Hike + Heal Catalina Island
Mindfulness. Movement. Music.
Hike + Heal Catalina Island is a Wilderness Wellness retreat created by Hiking My Feelings and co-facilitated with Rebel & Muse. We integrate three healing modalities into each day on the island - Mindfulness, Movement, and Music - to help build confidence, compassion, and resilience, while unearthing a connection to yourself, each other, and the planet.
Nourishing meals to fuel your exploration.
Naturalist-led hikes with breathtaking views.
Live music and jam sessions around the campfire.
All-levels yoga classes to stretch your body, mind, and spirit.
Guided self-discovery activities to shift your perspective.
Making memories with friends who feel like family.
Three Pillars of Healing
Mindfulness
“The Awareness is the Work”
From the moment you arrive in the ferry parking lot, you’re invited to practice mindfulness. Throughout the retreat we will be guiding meditations, offering trailside workshops, and sharing Trail Thoughts with you to guide your mindfulness on and off the trail.
Movement
They say the issues are in the tissues.
After greeting the day with the sun for an all levels yoga class led by Melanie Wassman, you’ll be warmed up and ready to take it to the trail.
Music
Acoustic fireside sessions with Kaleo Wassman.
Just when you think the day couldn’t possibly get any better, Kaleo appears around the campfire with a guitar.
Trip Itinerary
Thursday, May 12
Ferry to the Island
Our adventure begins at the San Pedro ferry terminal. We will meet before departure to pass out goodie bags, do a gear check, and check in for the ferry ride to Two Harbors.
Opening Ceremony
After we arrive at our campsites in Two Harbors and settle in for the evening, we’ll circle up for the opening ceremony, sharing our intentions for the time we’re spending together.
Dinner + Jam Session
Our first shared meal together will be dinner at the campsite, courtesy of Catalina Backcountry. After dinner, it’s time for our first jam session with Kaleo.
Friday, May 13
Morning Yoga
Greet the sun and warm up your body for the day’s hike with an all levels yoga class. We will begin with breath work to invigorate the body and awaken the mind. Our yoga practice will focus on sun salutations, warriors, and other yoga asanas to prepare you for the day ahead.
Hike to Little Harbor
Our first hike is approximately 6.5 miles (uphill for about 3.5, the rest is downhill) and we'll be climbing approximately 1,300 feet. When we get to Little Harbor, we’ll set up camp for the rest of the weekend, cool down in the ocean, and reflect on the hike together.
Dinner + Jam Session
After our post-hike self-reflections, it’s time to enjoy an incredible meal from Catalina Backcountry after a nice day on the trail. Eat near camp or catch a sunset on the beach. After dinner, it’s time for another jam session with Kaleo.
Saturday, May 14
Morning Yoga
Greet the sun and warm up your body for the day’s hike with an all levels yoga class. We will begin with breath work to invigorate the body and awaken the mind. Our yoga practice will focus on sun salutations, warriors, and other yoga asanas to prepare you for the day ahead.
Choose Your Own Adventure
What you do today is up to you! You can join Sydney and Barry to explore more of the Trans-Catalina Trail and learn about the flora and fauna on Catalina Island - OR - you can stay at camp and enjoy a day on the beach and wellness workshops with Kaleo and Melanie.
Dinner + Jam Session
Before dinner, we’ll gather to reflect on our collective and individual adventures. Afterwards, it’s time to enjoy another delicious meal from Catalina Backcountry. Eat near camp or catch a sunset on the beach. After dinner, it’s time for our final jam session with Kaleo.
Sunday, May 15
Morning Yoga
Greet the sun and warm up your body for the day’s hike with an all levels yoga class. We will begin with breath work to invigorate the body and awaken the mind. Our yoga practice will focus on sun salutations, warriors, and other yoga asanas to prepare you for the day ahead.
Hike to Two Harbors
Our final hike retraces our steps from Friday. What is possible when you know you’ve already succeeded once? Our hike back to Two Harbors is approximately 6.5 miles and 1,300 feet of elevation gain. When we get to Two Harbors, it’s time for lunch!
