Category Archives: Trail Maintenance

Porter Abodeely and Sunrise Rotary Work Day Successful

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Filed under Acts of Service, Events, Stewardship, Trail Maintenance

Presentation School student Porter Abodeely, with the assistance of his father JJ, arranged and performed a trail workday with the help of Sunrise Rotary this past Saturday. Sonoma Overlook Trail steward Fred Allebach coordinated with Porter and JJ to guide the workers to the best jobs for the students and for the trail.

There were two crews, one focused on the kiosk area and the other on the upper trail. The kiosk crew performed these tasks: cleaned the trail entry, swept the kiosk area, moved rock thanking the Kiwanis Club for their trail donation back into place, removed trash, swept and weeded the entry staircase steps, cleaned the entry path drain, cleaned the drain above the staircase, swept the stone walls, lightly sanded picnic table top, and cleaned leaves out of table cracks.

The upper moved extra rocks from the new steps to a pile at the Toyon Trail junction, filled eroded areas in the new treads, raked gravel back out to the center of the trail and swept the steps.
The pictures are kindly provided by JJ and are published here with his permission. We extend our appreciation to Porter and JJ Abodeely, Sunrise Rotary, and Fred Allebach for making this happen!

Controlling Water on the Trails

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Filed under Stewardship, Trail Maintenance, Weather, Winter

The Trail Maintenance Team for the Sonoma Overlook Trail does a variety of tasks, but one of the most important things we do is manage the flow of water across the trails. Essentially, what we try to do is to move the water off the trail as soon as it comes on. The best way that this happens is in sheet flow from the upper side of the trail to the lower side, but that is rarely the situation we can accomplish.

One challenge is that water often comes onto the trail not in a gentle sheeting flow, but in what is essentially a tiny creek. Another is that it isn’t always an option to have the water sheet off the downhill side. We often need to allow it to flow down part of the trail before directing it off in a waterbar (a channel we cut in the trail to force the water off the trail).

There are also other structures we build to manage water. Perhaps chief among them is the armored swale. An armored swale is essentially a deep channel you cut in the trail that you “armor” with rocks so it doesn’t erode as the water flows over it and off the trail. Another strategy we use to encourage sheet flow off the trail is cut the “berm” or the very edge of the trail that can build up in a way that keeps water on the trail instead of allowing it to sheet flow off of it.

All of these structures require ongoing maintenance, and the more subtle structures require more maintenance than the more dramatic ones.

Over the last few days (one of them during the recent rainstorm) I was out renewing the structures in place and cutting berm to better enable water flow off the trail. I also deepened a few waterbars and performed other tasks to better channel water from the trail.  I will again be out there tomorrow afternoon during the rainstorm with a shovel, to see what needs fixing. It’s part of what we stewards do.

Rock Patrol Ups Its Game

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Filed under Safety, Stewardship, Trail Maintenance

rock chiselAfter I became Maintenance Chair, I began considering new kinds of trail maintenance activities. Since Sonoma Overlook Trail is a particularly rocky trail, over the past year or so I pioneered what I dubbed “Rock Patrol“. As it was originally conceived, it consisted of hiking the trail with a shovel and a pry bar, levering out rocks and backfilling with soil to remove “trip rocks” and make a smoother tread.

Over time, I added an activity that I called “trail smoothing”, which I conceived of as a more systematic effort over a stretch of trail from 6-12 feet or more. In this activity, we would remove many rocks from the trail bed and fill with soil and gravel, packing it down to recreate a smooth tread. This was devised as an activity for our monthly group trail maintenance work days.

Now I’ve added another activity that I’m calling “rock reduction”. To do this, we’ve purchased a cordless rock chisel/hammer/drill (pictured; click the photo to see a video of it in action). As I say in the video, it is a complete game-changer. I really don’t think there is a rock on the trail that we can’t now either completely remove or reduce to trail level or below.

