Caching on Catalina: Part 2

Looking back towards Little Harbor

We broke camp early to begin Day 2 of our back country hike along the Trans Catalina Trail. Sheep Chute trail started out uphill and seemed to be uphill forever! Unlike Day 1 of our hike, there were very few people along this segment.  We passed one couple, and then a group of college aged guys who we had seen on the ferry. After that, we had several miles of trail all to ourselves. After about 1.5 miles (between mile marker 19 and 20), we stopped for the first cache. This one was was called 'What a View' by Madds (here's the cache page) and was published in May 2012. It took almost 7.5 months to get a FTF (in Dec 2012) and we were second to find in August 2013.  Two finds in 15 months. That's kinda lonely.


By the time we passed mile marker 18 and 17, we were all looking forward to the big treat that came at roughly the halfway point of the hike.  We had set out in the morning so that by lunchtime, we would be at the famed Airport in the Sky.  Not so that we could catch a flight back to LA and go home (at least I hope that wasn't what my family was thinking!), but because of the airport restaurant. After a day and half of backpacking, I was dreaming of a Buffalo Burger!  The views from the airport and the restaurant were awesome, and we took a much needed break here. Did I mention how good that Buffalo Burger tasted? OMG!! The food was a little pricey but man, did it ever hit the spot.  I highly recommend a stop at the airport if you hike the TCT.  You can also take the bus from Avalon up here, or fly in on a small plane.

Lunch at the airport

Airport in the Sky

Buffalo Burger!

Soapstone quarry

My family rested in the shade while I went after the two caches that were in the area.  I DNF'd a cache called 'Team Hookey' placed by Bigbadtrucker (link), which was very disappointing since the cache was placed in 2001.  It looked like one of those 'cache in a cactus' hides, so I gave it a good look but didn't want to waste all my caching time poking around in a cactus (I hear the groans on that pun).  Despite a pair of recent DNFs, the cache has only been found 50 times in 12 years. I then moved on to a more recent hide, 'Soapstone in the Sky' by kfsbunny (link) which turned out to be a very cool cache!  I followed a side trail across from the airport down to a soapstone quarry.  It turns out the quarry was used by a native american tribe and is a very important part of Catalina history.  The cache was a fairly easy find but the area was so cool I made my family hike through this trail just to see the quarry.

I  wish all bisons were this easy to find!

The final push was a 2 mile stretch down a valley and back up to the Black Jack campground.  Unlike Day 1, the sun was out and the hike was a hard one.  We stopped several times in shady areas to rest and drink.  We saw nobody through this stretch.  Nobody at all.  However, as we approached the campground, we finally saw something we had been waiting for the entire trip.  A bison!  No, not a bison in a bush, but a real bison! Very cool sighting and it gave us the energy boost to make it to the Black Jack camp.

View near the Black Jack cache

Smells like Pine!

Black Jack was probably the best camp of the trip.  Extremely remote, only a few campsites, and nestled under the only pine trees we saw on this trip.  We had a hard time figuring out which campsite was ours, and the guys from the ferry were there without a reservation, so we chatted with them while we waited to see who (if anybody) would arrive.  One of my missions on this trip was to replace the cache called (appropriately enough) 'Black Jack' (link) by DesertExplorer. Placed in 2005, it had only been found 12 times before it went missing in 2009.  Several DNFs were reported and eventually, it was under threat of archival.  I contacted the CO when I knew we would be visiting and offered to adopt the cache, but he just wanted me to replace it for now, as neither of us live very close to Catalina.  GZ for the missing cache was on the outskirts of camp, at the end of a short ridge.  Once there, I saw the remnants of the old geopile. Pretty cool.  I hid the replacement and enjoyed the view for a few minutes before hiking back to camp and out to another nearby cache, 'Smells like Pine' (link) hidden in 2006 by skpanzer. The hide site was truly spectacular, particularly in the late afternoon sun. The trail to GZ was uphill along another ridge and brought me into a copse of pines. I was enjoying the view and the trees so much, I nearly tripped over the ammo can, which was in plain view. I was thrilled to see an original logbook with logs from the 14 previous finders as well as numerous muggles who had camped at Black Jack and stumbled across this cache. Based on the muggle logs, and some of the contents of the cache, it would appear that this is a popular place for campers to take their girlfriends. I'm not sure what merit badge they were working on, but it sure sounds like a fun one!

I made my way back to camp for dinner.  Two days down and one (long) day to go.  Day three would be the final 11 mile push to the Hermit Gulch campground near Avalon.  I was also hoping it would be the day I placed my first hide on Catalina!