Lunch + Closing Ceremony
Grab yourself some lunch from the Harbor Reef restaurant, General Store, or whatever you brought with you. We recommend the Harbor Reef Burger and a Buffalo Milk to drink. After lunch we’ll meet on the beach for our closing ceremony before we venture back to the mainland.
What’s Included?
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Your event registration includes your camping reservation at Two Harbors on Thursday night, and two nights at Little Harbor (Friday and Saturday).
*NOTE: If selecting Comfort Camping, you will be staying in a tent cabin in Two Harbors with other Comfort Campers and in your shared (or private) tent in Little Harbor on Friday and Saturday nights.
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Registration includes gear haul for one bag from Two Harbors to Little Harbor on Friday and back to Two Harbors on Sunday. What does that mean? If you’re unable to or you don’t want to carry everything you need with you while you’re hiking, our friends at Catalina Backcountry will transport your gear from campsite to campsite. If you’re planning on utilizing gear haul services, we recommend carrying a small backpack/daypack with water, trail snacks, and sunscreen while you’re hiking.
Your registration also includes transportation from San Pedro to Two Harbors and back to San Pedro via Catalina Express. Traveling together ensures a timely start and cohesive close to the event.
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We do not include lunch in the cost of registration because every participant is different when it comes to eating during a hike.
Catalina Backcountry will be preparing and serving two meals per day + afternoon snacks while we’re in on the island, starting with dinner on Thursday and ending with breakfast on Sunday.
If you know you want a full lunch, there is a general store and restaurant in Two Harbors and you can pick up a sandwich there before we depart on Friday morning. Feel free to bring your own snacks, but we’ve got the s’mores covered for the campfire.
Please note: While this is not a sober trip, it’s also not a party trip. If you choose to drink, please drink responsibly.
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At the end of each day, join us for an acoustic jam session with Kaleo on the beach. The combination of music, reiki, and the waves crashing in the background is the perfect way to end the night. Quiet hours start at 10pm so we can be well-rested for the next day’s activities.
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Greet the sun and warm up your body for the day’s hike with an all levels yoga class. We will begin with breath work to invigorate the body and awaken the mind. Our yoga practice will focus on sun salutations, warriors, and other yoga asanas to prepare you for the day ahead.
What is Reiki? From Reiki.org: Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It is administered by "laying on hands" and is based on the idea that an unseen "life force energy" flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one's "life force energy" is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy. The word Reiki is made of two Japanese words - Rei which means "God's Wisdom or the Higher Power" and Ki which is "life force energy". So Reiki is actually "spiritually guided life force energy."
A treatment feels like a wonderful glowing radiance that flows through and around you. Reiki treats the whole person including body, emotions, mind and spirit creating many beneficial effects that include relaxation and feelings of peace, security and wellbeing. Many have reported miraculous results.
Both Kaleo and Melanie are Reiki healers and will be offering collective reiki healing in the evening.
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Sydney and Barry are both Catalina Island Naturalists so you can expect to learn a lot about the history of the island, identify local plants and animals, and experience the healing power of nature via guided self-discovery activities all weekend long on and off the trail. Participants will be provided with a small journal to take notes in as they hike, and we infuse self-reflection into all aspects of the event.
What to Bring
Love Letters from Past Retreaters
“I connected with so many people and made new friends. I remembered my love for the outdoors!”
— Marie, Fall 2021 Retreat
“I still make mistakes, but I don't have to let my mistakes be my identity.”
— Sarah, Fall 2021 Retreat
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While chatting with a fellow hiker at the retreat, I randomly brought up my sexual assault. I went on and on about it until I paused myself. This was the first time in many years that I could speak about my sexual assault and not cry. This was MAJOR. This retreat brought out 3 major breakthroughs for me: my Cervical Cancer, my faith and my sexual assault. I am very blessed to have attended this retreat, blessed to have met such wonderful human beings and blessed to have come across Hiking My Feelings. From the bottom of my heart, thank you all for what you do.
