Caching on Catalina: Part 3

Heart of Catalina

The last day of our epic hike across the Trans Catalina Trail was also going to be the longest. After two days of 5-7 mile hikes up and down relatively steep hills, we were all feeling a little sore, so the prospect of an 11 mile hike through the heart of Catalina was a bit daunting.  We left the Black Jack campground under overcast skies and made our way towards the central part of the island.  This is clearly a place few people go and it was truly spectacular through here. The isolation also meant there were no caches to be found for much of the hike.  Since this is such a wonderful segment, I decided to hide a cache myself.  Between mile 12 and 11, as we paused for a drink after a steep downgrade, I found a good spot for a hide.  I named it 'TCT: Heart of Catalina' (cache link here), to reflect the setting.  Since pack space is at a premium, and I had already used space for the replacement cache for Black Jack, this is a small container (a hanging pill bottle), but it should be pretty easy to find once you get there.  Believe me, you won't have to deal with muggles!  In fact, I will be excited to see when it get its first find.  As of this blog post, it has already gone over 4 months without a find. I will be surprised if this cache gets more than one find a year, because you have really got to want to be out there.

First glimpse of Avalon!

Anyhow, we slogged on towards Avalon and as the sun came out in the afternoon, it turned into a grind. We were tired, dirty, hungry, and starting to look forward to the final stop (and warm showers!) at the Hermit Gulch camp. We saw a lot more bison on Day 3, which helped keep the family moving, and the terrain was quite variable, from rolling scrub, to prairie-like grasslands, and eventually, roads. Around Mile Marker 9, we passed a park near the road up to the airport, which gave us hope that civilization was getting close. Near Mile Marker 8, we got our first glimpse of Avalon! All of us were really dragging along the last 1.5 miles of ridgeline before the drop down to camp.  We passed a number of muggles through here, who had hiked up from below and looked perky and hydrated. We must have looked like death warmed over! We finally made it to the Hermit Gulch Trail, which took us off the TCT and down a very steep ravine towards the campsite. My wife and I knew this part of the hike, as we had hiked up from below a few months earlier on a vacation to the island.  We stopped briefly at a cache we had logged on that trip, and found that the trackable we had dropped there was safe and sound.  The cache itself is pretty cool.  It's called 'Hermit's Graveyard' by Dmahny88 (here's the link) and has had a half dozen visitors since it was placed back in May 2012.  The cache has really unusual camo. I won't spoil it with a picture, but believe me, you will get a kick out of it. There is another cache further down the trail (closer to camp) that gets a lot more traffic, due to its proximity to the camp.  It's called 'Hermit Gulch' by Reynoldator28 (link) and we had found this guy during our previous trip as well, so we didn't stop here.

Leaving the TCT and heading to camp

We finally arrived at the camp and were thrilled to be back in civilization.  Although the idea of hiking into town was not pleasant, the thought of steaks on the grill and cold beer was enough of an incentive to hike just a little bit further.  All told, we found six caches and placed one while hiking about 23 miles over three days.  I know there are some folks that are all about the numbers, but sometimes a couple of caches are far more satisfying than 50 LPCs.  This was one of those times. I think even the geocaching purists, who probably cringed at my pill bottle hide, would say that this is what geocaching is all about.  Finding parts of the world that you would have never seen otherwise. There are still a number of caches out here, some in places even more remote. Hopefully, I can come back someday for another trek along the TCT and grab a few more.