Carlsbad → Long Beach, ~90 minLeave by 10:00. 320 Golden Shore — 710 south, stay left, exit Golden Shore, right at the stop sign, terminal on the right. Unload passengers and packs; they wait with the tickets.
Noon
Shuttle the cars to San PedroMonday’s ferry lands at San Pedro, so the cars wait there, not here. Drive over (~20 min), park for five days, Uber back (~25 min). Schedule the Uber before you leave Long Beach — the port isn’t thick with drivers.
1:00
Back at Long BeachAn hour of slack before boarding. If the Uber drags, the passengers are already checked in and only the drivers are chasing the clock.
2:00
Catalina Express, Long Beach → AvalonBooking #382425745 · 4 adults · $198. Long Beach because San Pedro has no Thursday sailing. Save the QR codes to your phone wallet before you lose signal. Boarding line by 1:50 or the seat goes to standby with no refund; gates shut at 1:55.
Orange
One blaze-orange item eachThe Conservancy’s PLM deer hunt runs Oct 31–Nov 8, so it covers Days 1, 2 and 3. Much of the trail crosses open hunting country. A blaze hat is two ounces and a few dollars — buy seven before you leave, not on the island.
Permit
Hiking permits — all sevenReserved. Everyone carries a copy, on a phone and on paper — the paper one is what survives a dead battery. Rangers use them to reach hikers during fire or wind events.
Stay
Catalina Island Inn, 125 Metropole AveConf. 42249SH109522 · family room, bunk bed plus a full · $268.48. Check-in is 4pm and the boat lands around 3:15, so drop the packs at the desk and go find dinner. Check-out 11am. Last real bed until Monday.
Resupply
Vons in AvalonFresh items and anything forgotten. Freeze-dried comes from home.
Map
Paper trail map, Trailhead Visitor CenterYour membership includes one free Conservancy trail map with a purchase there, plus 15% off the store. Cell service drops out across the interior. The printed map also marks water, toilets and food along the route.
Dinner
Avalon waterfront, your pick
Hotel bookedFerry bookedSan Pedro parkingPolicies signed7 campers confirmedPermits in hand
+2,680 / −1,180 ft Sea level to 1,640 ft in three miles, then a saw-toothed ridge. The hardest day.
Route
Hermit Gulch Trail → Divide Road → Haypress → Black JackHiking in the interior is prohibited from sundown to dawn, and the sun is gone by about 4:55. Six to seven hours for this one, so on the trail by 8:00.
Breakfast
Café in AvalonEat before the ferry crowd wakes up.
Lunch
Trail snacks8 oz per person — the only full snack lunch you carry.
Dinner
Freeze-dried at campOne pouch per person. Water available at Black Jack.
BJ07 · pines, table, fire ring, food locker
Camp
Black Jack — site BJ07Tent site, 8 max. Highest and coldest camp, in the pines below Mt Orizaba. Potable running water, chemical toilets, cold-water outdoor shower. No fires — stoves and jetboils only, so nothing to huddle around and the wind layer matters more here than anywhere. No ranger on site, no check-in.
Campsite booked
+410 / −1,880 ft Almost no climbing, but 1,880 ft of descent in 8 miles. Easy on the lungs, hard on the quads — this is the day that makes tomorrow ache.
Route
Black Jack → Airport in the Sky → Sheep Chute → Little Harbor
Breakfast
Freeze-dried at Black Jack
Lunch
DC-3 Grille, Airport in the SkyCall 310-510-0143 to confirm November hours before counting on it.
Dinner
Freeze-dried at camp
LH02 · shade ramada, grass, two tables
Camp
Little Harbor — site LH02Tent site, 20 max. Potable water, chemical toilets, cold-water showers, beach access, and a shade structure over the site. Fires allowed here — firepits and charcoal grills, and you can preorder firewood delivered to the site. The only camp with a live-in ranger.
Campsite booked
+3,160 / −3,130 ft Two full sea-level-to-ridge climbs, the second topping 1,780 ft — the high point of the trail.
Route
Little Harbor → Whale's Tail → Two Harbors → West End Road → ParsonsSundown about 4:52, and night hiking in the interior is against the rules, not just unwise. From Two Harbors there are two ways in: Silver Peak Trail, 6.57 mi with 1,700 ft of climb and a very steep drop into Parsons — poles recommended — or West End Road, 7.7 mi with mild elevation. A mile longer, hours easier. Leave Little Harbor by 7:30 either way.
Breakfast
Freeze-dried at Little Harbor
Lunch
West End Galley, Two HarborsRoughly halfway. Refill every bottle here. Two Harbors is cashless — cards or phone only.
Dinner
Freeze-dried at Parsons Landing
Water
Three lockers at Parsons — 6 gallons + firewoodNo running water at all, so this is everything for dinner, breakfast and the walk out — about 3.2 litres each across seven. Collect the combination at the Two Harbors Visitor Center before you start walking. Note that Two Harbors itself is a no-hunting zone, but West End Road and Parsons are not — and Nov 8 is the hunt’s last day. Orange on, stay on the trail.
PL04 · table and fire ring on the sand
Camp
Parsons Landing — site PL04Tent site, 8 max. Chemical toilets, trash, beach access — and nothing else. No shade structures, and the west end is exposed with wind that turns harsh in winter. Fires allowed in the ring. No ranger; you check in back at Two Harbors.
Campsite + locker booked
+370 / −400 ft Flat coastal road, never above 210 ft. The easy finish it looks like.
Morning
Sleep in at ParsonsCamp check-out is 11am, so no dawn alarm. Hunt season ended yesterday, so today is clear. Last freeze-dried pouch, pack everything out. Away by 10 or 11 puts you in Two Harbors around 1:30 or 2:30 — time for a proper lunch before the 3:45 check-in.