PROGRAMS COMPLETED:
Blaze Your Own Trail to Self-Love
Hike + Heal Catalina Island -
Interacting with Hiking My Feelings in its various manifestations, starting with reading Sydney’s book, then participating in the Blaze Your Own Trail to Self Love program, and finally diving deep into community on HMF retreats, became the backbone of a support system that’s helped me drastically change my life. I had spent my first thirty years avoiding or hiding my feelings at all costs and putting all my effort into achieving - first in school, and then in my career. I was externally excellent at both, but I felt empty and paralyzed, which was keeping me trapped in my depression.I have endless gratitude for every person I’ve had the privilege to meet through the HMF family. Maybe I will see you again in the next round of the BYOT program (yes, it’s that good).
PROGRAMS COMPLETED:
Blaze Your Own Trail to Self-Love
Hike + Heal Catalina Island
Hike + Heal Joshua Tree -
Hiking has always healed me. Hiking Catalina with Hiking My Feelings, and a community of humans who arrived with their own battle wounds and stories healed me in a way I needed most. Although I may never see some of these people again, many I will. And all of them will continue to take up space in my existence as pieces of what has shape-shifted me into becoming braver to exist in ways that I may have thought to be impossible to reach as I was deep in my navigation of change. So much gratitude for this experience, this community, and this reconnection with myself-in nature-one step at a time.
PROGRAMS COMPLETED:
Hike + Heal Catalina Island
Retreat Facilitators
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HIKING MY FEELINGS
ABOUT SYDNEY
When former collegiate athlete and competitive skydiver, Sydney Williams, unexpectedly found herself on the receiving end of a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis, while grappling with unresolved trauma from a decades-old sexual assault, she set out on a mission: turn her pain into power. Two hikes across Catalina Island and 80 miles later, she founded Hiking My Feelings® to help others tap into the mind-body connection and healing power of nature that helped kick her self-limiting beliefs and disease into remission.
Having more than 12 years of marketing experience with Fortune 500 companies and emerging brands, Sydney serves up her “truth juice” style of storytelling to break wide open tough conversations with practical, powerful content and experiences. Over the years, she’s been featured on the SXSW stage, as well as in Health Magazine, Diabetic Living Magazine, San Diego Union-Tribune, Huffington Post, Psychology Today, US News & World Report, and numerous other publications. Today, she is the author of Hiking My Feelings: Stepping Into to the Healing Power of Nature, and she travels across the country empowering others to summit their personal mountains on their way to becoming Well Beings.
Sydney is a certified Wilderness First Responder (SOLO, 2021), and instructor at the Desert Institute at Joshua Tree National Park. As a Catalina Island Naturalist, Sydney facilitates guided self-discovery exercises, leads the hikes, and is here to help you blaze your own trail to self-love.
ABOUT BARRY
Barry was living in the Upper East Side of Manhattan selling technology to banks and working with Fortune 100 companies when he had the opportunity to skydive the first time. That first jumped changed his life, and within 18 months, he went from living in the same building as Derek Jeter to living in a trailer in the backwoods of Maine, pursuing his instructor ratings in the skydiving industry. After a 16-year career as a professional skydiver, Barry was all-in on Hiking My Feelings.
Hailing from New Hampshire, he spent his life hiking and backpacking in the White Mountains, where he also earned his Wilderness EMT certification. Barry lives by Bruce Lee’s recommendation; “be like water” and finds inspiration in the works of Alan Watts and Jiddu Krishnamurti. When he’s not leading hikes for Hiking My Feelings, producing content for our weekly videos, or driving the van, you can find him on his paddleboard, at a local reggae show, or cooking up an incredible meal.
Barry is a Catalina Island Naturalist and usually pulls up the rear on the hikes to ensure no hiker is left behind.
We are here for you.
