CAPE CANYON DISCOVERIES NEW CATALINA TOUR DELVES INTO ECOLOGY, HISTORY OF ISLAND'S INTERIOR.

Byline: Story by Richard Irwin Staff Writer

AVALON - Peering through the portal, I was shocked to see how large the bird was. Huge! The prominent, curving beak and sharp talons made me glad there was a wall between us.

This close-up encounter with a bald eagle was certainly one of the highlights of the Cape Canyon Tour, the newest offering by Discovery Tours on Catalina Island.

The four-hour tour takes visitors into the undiscovered inland areas of the well-known island, including the eagle habitat at Middle Ranch.

The Catalina Conservancy has joined with the Institute for Wildlife Studies to bring an enduring American symbol back to the island's skies. Our conservancy-trained guide, Jani Eisenhut, explained that the eagles had been killed off when the pesticide DDT was dumped on the island. The deadly chemical made the egg shells too fragile to survive.

A pair of bald eagles were reintroduced on the island in 1991. Because of continuing problems with DDT pollution, volunteers dangle from helicopters to gather the precious eggs from the remote nest and replace them with dummy ones.

The eggs are then carefully nurtured at the San Francisco Zoo until they hatch. When the chicks are 1 to 2 weeks old, they are brought back to Catalina and put back in the nest.

Since 1991, 13 chicks have been raised in the nest. Three of the eagles have remained on the island. So far this year, three eggs have been removed from the nest. On Easter, two chicks were put back in the nest. At last report, they were doing well.

Because of its remote location, the nest is monitored by video cameras. We weren't fortunate enough to see bald eagles flying around, but we did have a close encounter with Pimu, an eagle bearing the original American Indian name for this island.

Eisenhut said the 3-year-old eagle had been found with a badly damaged right wing. The Raptor Center of the University of Minnesota attempted to repair the damage but decided the eagle could never fend for herself in the wild. Researchers sent the eagle to the Catalina Conservancy for educational purposes in May 1999.

Visitors on the tour are fortunate to visit Pimu in her aviary in Middle Ranch. I've seen bald eagles soaring through the air in Iowa, but I never realized how large these birds of prey were until I visited Pimu.

Being very quiet, we observed Pimu as she flew about her huge cage. At first, she sat at the far end looking toward us. Then, with a great rustling of her wings, she flew over to her perch next to the viewing portals.

I felt as if I could reach through the wall and touch this magnificent animal. It gave me a new appreciation for the power and grandeur of this bird of prey.

The plight of the bald eagle is one of many intriguing subjects covered by the Cape Canyon Tour, a four-wheel-drive excursion that takes tourists deep into the canyons of Catalina.

``Before the Cape Canyon Tour, the only way visitors could venture to these rugged parts of the island was on foot,'' said Joe Caliva, vice president of sightseeing for Discovery Tours, an arm of the Santa Catalina Island Co. ``The tour is designed especially for small groups, giving each passenger the opportunity to ask questions and learn about the island's history and ecology.''

Our adventure began in Avalon on a blustery day last month. In the center of town, I climbed into a four-wheel-drive van with two couples and our guide.

As the vehicle winds along the steep, cliffside roads out of Avalon, passengers are treated to commanding views of the roaring seas below. The cliffs drop straight down, and it was impossible not to feel vertigo as the brave members of our tour leaned over the railings to look down.

It was hard to believe that this narrow lane is the main road between the two ends of the island. Eisenhut said it was an old stagecoach road constructed in 1905 to reach the other end of the island. She noted that it took a team of six horses to drag the coach up the 13 percent grades.

In several places, there were flat areas where the horses could rest before getting a running start for the next segment of the climb.

Looking out over the channel, we saw the city of Long Beach only 20 miles away. In the distance, the Palos Verdes peninsula rose to block our view of Los Angeles.

Finally, we reached the top of the mountain, where the island's contours smoothed out. I think we all breathed a sigh of relief.

Driving along the crest of Catalina, we saw the glistening, sandy shore far below, sometimes dotted with buildings. One such complex is home to Catalina Marine Institute, where students are taught about the marine environment surrounding the island.

Catalina was commandeered by the military during World War II. Although residents weren't required to leave the island, tourists were not permitted on, which affected the livelihoods of the locals; many moved to the mainland.

The compound that currently houses the Catalina Marine Institute was used by the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency.

Other sandy stretches brought back pleasant memories for members of our group. ``It's nice to see places that we used to visit in the 1930s,'' said Earl Lord, a retiree from Santa Maria who grew up in Pasadena.

Pointing down to one seaside camp, Lord explained that he had been a YMCA camp counselor there in 1937. ``I was put in charge of eight little boys in a tent on the beach,'' he remembered. ``We had the best time!''

