This page NEW on September 9th, 2002
This summer, we led our most complex group trip yet!
From August 29th to September 2nd, we embarked on an adventure trip to Santa Cruz Island, the largest of seven islands of the Channel Islands National Park, which are all south of Santa Barbara and east of Los Angeles.
Like all of the islands except for the touristy Catalina Island, this island is very undeveloped, with NO concessions, rentals, mega-plexes, shopping malls, fast food, 7-11s, hospitals, or anything. There are only 35 basic campsites, with picnic tables, running water, and vault toilets.
This trip was logistically challenging, with campsites to reserve, ferries to book, kayaks & wetsuits & snorkel gear to rent, hotels to reserve (for the night before), airline tickets to book (Kris & Anthony flew in from Seattle). Not to mention making sure 11 people got themselves to the Ventura Harbor early in the morning, 350 miles from the Bay Area!
Jump to: Friday Saturday Sunday Monday
If you are interested in organizing a trip like this for yourself, you might look at our extensive, archived pre-trip info, itinerary, and info emails
Also, check out the Post-Trip page, with a Trip Summary, Just-for-Fun Awards, and commentary/feedback from everyone
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Here's the gang of intrepid explorers at Ventura Harbor, surrounded by piles of gear. There's Lisa, Nick, Linda, Kris, Anthony, Peter, Carl, Carol, Wai, Dave, and Shapoor:
After spending the night at a nearby Best Western Hotel, we got up early and went to the Ventura Harbor at 7am and waited to load up our gear on the Island Packers ferry boat, the Islander. Due to scheduling issues, Peter and Carol had left SF only 9 hours before, arriving in Ventura at 4am for a short nap before having to drag themselves over to the harbor!
Wai is breakfasting on a chocolate-chip, banana, peanut butter doughnut (I kid you not) from Stan's Doughnuts. Doesn't he look like a happy little kid?! Does he realize that he is going to be on a rocking boat for the next 1-1/2 hours? =(
On the 1-1/2 hour ferry ride to the island, we encountered birds, sea lions, and dolphins. There are 25,000 dolphins inhabiting the Santa Barbara Channel!! 2 pics:
Luckily, the seas were calm so Wai didn't revisit his multi-ingredient doughnut and so we could use the new-ish pier to offload from the boat (otherwise, we'd have to land 6 at-a-time in a skiff and risk getting our gear wet). This is the Scorpion Harbor. We got the bucket brigade going and had a HUGE pile of gear in no time... The kayaks were all unloaded in a string. 3 pics:
Wai and Shap hoofed it past Lower Camp (1/4 mile) to Upper Camp (1/2 mile). The rest of us were all torn between wanting to stay in the more open Upper Camp and the closer Lower Camp (we all had a LOT of gear to carry). We spent much time debating which campsites to stay at, then settled with 4 sites at Lower Camp.
After setting up camp, we all headed back to the beach and got a lesson from Nick about kayaking techniques and safety, then we headed east to see our first sea cave, Scorpion Harbor Cave #1. Dave had gotten hold of "Sea Caves of Santa Cruz Island" and had made up many maps w/GPS coordinates to help find and identify the explorable caves.
The cool thing was, this was a large paddle-thru cave!
Lisa:
Wai & Nick:
Dave n' Linda:
Afterwards, Kris and Anthony immediately hit the showers to wash of all the sea salt and sea stink (huh?):
Everyone else started snacking (just to make sure they got something to eat before Kris came over...) and we all pretty much ate & munched for the next coupla hours! Fajitas were the main course for Friday night's dinner. We all turned in early.
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Saturday morning, Carl got up early only to fall asleep reading the Channel Islander Newspaper:
Here's Carol and Peter, slightly recovered from their lack of sleep on Thursday night. Late Friday night though, Peter had to fend off a wild pig that stole, of all things, a sunshower that was lying on the ground. Apparently, the pigs are *really* thirsty and will find water wherever they can. Ranger Mike neglected to tell us this fact, so we're out one sunshower (it had NINE holes in it).
Off we went for another kayaking expedition, this time heading west along the shore from Scorpion Anchorage. Our first stop was the giant Cavern Point Cave, which we paddled thru and out the other side:
Peter and Carol teamed up in one kayak. This was Carol's first time kayaking and...well anyhow the two are still friends!