Hike + Heal Catalina Island is a Wilderness Wellness Retreat hosted by Sydney + Barry Williams of Hiking My Feelings and Melanie + Kaleo Wassman of Rebel & Muse. With our powers combined, we bring decades of experience hosting events, outdoor education, and guiding ourselves and our communities in holistic wellness.
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REBEL & MUSE
ABOUT MELANIE
Originally from Hawaii, Melanie moved to California in the late 90's and began to explore different styles of Yoga. She became a registered yoga teacher through True Nature School of Yoga in 2008, and an E-RYT500 in 2012.
With her husband Kaleo, they started Rebel & Muse, a community focused on wellness, conscious relationships and living a balanced life. Together they bring their offerings to others through workshops, online courses, yoga retreats, music festivals, and their weekly podcast.
Melanie is on faculty at True Nature School of Yoga, where she trains yoga teachers in anatomy & physiology, Ayurveda, Yin Yoga, vinyasa, and alignment in asana, and is co-owner of Yoga Oceanside, where she teaches weekly yoga classes and offers Rebel & Muse workshops.
At the retreat, Melanie leads yoga/meditation, and offers reiki.
ABOUT KALEO
With both parents being composers/songwriters, music was everywhere Kaleo was. The name 'Kaleo' translates to 'the voice'. Born and raised in Hawaii, he moved to Southern California with his band, Pepper, to pursue their musical career. With the success of Pepper, and years of touring and recording, it is still his great passion to deeply connect with people while sharing music. After becoming a yoga teacher, he found inspiration in bringing yoga and music together. When Kaleo is home from touring, he is active in producing, composing, and performing on tracks with upcoming bands and other artists.
At the retreat, Kaleo leads yoga/meditation with Melanie, offers reiki, and performs in the evenings around the campfire.
$1,111
Backpacker Package
Ferry Ticket to/from Catalina Island
Opening Ceremony
Three Nights of Camping on Catalina Island
Gear Haul (1 bag per person included)
Food + Non-Alcoholic Drinks
Naturalist-Led Hikes + Self-Reflection Rituals
Yoga + Meditation + Reiki with Rebel & Muse
Live Music Around the Campfire
Closing Ceremony
Bonus Resources from HMF + Rebel & Muse
$1,400
Comfort Camper Package
Includes everything in the Backpacker package PLUS:
Comfort camping (Double Occupancy)
Our Comfort Camping option includes a tent, cot, chairs, and a lantern. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our vendors on the island are no longer supplying sleeping bags or pillows, so please bring your own.
NOTE: Comfort Campers will stay in shared tent cabins in Two Harbors on Thursday evening and will have private double-occupancy tents in Little Harbor for Friday and Saturday night. All Comfort Camping tents are double occupancy and your tent-mate will be assigned unless otherwise requested via email in advance of the event. Single-occupancy tents are extremely limited, please select “Solo Comfort Camping” at checkout.
Payment Policy
Payment in full is due upon registration unless the participant is unable to pay at the time of registration and is requesting a scholarship or payment plan
If not paying in full at time of registration:
A $250 deposit is required to hold your spot
50% of trip payment is due 90 days prior to trip start date
100% of trip payment is due 60 days prior to trip start date
Retreat Refund Policy
Deposits are non-refundable
90+ Days Prior to Retreat Start Date: 100% of full trip tuition is refundable (minus deposit)
90-60 Days Prior to Retreat Start Date: 50% of full trip tuition is refundable (minus deposit)
Less than 30 Days Prior to Retreat Start Date - Trip is non-refundable
If you cancel more than 60 days in advance, and we are able to fill your spot, after the trip ends, we will send you a refund for your trip tuition (minus the deposit). We have this policy because there are a lot of upfront costs required to plan and run our trips. Thank you for understanding.
Become a Sponsor
When we all have access to beautiful spaces where healing is possible, deep transformation is possible. Nearly 25% of our past participants were on a scholarship. Your contributions help us reach our goal of making 50% of our program participants scholarship recipients by 2024.
