Author Archives: Roy Tennant

The Upper Loop Project, Part 1

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Filed under Stewardship, Trail Maintenance

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 →

Our Current Overlook Trail Renewal Campaign

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Filed under Stewardship, Trail Maintenance

If you’ve been reading our posts here for any length of time, you know that I’m somewhat obsessed with trail smoothing. That is, removing rocks from the trail so that hikers, and more importantly, runners, don’t trip (I’ve take a few bad falls while running myself, so this is quite personal). But it’s also more than that. 

The badly ditched trail

We also very much need to regain control of water on the trail, which means removing ditching and regaining ,at minimum, a 5-degree outslope on the tread. So I’ve been on a campaign to do just that, and recently I’ve become enabled to take this campaign to the very top of the trail.

Two key things recently happened to make this possible:

  1. The City of Sonoma bought and delivered a pile of aggregate (Mayacama Red Pathway Fines Only, to be specific) to the top of the trail, going through a neighboring vineyard property with their very appreciated cooperation (thank you, Dan and Andrea Son!).
  2. In cooperation with the same vineyard property as well as City of Sonoma Public Works  (thank you Terence Erickson!), who kindly donated a 120-gallon water tank that was subsequently filled by the vineyard property staff, we now have everything we need to get serious about fixing the entire Upper Loop of the Sonoma Overlook Trail.

Continue reading →

The Great Wall of Montini

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Filed under Stewardship, Trail Maintenance

Recently, we’ve been redoubling our volunteer maintenance efforts at the Montini Preserve by instituting a monthly trail work day in association with staff from Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and Sonoma Ecology Center.

One of the jobs we wanted to tackle early on was a particularly sketchy spot that had narrowed from a rock falling out of the trail. This was just above a steep hill that if someone fell, they could really get hurt. On the first work day the team determined a wall, or more accurately a buttress, would need to be built up from some distance below the trail to support the trail and enable us to widen it safely. Continue reading →

The Cyclone and the Damage Done

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Filed under Fall, Trail Maintenance, Weather

Santa Rosa received more rain in three days than ever before in recorded weather history, and it seems likely that we had as much or more here in Sonoma. Given that, perhaps it should be surprising that we still have a trail. But I have a hard time not grieving for the havoc that the storm created.

I should point out that the hillside that the Overlook Trail traverses is essentially all rock. I’m reminded of this any time I try to dig up soil to put on the trail. My shovel is more likely to clang into stones than it is to sink into soil. This results in very little rain soaking into the ground—instead, it runs off. What water does sink into the soil only does for short distances, and it soon flows onto the trail which serves as a convenient exit from the rocky hillside.

And exit it did—in many locations and with great volume. On one section in particular, the water then plunged down the trail, blew through a couple small drains and scoured the trail for about 100 feet (see video below of one small section). This will take a lot of work and many wagonloads of aggregate to fix.

But yes, we already have a strong start to our winter rains. I just wish it would come in smaller increments, or over longer periods. Wish us luck.

The Benefits of a Full Montini

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Filed under Hiking

The Sonoma Overlook Trail is of course beloved by hikers and runners alike, with great trails and scenic vistas. But when the adjacent Montini Preserve opened across Norrbom Road, more miles of trails were added that were contiguous with the SOT, thereby providing even better hiking and running opportunities.

Prime among these opportunities, as hikers and runners will attest, is a set of linked trails that traverse both properties that I’ve started calling “The Full Montini.” To do the Full Montini you start at the 4th St. West and Haraszthy trailhead (see map). From there you start up the Holstein Hill trail to Spotted Fawn, then on to Rattlesnake Cutoff where you cross Norrbom Road to the Overlook property, continuing on the Overlook up to the Upper Meadow Loop, and then return the same way. This is a 4.4 mile hike with approximately 500 feet of cumulative elevation gain.

Continue reading →