalina Avenue (off the island’s main street). A shuttle bus ($6.25 adult fee each way) will drop passengers off at Black Jack Junction. It’s about a half-hour ride from Avalon to the junction. Make return bus arrangements from Little Harbor to Avalon. Bus information, schedules and reservations: Catalina Safari at (213) 510-2800.

If you hike into the Catalina back country, you must secure a free hiking permit from the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. The parks department operates an information center in the Island Plaza. Pick up a trails map here and secure a permit. For more information about hiking the island, call (213) 510-0688.

The hike: At signed Black Jack Junction, there’s a fire phone and good views of the precipitous west ridges. The trail, a rough fire road, ascends for one mile over brush and cactus-covered slopes. You’ll pass the fenced but open shaft of the old Black Jack Mine (lead, zinc and silver). On your left, a road appears that leads up to Black Jack Mountain, at 2,006 feet the second-highest peak on Catalina. Continue past this junction.

Ahead is a picnic arbor with a large sunshade and nearby, a signed junction. You may descend to Black Jack Camp, which is operated by the county. Here you’ll find tables, shade and water. Set in a stand of pine, the camp offers fine channel views.

Bear right on the signed Cottonwood/Black Jack Trail. A second junction soon appears. Continue straight downhill. The other trail ascends to Mt. Orizaba (2,097), the island’s highest peak.

The trail descends steeply through a canyon, the steep walls of which are a mixture of chaparral and grassland and are favored by a large herd of wild goats. At the bottom of the canyon, pass through three gates of a private ranch (your permit allows this, but be sure to close all gates; don’t let the horses out.)

The trail reaches the main road connecting Little Harbor with Airport-in-the-Sky. You may bear left at this junction and follow the winding road 3 1/2 miles to Little Harbor. For a more scenic route of about the same distance, turn right on the road. Hike about 200 yards to the end of the ranch fence line, then bear left, struggling cross-country briefly through spiny brush, and intersect a ranch road.

This dirt road follows the periphery of the fence line on the east side of the ranch to the top of a canyon. You bear left again, still along the fence line. Ascend and then descend, staying atop this sharp, shadeless ridge above pretty Big Springs Canyon. When you begin descending toward the sea, you’ll spot Little Harbor.

Little Harbor is the primary campground and anchorage on the Pacific side of the island. It’s a good place to relax while waiting for the shuttle bus, or to refresh yourself for the 7-mile hike through buffalo country to Two Harbors.

Black Jack Trail

Black Jack Junction to Little Harbor: 8 miles one way; 1,500-foot elevation loss