Category Archives: Trail Maintenance

An Interview with Overlook Steward William Wilson

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William “Bill” Wilson has championed Sonoma Overlook Trail’s more complex endeavors for over 12 years.  His engineering background and technical chops inform his immense contribution to our team. Enjoy this exchange between Bill and his wife, Overlook Steward Mary Nesbitt!

What sparked your personal interest in the Overlook Trail?
We discovered the trail in 2004 on one of many visits to northern California, looking for the right place to retire. Ten years later, settled in Sonoma and enjoying the Valley’s splendid natural beauty and network of trails, we heard from Joanna Kemper, then chair of the volunteer Overlook stewards, that a project was brewing in which we might be interested. And so the multi-year effort to thoroughly rehabilitate the Overlook Trail began.

What’s your background?
My working life was mostly in the heavy truck and trailer industry in the U.S. and Canada. Trucks and trails–quite different animals. But as an engineering manager, I was often involved in project management and those skills are transferrable.

What have you learned from the Overlook rehabilitation?
Some engineers have a saying: ”When in doubt, make it stout, out of things you know about.” It was the second element that proved the greater challenge. I‘ve really enjoyed learning from trail designers, geologists and others about the variety of soils and rock in these hills and how best to work with them to create a more durable trail for future generations to enjoy.

Bill managing a specialized crew

What’s the best part of being an Overlook steward?
I derive a lot of pleasure from working a project with other like-minded people–the common purpose of defining it, planning it, raising funds for it, and then watching and helping a group of young people (a specialized trail crew) struggle, learn and overcome the challenges of trail rebuilding. It’s wonderful to see and feel their pride in accomplishment.

What’s next with the trail?
The Stewards have one last major undertaking before them: replacing the old wooden steps about 100 yards in from the kiosk. In trail design, it is known as a “control point”; it’s the only way through, and confined by Norrbom Road on one side and a “vernal swale” on the other. The railway ties are rotten in places and cracked and bowed in others. We will replace them with stone once the design is finalized, hopefully with work starting in 2027.

Trail TLC: What it Takes to Care for Sonoma Overlook Trail

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When you hike the lovely Overlook Trail, winding your way up to a magnificent view over the town and southern Sonoma Valley, you can be forgiven if you don’t give a single thought to what it takes to keep it easy to either hike or run. Few do.

Roy Tennant, SOT Maintenance Chair

But that’s my job, as the Maintenance Chair. The other Overlook Stewards know that I spend many a waking moment thinking about what needs to be done next (don’t worry, I won’t drag you into my dreams). Here are some of the jobs we frequent, although some of them are purely seasonal:

  • Cut back poison oak. 🍂  You’re welcome.
  • Trim brush from the trail corridor.
  • Mow overgrown grasses.
  • Remove rocks from the trailbed.
  • Pick up trash (almost daily).
  • Remove invasive species; we eradicated Yellow star-thistle recently–so far our only win.
  • Trim and shape the trail to allow water to flow off.
  • Completely rehabilitate sections of trail (i.e., remove rocks and regain a trail outslope so that rainfall or seepage flows immediately off the trail and doesn’t pool there).
  • Create drains where it isn’t possible to create adequate trail outslope.
  • Remove downed tree limbs and trees.
  • Sweep rocks and aggregate off the stairs and back into place to increase stair lifespan.
  • Create and maintain trailhead kiosk information and trail signage.
  • Create engineering plans for major trail rehabilitation projects.
  • Collaborate and contract with specialized trail construction teams, including monitoring of their work.
  • Solicit, write and secure grants to support major trail rehabilitation projects.
  • Scout and report homeless encampments, which can create a fire hazard.
  • Enforce trail rules (most prominently: no dogs allowed on the Overlook or Montini).
  • Communicate with our supporters through our website/blog and our newsletter.
  • Raise money to do everything listed above and more.

Yes, it is a lot of jobs, so we’re always looking for more people to join us in performing them. Let us know if you’re interested! All welcome; you can select the particular ways in which you would like to help.

Support Your Local Trail System!

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Filed under Acts of Service, Fundraising, Land Maintenance, Stewardship, Trail Maintenance

Tax Deductible DonationSince its inception, the Sonoma Overlook Stewards, an all-volunteer organization, make possible educational and interpretive materials, trail maintenance and improvements, and fundraising to support all Sonoma Overlook Trail concerns. The Overlook Trail relies on generous contributions from members of the community. Please lend your support!

To help fund our efforts with your tax deductible donation, send contributions to:

Sonoma Overlook Trail
Box 431
Sonoma, CA 95476

Or, donate HERE!

The Sonoma Overlook Trail partners with the City of Sonoma, which owns the land. For your tax-deductible donations, Sonoma Overlook Trail is fiscally sponsored by the Sonoma Ecology Center, a California non-profit 501(c)(3).

If you are interested in making a more substantial investment in Sonoma Overlook Trail, we would be delighted to speak with you. Please contact us at Hike@OverlookMontini.org.

The Upper Loop Project, Part 1

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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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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 →