Overlook Trail Re-Opens!

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Filed under Hiking

The Sonoma Overlook Trail Stewards invited the town to come for a celebration of the Re-opening of the Overlook Trail. It was a beautiful spring day and all who came were excited about hiking the newly created lower trail and renovated Upper Trails.

There was an enthusiastic ribbon cutting ceremony—Let the Hikes Begin! Rebecca Hermosillo for Congressman Thompson, Ezra Chabaan for Senator Dodd, Marcelo DeFreitas on behalf of Sonoma Alcaldessa Karen Collins, Amy Harrington Sonoma Mayor, Richard Dale Sonoma Ecology Center, Bill Wilson Project Manager.
The Sonoma Overlook Trail Stewards: Susan Peterson, Jeni Nichols, Maggie Salenger (sitting), Lori Parmalee, Fred Allebach, Priscilla Miles, Sally Stone, Roy Tennant, April Stark, Mary Nesbitt, John Donnelly, Bill Wilson, Connie Bolduc, Joanna Kemper, Leanna Breese. Not pictured: Lynn Clary, Rich Gibson, Laurell Meredith, Jackie Steuer, Hope Nisson, Karen Collins, Wayne Schake, Ronda Guaraglia, Jaye Hayes.
Nearly 100 people gathered at the Trailhead Kiosk to honor the people and volunteers that made this possible.
The Kiosk sported fluttering streamers with the over 400 names of individuals and organizations that supported this renovation project.
Hikers going on the VERY FIRST Hike of the newly re-opened trail.

Nearly 100 people gathered at the Trailhead Kiosk to honor the people and volunteers that made this possible.

The Kiosk sported fluttering streamers with the over 400 names of individuals and organizations that supported this renovation project.

The Sonoma Overlook Trail Stewards: Susan Peterson, Jeni Nichols, Maggie Salenger (sitting), Lori Parmalee, Fred Allebach, Priscilla Miles, Sally Stone, Roy Tennant, April Stark, Mary Nesbitt, John Donnelly, Bill Wilson, Connie Bolduc, Joanna Kemper, Leanna Breese. Not pictured: Lynn Clary, Rich Gibson, Laurell Meredith, Jackie Steuer, Hope Nisson, Karen Collins, Wayne Schake, Ronda Guaraglia, Jaye Hayes.

There was an enthusiastic ribbon cutting ceremony—Let the Hikes Begin! Doing the cutting: Rebecca Hermosillo for Congressman Thompson, Ezra Chabaan for Senator Dodd, Marcelo DeFreitas on behalf of Sonoma Alcaldessa Karen Collins, Amy Harrington Sonoma Mayor, Richard Dale Sonoma Ecology Center, Bill Wilson Project Manager.

Hikers going on the VERY FIRST Hike of the newly re-opened trail.

We Have a New Map!

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Just in time for our Grand Re-opening Celebration on Sunday at 11am at the Overlook Trail Kiosk, we have a new map produced by a team of Overlook Trail Stewards, the Sonoma Ecology Center, and the City of Sonoma.

Some of our goals were:

  • Greater clarity on hiking options, parking, mileage, and elevations.
  • A better sense of options of getting to and from the trails (for example, including the bike path).
  • Depicting open areas and forested.
  • Showing areas of the trails accessible to wheelchairs.
  • Putting the properties within a broader context by showing locations of such landmarks as the Sonoma State Historic Park, Field of Dreams, and the Plaza.

Eventually the map will be joined at the kiosk with text trail descriptions to give hikers a better sense of what a particular trail offers (e.g., views).

This map is temporary, which provides us with an opportunity to invite feedback on potential enhancements to the map. Therefore, if we can add or change something that would help you understand the trails better, please let us know by commenting on this post.

Hiker’s Notebook • #3: Advice

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Filed under Hiker's Notebook, Hiking, Philosophical Musings

The vast majority of the entries in the journals that I’m likely to highlight fall into the categories of gratitude and appreciation. Essentially, as a whole, hikers of the trail are very appreciative of the chance to get out into such beauty and are grateful that it is here for their enjoyment. But occasionally some of you are inspired to give advice to other hikers, which will be highlighted in this post.

Our first entry is both simple and direct:

“Today is the oldest you’ve ever been
And the youngest you will ever be.
Live it up and soak in the view!”

It’s hard to argue with such a clear and true message.

