June 17 Friday

The boat trip out of San Pedro is relatively quick - it is about a 70 minute ride over. Once in Two Harbors, it is definitely a fell of a little resort town. There is not much there other than a local pub and restaurant, the General Store, and an activities rental store near the dock. The visitors center is right when you get off the boat at the end of the dock. It is also here where you would pick up your camping permit. The other buildings in this area are maintenance facilities and lodge for both the local residents and workers for the conservancy.

I got over to the island first since I couldn't get a reservation for the boat the rest of the group was taking. There was a total of seven of us and we headed over to the bus stop where some of our group was having their gear shipped over to Little Harbors. Mark (trip leader
brought his two boy Nolan and Garret 13 and 8 respectively). They were
pretty good hikers and Nolan carried his fair share of weight in a backpack and had a great pace at that. There was also Ian, Jennifer (she had the most awesome purple hat), Ron, and of course myself. The hike over to Little Harbors follows the road and it should be noted that even trails on the map are really more of dirt roads than actual trails. The hike is about 6.8 miles and we took about 3 hours to get there - no rush. The road offers nice views of the coast line until you pass West Ridge. The rod then descend near the buffalo paddocks.
Along this road are various ponds and dry creeks. We were all trying to get a picture of a good size bull; ironically after we turned the bend on the road we came across a small herd. The herd of buffalo really didn't care that we were so close - they seem pretty use to the human prescens. The rest of the hike follows rolling hills and there are several ups and downs along this hike. The hike is relatively easy.

Once we got to Little harbors, our campsite was Number 17 the farthest from the main area. This site is all the way on top of the hill.
Although the site was out of the way - it did prevent from being bothered by an enormous group down below. If you are looking for a little solitude - this is the site. The sites are pretty nice. They have a faucet with potable water, fire ring, fire bucket and barrel of water, and a canopy over two tables. Also at certain locations are shower units and toilets - ours did have it's own portable toilet.

We hadn't left two Harbors until the afternoon - so by the time we got to camp, set up camp, grabbed a bite to eat, it was closed to sunset.
The group headed down the trail to the coast where we all sat out on a rock outcropping and watched the sunset. The rangers came by earlier with our wood that we purchased over at Two Harbors - so we were set when we got back to camp. It took us no time to get the fire going especially with Mark's napalm fire starter concoction.

June 18 Saturday

I am an earlier bird so I was first up as usual - Mark joined me later and we sucked down some coffee. Today was nothing more than a day hike up the coast. Jennifer just wanted to crash at the beach, so the rest of us headed up the coast road. Although the map showed these as trails they were really dirt roads- so at first we were a little confused as to which direction/road to take until we realized the above. It was a beautiful day a gain and the June-gloom the mainland suffers was no where to be seen. It was a great day hike and we went along the coast to a point called Henderson's Beach - this was an out cropping above the beach and there are some old WWII bunkers and foundations still there.
Mark, the boys and Ian at this point headed back to the camp and the beach. Ron and I decided to go on for a while.

The trail consisted more of rolling hills. At one point there is a small creek with a pretty good water flow. As we descended the hill, Ron noticed that there were several grey structures off on a distant hill.
We were original trying to find a place on the map called the Old eagle's Nest, but instead and just by chance we came across the structure that Ron spotted. These large gray structure were actually netting over corrals - there were about a dozen of these pens. It turned out this area was for the rehabilitation of the island fox species that were nearly decimated by distemper. There happened to be a Vet there and he allowed to see one of the foxes that was being treated for a leg injury. I wish I could remember his name - he gave the whole history of this program - very interesting and very kind of him to take the time to give us the little tour. Ironically the compound is surrounded by and electric fence/grid due to the wild foxes keep coming back to the area.

Ron and I headed back and although the sun was burning hot there was a wonderful cool (almost cold ) breeze coming off the ocean. Ron and I made it back to camp in good time and we found everyone else down on the beach - it was easy - we just searched for Jennifer's purple hat. After some time on the beach it was then spent again with a great meal in camp and nightly fire.
 

June 19 Sunday

Another early day - I was departing early for Two Harbors since I was taking the earlier boat out of the town and back to the mainland.
Jennifer was taking the bus to Avalon and the rest of the group was heading back later in the morning. Again Mark and I were one of the fist ones up and we chatted over breakfast. Nolan was coming down with a cold so they were going to take the bus back wit Ian. Ron hiked back a little later. The hike was really wonderful and I quickly found my pace. There were hardly any cars on the road and I really didn't see anyone until probably the West ridge. I made excellent time of about 2 hours and after a quick stop to change into a dry shirt I headed over to the restaurant for brunch. Eventually the rest of the group came into town and we had a few drinks before I had to catch the boat back to the mainland.