After months of hard work and literally years of planning the trail rehab work is nearly completed. There’s plenty of hiking available, and plenty of views.

To hike the Overlook trail, start your hike from the Mountain Cemetery entrance—follow the signs if you aren’t familiar with how to enter it through the cemetery. The Upper Meadow Loop that leads to the scenic overlook is accessible from the Toyon Trail entrance in the Cemetery and through the Montini Open Space Preserve.

As you approach the kiosk at the trailhead you’ll see beautiful stone steps leading up to the newly re-routed trail. This portion of the trail will open in the Spring, after the rainy season has given it a chance to “cure”.

The Overlook Stewards, City officials and many trail fans hiked the trail to “welcome it back” this weekend. Come join us every Wednesday morning at 8:30 for a hike to the overlook and back. Meet 8:30 at the trailhead kiosk for an energetic one hour hike. . . and meet some new hiking friends.

Fred Allebach explaining how steps were built.

Susan Peterson talking about trail improvements. Hikers listen to Karen Collins tell trail tales.

We had a surprising sight today on our Wednesday morning community hike–a balloon floated through the air overhead. Come join us on these hikes for beautiful vista views, camaraderie with other fellow hikers, and sometimes, even a surprise!

Starting next Wednesday we are back on the upper part of the Overlook Trail—it’s being re-opened Saturday, Oct 20. Meet at the Trailhead kiosk at 8:30, we finish at 9:30 and are known to sip coffee at Peets afterwards.

The team from the American Conservation Experience (ACE) are hard at work on the trail. They are making our hiking experience even better!

If you hike on the Montini Preserve Trail you will likely see goats chomping away on the weeds. This is one of the pleasures of hiking here—you are in for a treat to watch these cute creatures.

Join us any Wednesday for a brisk hike. We meet 8:30am at the Sonoma Police Station parking lot for an hour-long hike on the Montini (while the Overlook is closed for rehab).

We are underway with the Overlook Improvement Project. The kick off celebration this afternoon was festive and informative. Joanna Kemper, our host, was the emcee –she could be seen by all–standing on a very large rock. She also provided us with cookies and lemonade (welcome on a sunny day). John Donnelly gave a brief history of the trail, and Mayor Madolyn Agrimontij, along with Cathy Capriola, Colleen Ferguson and the Sonoma Public Works team shared their excitement about getting this project underway.

The Stars of the show was the team from American Conservation Experience that will be doing the work on the trail the next three months. They are young people from across the country (even Guam) that are eager to get started. We welcome them to our town and to our beloved trail.

Finally!! Shovel Ready!!!

The American Conservation Experience (ACT) Team