ICYMI: Our Year-End Appeal • Help us keep Sonoma Overlook Trail healthy and accessible!

The all-volunteer Sonoma Overlook Trail Stewards need your tax-deductible support to continue our work.  Please keep us in your thoughts as you make your year-end donations this giving season!

We receive over 60,000 visits a year, making us, in a sense, the largest nonprofit in Sonoma!  All of this impact wears on the trail and surrounding trail corridor.  Every dollar we receive goes directly to the care of the Overlook.

We each have our reasons for visiting the Overlook Trail.  Some come to see the trees, the wildflowers, hawks, turkeys and deer, or to watch their kids catch (and release!) a lizard.  For some, it’s about elevation gain, heart rate and calorie burn.  The Overlook can be a social stroll, or a place to talk things through up at the Meadow Loop as you sweep your eyes down the Valley and out to sea.  And, especially these days, it’s a sanctuary, an escape from the facets of life that wear on us.

Our ongoing work to keep the Overlook in shape requires investment in tools and other supplies, outreach materials, and sometimes the help of specialized crews to undertake the heavier, more technical endeavors that shape our sometimes-rocky trail into a condition that allows more to enjoy it.

This essential Sonoma paradise—and all who find connection in it—relies on you.  So we ask: If you are inspired to contribute to the tending of this special place, please make a tax-deductible donation to the cause.

  • Make your check payable to “Sonoma Overlook Trail” and mail to:

Sonoma Overlook Trail
P.O. Box 431
Sonoma, CA 95476

Thank you kindly in advance–come visit us on the trail!

Affectionately,
Sonoma Overlook Trail Stewards

Our Year-End Appeal: Help us keep Sonoma Overlook Trail healthy and accessible!

The all-volunteer Sonoma Overlook Trail Stewards need your tax-deductible support to continue our work.  Please keep us in your thoughts as you make your year-end donations this giving season!

We receive over 60,000 visits a year, making us, in a sense, the largest nonprofit in Sonoma!  All of this impact wears on the trail and surrounding trail corridor.  Every dollar we receive goes directly to the care of the Overlook.

We each have our reasons for visiting the Overlook Trail.  Some come to see the trees, the wildflowers, hawks, turkeys and deer, or to watch their kids catch (and release!) a lizard.  For some, it’s about elevation gain, heart rate and calorie burn.  The Overlook can be a social stroll, or a place to talk things through up at the Meadow Loop as you sweep your eyes down the Valley and out to sea.  And, especially these days, it’s a sanctuary, an escape from the facets of life that wear on us.

Our ongoing work to keep the Overlook in shape requires investment in tools and other supplies, outreach materials, and sometimes the help of specialized crews to undertake the heavier, more technical endeavors that shape our sometimes-rocky trail into a condition that allows more to enjoy it.

This essential Sonoma paradise—and all who find connection in it—relies on you.  So we ask: If you are inspired to contribute to the tending of this special place, please make a tax-deductible donation to the cause.

  • Make your check payable to “Sonoma Overlook Trail” and mail to:

Sonoma Overlook Trail
P.O. Box 431
Sonoma, CA 95476

Thank you kindly in advance–come visit us on the trail!

Affectionately,
Sonoma Overlook Trail Stewards

The Upper Loop Project, Part 1

Before

For about 22 years, water created a ditch on the upper part of the Upper Loop of the Sonoma Overlook Trail and sent a creek down a “climbing turn” above the bench at the top of the trail, eroding it down to expose big rocks that are now well above the trail bed (see photo). Perhaps you know of it. Over the years, it became a complete mess. A shit-show, actually. I would hate to know what hikers and runners thought about it. I hated it. 

For years, I pondered what to do about it; then eventually, it hit me. I would break down the central rocks and simply take the trail straight up the center. But first I needed to deal with the drainage leading up to it, which was a real problem. This is because the water was flowing straight down the trail. Continue reading

Forest Mystic: Wild Mushrooms on the Overlook Trail

The Overlook Trail abounds with wild mushrooms! Take your own visual treasure hunt; they’re everywhere…. But of course, as with everything on our trail systems and wild areas, leave them undisturbed. Mushrooms can be deadly if consumed.

Wild Mushrooms

Continue reading

Grateful

A rafter of wild turkeys relaxing on Montini Open Space Preserve last evening, fate working in their favor another year.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all; we hope to see you on the trail during this very lush, thriving time on Montini and the Overlook!