Given that fact, I’m now open for any trail hiker or runner’s nominations of rocks to remove or reduce. Take a photo of your most hated rock and/or ridge of bedrock that impinges on the trail and send it to me at roytennant@gmail.com along with a description of where to find it on the trail. Just do your best; I’m pretty sure I will recognize it. Having nominated it, I will let you know when it has been removed or reduced.

Check out the video. It’s less than 2 1/2 minutes long and I think it does a great job of illustrating how we can now take down even some of the hardest rocks on the trail (many are much softer than the one in the video, which I had originally attempted to take out using a large, heavy, iron pry bar).

Rock reduction is now officially part of our arsenal.

Rock Patrol, Part 2

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Filed under Stewardship, Trail Maintenance
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A short rocky section of trail.

When I became the Maintenance Chair for the Sonoma Overlook Trail Stewards, I stepped into a role of responsibility that I never thought I would take. But it has been surprisingly interesting and rewarding. I’ve learned a lot along the way, particularly by also volunteering with the trail maintenance team at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park. Along the way I’ve invented some things. One of them I dubbed “Rock Patrol,” introduced in a previous post.

Since then, I’ve realized that there are two different activities, not one—rock patrol, which is a solitary task of removing individual problem rocks from the center of the trail and infilling with soil, and tread renewal, which is a more systematic effort of rock removal from a section of trail and a renewal of the tread with gravel and/or soil. You more often do tread renewal with a team, but not necessarily.

IMG-2156Today I went out and blurred the lines between the two, as well as pioneering another technique, that I’m calling rock reduction. There are some rocks in the trail that can’t be removed, as they sink too deep into the trail or are bedrock. However, I’ve found that many rocks on the trail can be “reduced” by striking them with a steel prybar and chipping pieces off the top and/or fracturing parts off the side. By using both of these techniques it’s possible to reduce the level of the rock below the trail, and then covering it over with soil. The picture shows the rock at the bottom of the first picture that has been “reduced” to the point where it can be covered.

IMG-2157The point is to create a smooth tread that fails to trip hikers, and especially runners, as they traverse the trail. As someone who has fallen badly a few times when trail running, I understand the importance of removing (or reducing) trip rocks.

We understand that this work can only progress at a snails pace, as each section of trail requires a good deal of effort. But progress it will, and like our efforts to reduce and control invasive species this is a long game. And we know exactly what a long game requires.

Today’s project had a further nuance. If you look at the first picture, at the rock at the top left of the trail, compare it with the bottom picture. We successfully reduced it’s width by breaking the side of the rock impinging on the trail, therefore widening the clear path. Nuance like that can easily be overlooked, but it matters, as it produced a wider smooth trail. Eventually, every inch of trail will have had this kind of attention.

Rock Patrol to the Rescue

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Filed under Hiking, Safety, Stewardship, Trail Maintenance
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The massive rock we had to remove.

The Sonoma Overlook Trail is coming up on its 20-year anniversary. In twenty years of heavy use, the trail bed can become quite eroded, thereby exposing rocks that can become tripping hazards. Recently the trail stewards in charge of trail maintenance have begun a concerted effort to transform particularly rocky sections of the trail into smooth paths by removing rocks and filling the resulting holes with packed aggregate and soil. We call this activity “Rock Patrol.”

The last two standing monthly work days were dedicated to performing this work on two sections of trail under the Upper Meadow. Today, the section we worked on included a rather massive boulder (see picture) that we dug out and rolled off the trail. Now, instead of that tripping hazard there is smooth trail.

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The final result (note the big rock on the left that we removed).

We recently set a goal to create 18-24″ of smooth path for the entire length of the trail, realizing that there may be some sections where this is not possible. Of course those of you who are familiar with the trail will understand the enormity of this undertaking, and therefore will likely also understand that this work will take years to accomplish. We won’t just do this work in group work days. Rock Patrol can also be a solitary activity, as sometimes all that is required to make a section of the trail safe is to remove a solitary “trip rock” from the middle of the trail. That can be accomplished by a single volunteer.