Along those lines comes another entry that urges us to “enjoy the little things in life.” Indeed:

“There’s something about getting to the top of the mountain that is so replenishing. Maybe it’s the hike, maybe it’s the views, there’s just something about being one with nature. Take time to enjoy the little things in life.

Happy New Year. :-)”

That doesn’t mean we also don’t have a streak of realists hiking the trail, including those who are ready to give us a dose of reality from a child’s perspective. But first, here’s an entry that sure brought a smile to my face with it’s twist at the end, and I hope it does the same thing for you. It even has a title: “Life”:

“Life is such a gift. Though, it may be difficult at times it still has its good times. Its like a see saw. When you’re at a downfall in life there is nowhere to go but up. So smile every chance you get because everybody deserves a smile. Oh and rattlesnakes are pretty cool now that I’ve seen one.”

On a more cynical note comes this entry from what I can only surmise is a disgruntled young person who was dragged up the trail by her or his parents. But I can’t help but be impressed with the proffered advice, especially “If U reach the top you get $5,000.” I’m so down with that, as I’d be a millionaire several times over by now.

“The trail was “pretty” good…but it could be better! (a lot)

  1. make water stands
  2. don’t make it SO long
  3. Less rocky
  4. BETTER
  5. If U reach the top U get $5000.”

I really can’t make this up.

Now we take a turn from the comedic to the profound. As I’ve said before, you people are deep. Keep it up, as we read these, and starting with these set of posts we are also sharing the best of your thoughts with others who haven’t had the chance, as I have, to read through all the notebooks. Thank you for your thoughts.

“7:09 on a beautiful Tuesday night. I am always reminded how lucky I am to be here. Life is such a precious gift and we must remember to use it consciously and wisely. Watching these cotton candy clouds slowly turn into night reminds me ho we are constantly changing. Change for the better. You are your future. Be smart.

Have an amazing day.”

Here is the entry that I personally appreciated the most under the “advice” heading. Entitled “Hike with that one person,” I think it really speaks to what love is really about. Enjoy.

“Hike with that one person that makes you feel at home.
Hike with that one person, that shows you love and care like no other.
Hike with that one person who you laugh with so much that distance doesn’t matter because you don’t want that special moment to end.
Hike with that one person who you’ve told them all your flaws but still sees through all your flaws and wants to be with you more than anything in the world!”

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Reading your entries has been inspiring and up-lifting. Keep it up!

Thistle be FUN!

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Filed under Events, Invasive Species, Italian Thistle, Poison Oak, Spring, Stewardship, Trail Maintenance

We are doing some Spring Cleaning on the Overlook Trail. Volunteers have been pulling invasive thistle, repairing berms, and sweeping newly built steps. . . .we are almost “Ready for our Close Up!”

Opening Day is Sunday, April 28.

11:00 am is a celebration and ribbon cutting ceremony

11:30 is a steward led hike on the NEW TRAIL!

Come join us and enjoy the trail CLOSE UP. . .NO thistles in sight!

Hiker Notebooks #2: Quotations

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Filed under Hiker's Notebook, Hiking, Life Lessons, Philosophical Musings

Clearly, some of you are deep. You are able to pull quotes up from the dark (dimly lit?) recesses of your mind and get them on the pages of our Hiker Notebook — or perhaps anywhere else. You rock.

From “Annie S.” comes this stanza from William Wordsworth’s I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud (with an illustration, even!):

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Certainly, daffodils can be spotted on the Overlook, so extra points for accuracy. One could just imagine lying on one’s couch (as one does), pondering a recent solo foray on the trail, and appreciating the opportunity to commune with nature alone, even if you also (and we often do) appreciate sharing the experience with others.

 

Also along the theme of solitude and communing with nature alone comes a portion of Lord Byron’s, Childe Harold, Canto IV:

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.

 

This quotation actually showed up twice. Was it the same person? You decide.

 

Some chose to quote poets of the more modern era, as this hiker did when supposedly quoting Jimi Hendrix, but this quotation is disputed, and has been variously attributed also to Sri Chinmoy and William Gladstone, in slightly different versions. If anyone has serious evidence backing up this quote, let us know. Meanwhile, the words still ring true, even if no one said them exactly this way ever in print or voice.

 

Lastly (in this post), we have a quotation from one of our world travelers by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), from his book The Innocents Abroad:

 

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.

 

Like I said, some of you are deep. But you may need to do a better job of checking your sources. In the end, though, it probably doesn’t mean a whole lot who said it, as these quotes ring true to us anyway. And thank you for sharing these wise words with us on the trail. May you continue to do so.