Lunch
Harbor Reef Restaurant, Two HarborsBuffalo Milk at the Saloon. You earned it, and you have hours. Two Harbors is cashless now — cards or phone only, with a cash-to-card kiosk outside the General Store.
4:45
Two Harbors → San Pedro, via AvalonBooking #382426388 · 4 adults · $194. Be at the ticket window by 3:45. The boat calls at Avalon on the way, so plan on landing at San Pedro nearer 7 than 6.
Cars
Waiting at San PedroNothing to arrange. Walk off the boat and straight to the lot — the whole point of shuttling them on Thursday.
Drive
San Pedro → Carlsbad~90 min, so home around 9pm. Eat on the island or plan a stop — nobody will want to cook.
Return ferry booked
Packs
Gear list
Weights and the full per-person breakdown live on
lighterpack.com/r/ma6xay.
Shared items — stove, camera, battery bank, flask — are tracked separately from personal kit.
Ledger
Booked and outstanding
Campsites cover all seven; ferries and the hotel are our four only. Yours will differ.
Still open: the San Pedro lot. Three deadlines worth diarising — campsites refund 100% only if cancelled by Fri Oct 23 (14 days out, less the $9.25 booking fee), the hotel charges the full night inside 72 hours so its cutoff is Mon Nov 2, and the ferries cancel free until 48 hours before each sailing, making the outbound go/no-go Tue Nov 3 at 2pm. Campsites, headcount and Two Harbors conditions are Catalina Island Company: 310-510-4205, visitorservices@scico.com, lookup code JGA3GH. The $27.75 reservation fee is the non-refundable part, not $9.25. Conservancy (permits, membership): 562-437-8555. Inn: 310-510-1623.
Gain and loss are both shown because the usual convention counts only ascent, which makes a descent-heavy day look easier than it walks. Distances come from the HikingGuy GPX; elevation is traced from the published profile for that same track, so gain and loss run slightly under — fine wiggle is lost in tracing.
Topo basemap · GPX track + profileDay 0 — cars to San Pedro, ferry from Long Beach
Track from HikingGuy.com, split at your camps. Switch to Satellite, top right.
Contingency · not the plan
Safety & bail-outs
Where you can get off the trail
Day 1 first 1.5 mi
Back down to AvalonHermit Gulch is barely out of town. Past the Divide climb, turning back means most of a day.
Day 2 mile 12.75
Airport in the SkyThe only road exit on the whole route, about two miles into Day 2. Wildlands Express shuttle to Avalon, $3 off with the membership. If Day 1 broke someone, this is where they leave.
Day 2 end
Little HarborReachable by Wildlands Express or Catalina Taxi from Avalon, and the only camp with a live-in ranger.
Day 3 mile 24.2
Two HarborsLast real decision point. Ferry to San Pedro (San Pedro service only, and none on Tue or Thu from late Oct), Banning House for a bed, visitor centre for everything else. Past here you are committed to Parsons.
Day 3 end
Parsons — no exitWalk the 7.7 miles back to Two Harbors. Kayak is technically possible, 4.25 mi by water, Dive Shop 310-510-4272 — not with packs.
Numbers
Emergency911Conservancy Rangers — wildlife, trail310-510-2595Two Harbors Visitor Services — conditions, closures, camps310-510-4205Catalina Express310-519-1212Catalina Island Inn, Avalon310-510-1623DC-3 Grille, Airport in the Sky310-510-0143Two Harbors Dive Shop — kayaks310-510-4272
Talking to each other
Cell service exists in Avalon and Two Harbors and nowhere in between. On iPhone 14 or later running iOS 18+, Messages via satellite works outdoors with a clear view of sky — one-to-one only, no group threads, roughly 30 seconds a message. Emergency SOS and Find My location sharing work the same way.
Run Settings → Emergency SOS → Try Demo before you leave, so nobody is learning to aim a phone at a satellite when it matters. Bring a power bank.
If the group splits
Walk Day 1 together. Nobody knows the group's real pace, or whose shoes are wrong, until they do.
Agree a turnaround time each morning before separating.
Agree what the first group at camp does if the second hasn't arrived by a set hour — and what it does not do.
Make the Day 3 route call together at Two Harbors, not independently. Silver Peak Trail is 6.57 mi and 1,700 ft; West End Road is 7.7 mi and nearly flat.
Whoever has the satellite phone, it should be the slower group.
Hazards worth naming
Bison. 125 ft minimum. They run 35 mph and clear six feet. Put something solid between you and them, leave a clear path, never box one in. Odd behaviour: 310-510-2595.
The deer hunt runs Oct 31 to Nov 8, covering Days 1 through 3. Blaze orange, stay on the trail, and no moving at dawn or dusk.
No hiking sundown to dawn in the interior — a rule, not advice. Sunset is around 4:50.
Rattlesnakes, ticks, poison oak. Stay out of tall grass and off the shortcuts.
Foxes and ravens will open an unattended pack. Everything scented goes in the site locker.
If the boat doesn't run
Catalina Express takes no responsibility for weather cancellations, and Two Harbors service is thin — none on Tuesdays or Thursdays from late October through March. The Cyclone between Avalon and Two Harbors is peak-season only, so treat it as unavailable in November.
If Monday's sailing is cancelled: Banning House in Two Harbors for a bed, and call 310-510-4205 for conditions. Monitoring the forecast is on you, not them.
Both ferry legs cancel free until 48 hours before their own departure, so the outbound go/no-go is Tue Nov 3 at 2pm — by which point the forecast is reliable.