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| Backpack | 24.00 Miles |
6,300 AEG |
| | Backpack | 24.00 Miles | 3 Days | | |
| 6,300 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | 2 nights and 3 days out in the Catalinas
Day 1
~5 miles to camp
Hit the Romero Canyon Trail at 5p Friday night from Catalina State Park with a few good friends.
Tough hike up with heavy packs filled with extra water, since we weren’t positive on the water situation at our first camp. Still had sunlight a little past Romero Pools but not for too long.
Made it ~5 miles and ~2000 ft elevation gain to Old Trail Camp around 8p and I felt like I was moving pretty good. Still took longer than I thought and hiked the last 45 minutes in the dark. Rest of the crew made it by 8:30.
Great campsite in a grotto of trees right on the trail - you can’t miss it. Lots of space, nice fire pit, and best of all, pools with a running spring right behind the site. Not big enough to swim but perfect for pumping water.
We did find a black rattlesnake under the pile of old stuff left by a big rock.
Day 2
~4 miles to camp, then ~6 miles RT to Hutch's Pool
Finished off the last ~2 miles of Romero Canyon Trail, all uphill and over the pass.
Connected on West Fork Trail at the top of the pass, descended around 2 more miles to reach our Saturday night camp, at the junction of West Fork and Cathedral Rock trails. Dropped packs here and set up camp.
Another really nice, shaded, large campsite with an established fire ring. Only downside was no water source, though a note we found in a Geocache said there was an accessible pool a mile or so down the trail. We never looked hard for it since we had already planned to day hike to Hutch's Pool and back.
We set off the rest of the day to make the 6 mile round trip hike to Hutch’s Pool for water, swimming and cliff jumping. It lived up to the hype.
Nice hike, all downhill getting there. About half of it with tree cover and half exposed as you near the pools.
Only saw 2 day hikers at the pool. We submerged some beers to refrigerate and waded down to the deep end.
Thanks to whomever left the rope on the boulder to get up to the cliff jumping spot. It’s a little tricky from the water but totally doable. A bit easier if you walk all the way around from the backside, but what’s the fun in that?!
Hike back up to camp is all slightly uphill and tiring after a long day but the trip to Hutch's Pool is definitely worth the effort. You could also camp right there on the beach, but you'd likely have company.
Day 3
~9 miles to car
Completed this as an out-and-back trip, hiking ~2 miles up and over the pass on West Fork Trail and ~7 more down Romero Canyon Trail to the parking lot.
Stopped at Romero Pools to cool off on the way back. Saw more folks there and on the way out than we had seen all weekend.
After some well-earned victory beers from the cooler, had to hit up In-N-Out, right across the street.
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Hutch's Pool |
76-100% full |
76-100% full |
| | | Deep end probably 20+ feet deep. First time there so hard to gauge how full but it had water end-to-end. |
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Old Trail Camp Spring |
Quart per minute |
Quart per minute |
| | | Spring was flowing behind the campsite, some small but nice pools. Good water. |
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Romero Pools |
Light flow |
Light flow |
| | | Nice deep pools, flow in some areas | | | |
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