Section Hiking the Trans-Catalina Trail

Millie and Pawrent’s Scoop: Hi I am Amy, my husband John and I are transplants from Massachusetts and live in Oceanside. We have lived in North County since January 2018 and love hiking and camping with our three-year old cattle dog mix Millie. From Friday, November 29, 2019 to Sunday, December 2, 2019 we backpacked with Millie and section-hiked the Trans-Catalina Trail on Catalina Island. The Trans-Catalina Trail is a 38.5 mile trail across Catalina Island. The trail consists of rolling hills, with a total elevation change of 9,600 feet. Overall, we had a wonderful time and can’t wait for our next trip back!

Ferry Ride: The Catalina Express Ferry takes reservations and at the time of booking a round trip from San Pedro to Two Harbors was $37.25 each way for each adult. No extra cost for a pup. We highly recommend booking the ferry trip and times first, (prior to booking a campsite) as this can determine the outcome of your whole trip, especially if you are booking during the off-season. The ferry runs less during the fall/winter and we had to pivot based on when we could book a ride. Pets must be leashed at all times and have a secured full faced commercial muzzle. Only one pet per passenger. Millie does well on long car rides, so we didn’t anticipate the ferry being an issue. On the contrary, she may have been the only one on the ferry who wasn’t sea sick as the trip was very choppy and rainy!

Camping: There are five designated campgrounds along the trail: Hermit Gulch, BlackJack, Little Harbor, Two Harbors and Parson’s Landing. The only dog-friendly campsites are BlackJack, Little Harbor and Parson’s Landing, which can make planning a dog friendly trek very tricky.  All campsites have potable water except Parson’s Landing (however you can pay to have a locker stocked at Parson’s Landing with 2.5 gal of  water). Due to the distances between dog-friendly campsites and time restrictions, we decided to take the ferry to Two Harbors and camp at Little Harbor for two nights. We also determined that this was the more scenic part of the island so we opted for a more scenic trip rather than strain ourselves to get to more campsites. We also opted to purchase firewood and fire starters from Visitor Services in person next to the Ferry Stop in Two Harbors. The supplies were waiting for us when we arrived at our campsite. Camping reservations are required and can be made online. At Little Harbor, our campsite had beach access, potable water, and chemical toilets.

Hiking: Your camping reservation serves as your hiking permit, so no additional permitting is necessary. We started our hike off of the ferry on Friday from Two Harbors to Little Harbors. This was about a 7 mile hike. Unfortunately for us, it rained on this part of the trip, but thankfully, the rain let up when we got to our campsite at Little Harbor so we could set up our tent. The rain also made way for a stellar rainbow. Saturday morning we continued to hike along the Trans-Catalina trail towards Parson’s Landing and made it to Cottonwood Beach for a casual lunch before turning back to our campsite at Little Harbor. Sunday morning we were greeted by Catalina’s famous bison right outside our tent. We were very cautious and I took Millie away from the bison and our campsite to avoid any incident. A great reminder for why dogs need to be on leash at all times, even just hanging out at the campsites.  We hiked back to Two Harbors and had enough time before our ferry to grab a hot meal in Two Harbors. Our total mileage for the trip was about 20 miles. The elevation for this part of the trek is rolling and no joke. We recommend trekking poles and plenty of fuel.

Pup Packing List:

• Muzzle for Ferry
• Dog food
• Water bottles
• Collapsible bowl
• Treats
• 6 foot leash
• Camp towel (to wipe muddy paws before entering tent)
• Dog backpack (Millie uses the Ruffwear Approach pack) – It is recommended dogs carry no more than 25% of their body weight.
• Millie didn’t have a sleep system on this trip, she ended up sleeping on a combination of a towel, our jackets, and cuddling between our two sleeping bags
• Millie worked her way up to carrying all of her supplies, including her water. We didn’t need to over pack water for her (or us) because the campsite had potable water.