Santa Catalina, CA #2 - Foxes, Bison and Coves

Off to the Catalina Conservancy where we met Andrew, the two others on our tour, jumped into our Jeep and were off. This is a desert island and Catalina, along with the rest of California, is well into the 3rd year of a drought. Vegetation is sparse, and a fire roared through here in 2007 killing off lots of vegetation. Andrew,who has lived on the island for around 6 or 7 years, was filled with stories about the island. His first story was about the fire which was started by Gary Dennis Hunt who used a prohibited blowtorch while working on a radio antenna 10 miles outside of town. He dropped the blowtorch, it quickly caught the surrounding dry brush on fire and, with winds at 45 mph, the fire quickly spread towards Avalon.

100 firefighters and 200 new recruits battled the fire while the residents crammed into anything that floated and tried to get out of town. The ferry company, The Island Express, ran extra boats between the island and the mainland to evacuate the residents. Then, the marine layer moved in, the wind shifted and the town was saved. In the end, only one home and several businesses were lost. But the fire burned through 4750 acres and brush in that area was devastated though it is now growing back. Gary Dennis Hunt was finally caught, sentenced to 5 years or probation and 19 months in prison. He was also ordered to pay $16.9 million in damages.

A very close call for Avalon with a much better outcome than the 1915 fire which burned the whole town except 2 buildings: a church and the home of the town mayor which others in the town kept watered as they watched their own homes burn. They loved their mayor.

Andrew had all sorts of history about the island. He related the various owners of Catalina Island but spent most of the time telling us stories about William Wrigley, Jr. who bought the island, sight unseen, in 1919 for 2,000,000. He invested much of his own personal wealth in the island and even brought the Cubs over to Catalina for spring training until the 1950’s. He also built the Casino which we plan to tour tomorrow. Here’s a tile section from the beautiful intricate tile wall lining the walkway to the Casino.

Back to a bit of personal history: in the camp we had platform tents which held 8 campers or 4 counselors. However, to avoid the summer heat which tents can magnify, most of us took our beds outside and slept next to the tent. It was not unusual to wake up and find a large bison wandering through the campground or a wild pig snorting near the tents. These are two of the wild animals that were not endemic to the island but were brought here. The story that I heard was that they were filming Westerns here and needed bison and horses so brought in hay to feed them. Inside the hay were some rattlesnakes and wild pigs were brought over to rid the island of the rattlesnakes.

I asked Andrew if these stories were true or just cute campfire tales. Nope, he said, all true. Lots of Western films were made over here including Zane Grey’s The Vanishing American which required bison in the scenes. Unfortunately, the bison’s great chance at a Grauman’s Theater hoof print was shattered when they cut all of their scenes out of the film. But, take them back to the mainland? Nah, let’s just leave them here. They’ll be a great tourist attraction.

Did you know that buffalo and bison are not the same animal? We actually have no buffalo in America, we have only bison. Buffalo roam in Africa and Asia. We saw a few bison off in the distance along our trip. Those 3 brown lumps masquerading as large rocks are the only bison that we saw. I actually came much closer when I was in camp and awoke during the night only to see one next to our beds. What does one do then? Luckily he wandered off on his own before I had developed a plan. Lucky him.

In the 1940’s the US Coast Guard cancelled the regularly scheduled passenger service to the island, it was declared a federal military zone and quonset huts were built, training began and bunkers were built to protect the island. Wrigley rented the island to the US for $1.00 a year for the duration of the war. Andrew said he is working on a WWII tour which should start this summer. I’d love to go back to Catalina to see this tour.

There are very few cars on the island (there’s nowhere to go and no stop lights either) and the most common type of transportation, after feet, is in a golf cart. You can even rent one to explore Avalon. However, there is a gate on the road from Avalon into the island and, without a pass, you cannot get through it. With Andrew we passed through the gate into the interior of the island which is really a series of canyons with steep and sparsely vegetated hills. The predominant color during the current drought is of the muted grays and browns of the desert. We had a clear day for our island tour which neither yesterday nor tomorrow was. We were lucky in our choice.

Gary and I wondered where the water for the island originated and how waste was disposed. When I was a counselor at White’s Landing, I certainly never asked about these questions. We had running hot and cold water in our showers, laundry and camp kitchen. We had flush toilets and electricity. Never once did I wonder how all this occurred in a desert island, hidden away in a cove miles from Avalon. Now, we have a much better idea. Water is being captured behind some reservoirs on one side of the island, pumped over the mountain spine where it is treated in a covered pool

and then pumped down into Avalon. There is a desalination plant on the island and an electric generation plant. Waste? I’m still not sure since Andrew wasn’t clear in his explanation. He told us it was probably barged off. Hmmm. I’m wondering if he didn’t want to tell us the truth which I found with a little research online.

Here I learned that the beach at Avalon used to be one of the most polluted beaches in Los Angeles County due to its century old sewage system. In 2012, Avalon was given some ultimatums and has been working diligently on meeting these deadlines by 2016. Interestingly, the water in the harbor is extremely clear but this must be deceiving.

We wound our way up the hills towards the ridge line. Along the road were some huge sycamores lining the road. Seems that Mr. Wrigley used to take his visitors to the top of the hill (above the fence on the right middle of the picture). They would drink a bit on the way and then careen down in their horse drawn wagons. With the steep drop-offs along the road, Mrs. Wrigley worried about accidents and planted the trees along the side. If he couldn’t keep on the road, at least the horses could keep inside the trees.

All questions aside, here we saw some of the most beautiful sights, back towards Avalon perched on a hill, looking along the cliffs that line the island, down into the coves which dot the coast and across the mountainous land.

Sweeping views of the coastline were everywhere. There is actually an airport in the middle of the island called the Island in the Sky.

Wrigley leveled two mountains, filling in with the rocks he blasted off the tops. It is difficult to land here with the wind shears but this is a common way to get to the island. I’d like to say that we met Harrison Ford as he landed to eat a bison burger at the cafe here but that story belongs to Andrew.

But one of my goals was to see White’s Landing where the camp was. And, sure enough, Andrew stopped there for a few minutes for me. There it was, down a long winding dirt road to the cove. You can barely see the buildings at the bottom of the canyon. It is still used as a camp though not for just Girl Scouts now. It was probably an expensive camp to keep. You can see how isolated we were.

We also saw an elusive fox, which Andrew said was one of the few endemic animals on the island. (Gary and I want to know how any animal can be endemic on an island. But we didn’t think of this question until we got back to our RV. Now I’ve looked it up: possibly they came over the channel on some floating debris or were brought here by the original inhabitants, the Indians) Each of the 8 Channel Islands has its own fox genus. Because the island is small and has only limited food, the fox grow small out here. Andrew told us that they like agave berries and will pick them off the cactus, roll around them a bit to crush them and come back a few days later, when the berry has fermented. He said that the fox sometimes lurch around after this. Wonder why?

That’s Sheep Chute Road ahead. Hang onto your hats, we’re going down.

Really enjoyed the tour and, if you ever get to Catalina, I’d recommend taking a tour with the Conservancy. After our tour, which actually lasted 3 1/2 hours, we walked the streets, which were now almost vacant because the cruise ship had left the harbor. Some stores were closed already and we decided that we’d better get dinner in since other shops and restaurants might close.

Afterwards we walked out to the Casino and saw it lit up for the night.

and marveled at the stunning mosaics around the outside foyer.

We then wandered over to the nearby beach, Descanso Beach then back to our hotel.