What to do between visiting Art in Palm Springs and climbing Half Dome in Yosemite?
Why not sprint through a stretch of Red Rock Country? Book ends to the sprint could include epic hikes. And why not? This was trip with my road-ravaging, outdoor-trekking, college-bound super daughter Kelsey!
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It’s not possible for me to go back and count how many times I’ve hiked Old Rag. At this point, I’m probably approaching 100 climbs. Yet, almost all of them have followed the same script: arrive early morning, climb the front, and descend the back to complete the loop. It’s a WONDERFUL hike but obviously not the only option.
Early on I tried various ascent and decent combinations but quickly settled into my current pattern. A few times I hiked in the middle of the day but often found it hot, crowded, and less pleasant. Recently Kelsey and I have hiked the loop in the dark which is really quite an adventure and very likely to be repeated. However, not until today had we hiked Old Rag in the evening and it was a pleasure.
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My wife is smart. After years of planning vacations she’s become really good at finding the right vacation destinations. In this case it was a Caribbean island which was conveniently a part of the U.S., had all the beach resort amenities that my ladies enjoy and lots of outdoor activities which I prefer.
The U.S. Virgin Islands is two thirds National Park! It has dramatically beautiful beaches, tremendous hiking trails, great undersea coral gardens, historic ruins and all on a compact island. Seriously, there was plenty to keep me busy while they baked in the sun. Of the 20 official hiking trails within the park I hiked almost two thirds of them. One took Kelsey and me to the sea where we swam to cool off before returning to our mountain starting point.
We had a great time and may be where we head with grandkids … some day.
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It was wonderful to be reminded today how special Old Rag is through the eyes of Kristen, a friend of Kelsey’s from their month hiking in Alaska last year. The contrasts we heard to Texas are what drew Old Rag’s special nature to the surface. “There are so many trees! It’s so green!” True but not remembered. “The hills are so big! There are so many and they’re beautiful!” Why, yes! We’d forgotten. “From up here you can see so far!” True enough and worth being reminded of.
Kristen is here in D.C for an action-filled week. Kelsey is running her ragged and they’re having a blast. Friday morning we head to NYC to extend the experience to Manhattan. On Saturday we return. On Sunday Kristen flies back to Houston. Sunday night I collapse.
It’s been a pleasure having her visit; Kelsey makes good friends.
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Kelsey and I left Saturday morning for NYC. We arrived around 2:00PM and proceeded to walk from Macy’s on 34th Street up to and meandering through Central Park to visit Columbia University before heading to our hostel on 103rd and Amsterdam. The following morning we took a subway up and out of Manhattan to just over the river in The Bronx. From there we spent 5.5 hours walking down Broadway the entire 14 mile length of Manhattan to Wall Street and Battery Park. Before 36 hours had passed we were back home in D.C.
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The island tempted me to hike its length in stages. First I enjoyed walking around Avalon between sessions of the JazzTrax Festival. Later I ventured out to hike around the ridge of the valley around Avalon and from the “Airport in the Sky” to Avalon. Having 2/5 of the island under my belt I decided I should tackle the recently completed enchilada, the TCT.
My scheme was to tempt my uncle by leading him down the same path.
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The trail was 38 miles long but I hiked over 45 to make it happen. From the top of Catalina at Starlight Beach to the bottom at Pebbly Beach I hiked and hiked and hiked. Logistics were a bit of a challenge. Weather interrupted my progress for a day. However today I completed my goal: I hiked the TCT!
So how did this compare with other hikes? I was surprised by how difficult the trails were and it took me a while to figure our why. I’ve hiked many steep mountains but they rarely have felt this challenging. Then it struck me. Those who designed the TCT very rarely used switchbacks to make climbing easier. Instead they simply took you straight up a mountainside which, of course, is shorter but takes much more effort. But for the 35 pound pack on my back I wouldn’t have minded.
I’m not going take you on a blow-by-blow of my days of adventure. It was in many ways a walk across a desert island with sea and sky almost always in view and more often than not the coastline too. There were animals I did not recognize, bison often too close for comfort and beautiful landscapes.
I leave you with my favorite impressions: harbors, beaches and coves.
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Camp sites had been unavailable prior to my arrival. This harbors town in the north of Catalina Island was flooded with 3,000 visitors from the mainland. With no more than a hand full of hotel rooms in the area, everyone had to camp. Not till they left could I reserve a space. Today I caught the exodus.
Two Harbors was my base of operations at the start of my hike along the length of Catalina Island on a trail called the Trans-Catalina Trail (or TCT). I started my day in Palm Springs, drove to Long Beach for to the ferry to Avalon where I left my festival clothing, and then boarded a bus for the ride north to my campground. The air was thick with tired reverie, hoarse voices and residual inebriation. Buccaneers had come to have a good time with apparent success. I’d come for an entirely different type of good time and hoped to have similar success. The first stop: set up camp.
While dry and dusty, this desert campground was a stone’s throw from the harbor. What a joy to be in such a beautiful setting. As I assembled my tent I could hear sails luffing, metal clanging against masts, and happy boaters winding down their visit. The place would be quiet by night as everyone went back home and I would have the place to myself.
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I like being at the tops of tall mountains. However, my preference is to be at the top of the world when there is NOT an electrical storm. This is exactly what swooped in when I was atop Mount San Jacinto.
My focus between Yosemite and Catalina was getting to know Palm Springs. One famous feature of the area I had visited before: Palm Springs Tramway. On that visit all I accomplished was the 6,500 foot ride up the tram, a walk around the visitor center, and a ride back down. This time I wanted to hike to the extra 2,300 feet of elevation to reach San Jacinto Peak at 10,842 feet.
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Hetch Hetchy, Glacier Point, Tunnel View, Mirror Lake, and a myriad of ancient roads are side trips I took during this visit. Any one of the biggies I’ve written about already would be reason enough come to Yosemite but there’s so much more to see. Some of these are worth setting apart and mentioning.
The water supply for San Francisco comes largely from behind a dam built at one of Yosemite’s great canyons. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, Hetch Hechy within Yosemite was the wildly controversial selection of location to create a huge reservoir. The city was growing rapidly; it needed a large and dependable supply of water. Not only was water important for daily life but also for fire control. Steps needed to be taken to preempt another out-of-control fire such as the one that destroyed the city.
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