The destination was Neptune's Trident Cave, a 475' long cave that is huge for the 1st 350', then necks down and opens up again into a pitch dark chamber way in the back. We barely could hear each other yell above the booming surge. 4 pics:
Dave of course had one of his trusty headlamps (the Petzl Duo w/LED low-beam upgrade) with him:
Nick hovers above seaweed (at least, we think that is seaweed...) and beautiful blue-green water:
Wai discovers a new cave:
Saturday afternoon, after returning from the Neptune Trident Cave Adventure, Dave n' Linda went snorkeling in the kelp forest that was right there in the Scorpion Bay Harbor! It was really pretty neat, to be IN a kelp forest rather than just looking at one (Monterey Bay Aquarium). 3 pics:
While we were snorkeling, everyone else went off on a hike, where California Academy of Sciences paleontologists/geologists Carol and Peter discovered million-year-old-fossils! They went nuts and gave everyone a fascinating educational talk!:
These pictures should be used for a caption contest:
Saturday evening was another eating fest, this time featuring Gourmet Camping Chef Lisa's pot roast, mashed potatoes, and a vegetable medley w/cayenne pepper. Here we have Shapoor, Carol, Peter, Anthony, Kris, Carl, Lisa, Nick, Dave, and Wai (Linda is taking the picture):
Lisa brought the kitchen sink and so we washed dishes (and, incidentally, here is the only picture of Anthony not giving a thumbs-up!):
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On Sunday morning, some of us diehard adventurers--Wai, Carl, Shapoor, Nick, Dave, Linda--got an EARLY start for an expedition to Potato Harbor, a coupla miles away. The winds were quite strong and steady that day, but that didn't stop us! We paddled and paddled and paddled for 95 minutes non-stop against a 20-mph headwind and 3-foot swells. At times it felt like we weren't moving forward! Check out this huge rogue swell (the rest of the guys disappeared from view):
Thankfully, there was a place to land and REST! And wow, what a beautiful place...it was all worthwhile! Potato Harbor is only accessible by kayak:
Carl the Giant:
Nick looks for a place to sit & rest:
What a beautiful place! Here's a shot from partway up the south wall:
Nick and Carl at a small cave at Potato Harbor:
After lunch and a rest, we headed back and hit a few caves along the way. Here we're approaching a 350' thru-cave, The Surging T Cave:
Officially, this one is called Sidepocket Cave. As we entered the completely pitch dark and misty hole, we could hear waves pounding the recesses of the cave. A BOOM! so deep it was more felt than heard reverberated back at us. Nick ventured in the farthest and saw the huge surge of water & pocket that created the BOOM. We renamed it, Booming Nick Cave:
There was a brief moment of worry as Dave n' Linda's kayak wedged itself in the rocks in during a low-then-high surge, briefly trapping everyone to a certain, imminent, booming death.
After returning from this Adventure, everyone regrouped and headed off on a loop-hike. Here is Scorpion Bay Harbor from above at its busiest on Sunday afternoon:
Lisa and Carl with a view of Anacapa Island in the distance:
Peter and Carol doing field work for the California Academy of Sciences:
The guys gravitated towards this rusty old oil drilling rig. Neat! Rusty!:
Here we finish the loop and head back to camp. Upper Camp is in the background, Lower Camp is farther down the valley:
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On Monday morning, Carl somehow managed to get Dave, Linda, Nick, Shapoor, and Lisa up at 5:30am to watch the sunrise. It was so early, the moon and stars were still out. But it was worth it, watching the world transform from night into day. 3 pics:
Later on Monday morning, while others went to snorkel or hike, Carl & Linda & Dave decided to check out a long (210'), narrow (2' minimum), pitch-black, surgy, swim-in only cave called Little Scorpion Bay Cave #1:
Linda floated around outside the cave and acted as Safety Boat. Later, she wondered what she possibly could have done if we hadn't come out. We also wondered, while deep in the cave, how we'd possibly signal her for help. Hmm, wasn't much of a safety plan...:
Here we're showing that we have thumbs, not that we're fine:
Here's the cave entrance. That yellow dot is Carl going in. Dave is stalling a bit:
And, though you can't tell, here are Dave and Carl coming out of the cave. They went 210' to the end and stood on the cobblestone beach in the back in the dark. Intense!:
Dave looks at a rusty-ol tractor and grader/plow leftover from a former ranch on the island:
At 12:53pm, as we were packing up camp and getting ready for our 2:00pm boat departure (clearly stated in writing on our reservation paperwork), we were informed by Ranger Rick (Danny Black) that the BOAT WAS LEAVING AT 1:00pm, not 2, ...and the 5pm boat was fully booked!!!! There was a mad and crazy scramble to finish packing, move gear down to the boat (1/4 mile away), strip the kayaks (backrests, paddles, helmets) and load them, and gather wetsuits/snorkel gear/etc that were also at the beach. To add to the panic, Wai & Shapoor had finished packing much earlier and had gone off on a hike. Luckily, they came back with minutes to spare.
We only delayed the other passengers a bit, and left the island at 1:23pm, relieved that all 11 of us and (most of) our gear was on board. Otherwise we'd be stuck for another day! Hmm, maybe not the worst thing...
On the good side, precisely as a result of our departure delay, we happened upon two BLUE WHALES on the ferry ride back!! TWO of them, at only a body length away! There are only 2000 blue whales in the world, and the boat's naturalist had not seen any for 3 months! It was an amazing sight, seeing these 80' long creatures, with hearts the size of volkswagon bugs, breach and spout!
After unpacking the boat and repacking our cars, we headed up to Santa Barbara and had dinner at Super Rica, an authentic mexican dive recommended by Nick...great food! Then we headed towards home, arriving late in the evening.
Don't forget to check out the Post-Trip page, with a Trip Summary, Just-for-Fun Awards, and commentary/feedback from everyone