Further down the coast, Lord's son Bill of Ridgefield, Conn., pointed out the Boy Scout Camp where he had spent a summer. It seems the island had played an important role in the Lords' lives.

Eisenhut told the two men that the camps have remained pretty much the same over the years, and added that the Catalina Conservancy is working to restore the land to its natural state.

I had my doubts when we edged past a large microwave tower, but the chance encounter turned into another interesting history lesson.

Eisenhut said the first civilian use of a microwave communication system was on Catalina. Microwave communications were a secret development during World War II, and the first Catalina microwave station was built in May 1946.

It was just one of many communications innovations for the island. It seems the isolation that is the island's biggest blessing was also one of its worst curses.

Homing pigeons were first used to carry messages between Catalina and the mainland from the 1850s to 1900. The world's first commercial wireless telegraph station was built on Catalina in 1902. This was followed by the first commercial radio telephone system in 1919, and the first American-made submarine telephone cables to the mainland in 1923.

Soon we had arrived at our lunch destination, the famous Airport in the Sky. Eisenhut explained that after surveying the entire island, authorities decided to level two mountain peaks to build a 3,250-foot runway. Construction crews moved 200,000 truckloads of rock to fill in between the peaks.

United Airlines flew DC-3s into the new airport. To this day, the vintage aircraft are used to haul cargo onto the island. Airline service to the island has stopped, but the airport is open to any brave private pilot.

The conservancy has built a small nature center at the airport. A magnificent tile map shows the entire island. Unfortunately, many of the displays that explain the island's history and ecology had been dismantled for restoration.

After a wholesome lunch of buffalo burgers, we drove off road to Cape Canyon. We were all hoping to get an up-close look at the bison herds that roam the island. In one of those weird Hollywood stories, movie producers brought 14 buffalo onto the island in 1924 to shoot the movie treatment of the Zane Grey novel ``The Vanishing American.''

Grey had a long connection with Catalina, having built a pueblo-style home on the hillside of Avalon Bay in 1926. In fact, the popular American author spent the later years of his life in his island home.

Grey wrote 89 novels, including his famous ``Riders of the Purple Sage.'' His home is now a hotel with many of Grey's original furnishings.

After filming the western, the producers sold the buffalo to the Wrigley family, who then owned the controlling interest on the island.

The chewing-gum family brought in 11 more buffalo to breed the bison. Since then, buffalo have roamed freely around Catalina. Today, there are approximately 300 buffalo on the island.

On previous trips, I have been fortunate to ride in a vehicle through slowly moving herds of bison. But on this trip, buffalo were few and far between - although, with the aid of binoculars, we did see several of them foraging on a distant hill.

As we worked our way down Black Jack Mountain, I noticed some tailings from an old mine. On Catalina?

Yes, indeed, Eisenhut said. Prospectors rushed to the island in 1863 to look for gold and silver. The miners staked out claims, but were forced off when the Army occupied Catalina during the Civil War.

In the 1920s, a mine was dug in the Black Jack area, and silver, zinc and lead were extracted. We caught a glimpse of the mine shaft on the hillside above us. The mine closed when prices dropped and the operation became unprofitable.

By then, it was time to work our way back down the cliffs to Avalon. Our outback adventure had come to an end.

As we exited our vehicle in Avalon, the Lords offered their impressions of the new tour. Bill Lord praised Eisenhut for her enthusiasm and knowledge, while his wife, Julie, said she appreciated ``the peace and quiet of the wilderness,'' as well as the history she had learned on the tour.

The Cape Canyon Tour certainly showed a different side of our island neighbor. We had soared with the eagles and roamed with the buffalo on Catalina; how many people can say that?

The four-hour Cape Canyon Tour, which runs out of Avalon, costs $79 person, including lunch. The tour is limited to six passengers. Information and reservations: [phone]; www.catalina.com.

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Photo:

(1 -- 3 -- color) A van ferrying Cape Canyon Tour patrons, left, navigates the rugged interior of Catalina Island. Bison, far left, roam the land while lupine, below, and other wildflowers puntuate the landscapte in the spring.

(4 -- color) Tour customer Freddi Chambers snaps photos of friends on a scenic bluff in Cape Canyon during a tour stop.

(5) Prickly pear cactus lines the dirt road through Cape Canyon. The 4-hour off-road tour takes passengers into the island's interior.

(6) The Cape Canyon tour ends with a scenic view of Avalon from the mountains above the bay.

(7) Tour guide Jani Eisenhut points out highlights during the Cape Canyon tour.

(8) Old wagon parts lie at Eagle's Nest Lodge, an old island stagecoach stop.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer