Day 13 and 14: Channel Islands and Geography

We woke up early in the morning and got going right away. Our ferry was scheduled to leave at 9:30 so we wanted to make sure we would get there with plenty of time to spare. Luckily, everything went smoothly and we enjoyed a relaxing 1-hour boat ride from the mainland to Santa Cruz. We got to see some seals hanging around outside the harbor, and the oil refineries which were station just off the coast. We got to the island and helped the crew unload the boat before we made the mile hike to our campsite. That hike was a bit more tiring than I thought but that was probably because we were all carrying about 30 pounds worth of gear for the two days we would be on the island. We got our camp set up and then went back to the beach to do our kayaking tour of the island. It took a little while for everyone to get passed the learning curve but after that everyone was paddling like a champ. It was a great afternoon paddling around the cliffs and through the sea caves, minus the monstrous sunburn that I got. An unforgettable experience.

A look at one of the coves that are found along the island

Seals off the harbor

We got back to our campsite and got dinner ready before Linda's exercise. Dinner for Matt, Dan, and I consisted of cold chicken noodle soup from the can, and some canned chipotle chicken on a couple crackers. That was definitely an interesting dinner and one that was surprisingly tasteful.

Linda gave us an interesting exercise to participate in, pairing us into groups and instructing us to write down directions explaining the geological forces influencing the tectonic plates without using any geologic terms. She was essentially asking us to explain this stuff to someone who had never ever heard of the idea of plate tectonics, which was surprisingly difficult. It was a very interesting exercise and it gave me a profound appreciation for what teachers have to do in order to teach new things to their students. Around this time we noticed a dramatic drop in temperature, it was no longer tee-shirt and tank-top weather. The humidity had cranked up and there was a cool breeze blowing that had everyone shivering by dark. With a deficit in warm clothes since we packed light, we were all struggling for warmth and trying to decide how we were gonna sleep through this. The decision was made that the best way to beat the cold was to sleep together in one giant pile, feeding off of each others body heat.

The next morning we got all of our belongings together and moved them down to the beach, ready for our 4:00pm pick-up. Our group split up after this, some of us staying on the island and the rest of us going out on the kayak's again. This time we got to see the other side of the island, the conditions were perfect for kayaking as there wasn't a breeze in the air which made the surf as flat as glass.

Before our departure we were able to meet with some of the resident biologists and rangers who work on the island and gave us a brief history lesson of it. The island formed thousands of years ago, completely separate from mainland California, meaning that this site was home to several indigenous species not found anywhere else, such as the fox's that were seen running all over the island. This isolation also caused certain changes in the native species, specifically dwarfism in the predators and gigantism in the prey. Fox populations were disrupted after settlers came and turned the island into a ranch. The destruction of vegetation and natural cover meant small prey animals disappeared. The bald eagles of the area died off because of DDT that had bioaccumulated in fish around the island. Without the bald eagles to keep them in check, the golden eagles went undisturbed, catching young pigs and foxes for food. When the parks service realized just how desolated the fox's population had been, they immediately began to enact restoration efforts. The Fox was listed as endangered, pigs were removed from the island, the remaining foxes were captured and put into breeding programs, the golden eagles were captured and released in norther California. Lastly, the foxes were reintroduced and their numbers climbed steadily, becoming the fastest restoration of a species in the endangered species act's history.

One of the Native fox's, they're about the size of a house cat

Starfish, anemones, and kelp

Group picture from our kayak trip

Our ferry arrived to pick us up and we got back to the mainland in no-time. We drove Dr. Linda back to her home and thanked her for coming with us to the islands. After dropping Dr. Linda off, we stopped nearby for dinner and many of our group were excited to finally get to try the western delicacy that is In-and-Out Burger. Maybe its because we had not eaten in the past couple of days, or maybe it was just that good, but this food was heavenly at the time.

 After this we headed out to our campsite in Sequoia National Park which ended up taking a lot longer than expected as we didn't arrive until after midnight. This was an area with a high population of black bears so after setting up our tents everyone scrambled to remove everything with a scent from our bags and vans and get them put away in the bear boxes. It's a shame we got at the site so late because it had the perfect set up for campfire discussions. Nobody even bothered with a fire or anything, we all had quite a long day and everyone just went and passed out.