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.
My agenda was to spend two nights here and during the day in between I was going to hike a loop of the island north of the isthmus.
Everything went according to plan till early the second morning when I heard rain on my tent’s fly. “Not a huge deal” I thought “since it wasn’t even supposed to rain it should stop soon.” Wrong! My solace came from being dry and having breakfast in my tent. By the time I crawled out to deal with the challenges of packing in the rain, my belly was filled and warm and my spirits were lifted from the downing of the special filter-drip cup of coffee I’d prepared. No, camping in the rain was not going to get THIS boy down!
I know when I look back it’s not going to be the rain I remember from my stay in Two Harbor. That inconvenience will fall away and I’ll remember the pirates, the lovely setting, and how it was the start of my TCT adventure.
by 
