Hike Info:
Type:Car
Description:
Our last day in San
Francisco.
Or more precisely, the last day we are in San Francisco. But first,
we need to decide what to do. Our choices have been narrowed down to
taking a morning walk over to the Presidio or going up and scouting
out the Camino de Sonoma. We decided to do the Camino route.
A bit of explanation here. For
some time I have been interested in walking the Camino
de Santiago
in Spain. But the last five years I have wondered why? When Sherri
and I did Capture California, we drove to all of the California
Missions. This would seem to be roughly equivalent of walking the
Camino de Santiago. There are people who do walk the California
Missions.
But that seemed to be rather formable-like at least a month of
walking, if not two. Then I saw that there is a smaller Camino in
California: From Mission Solono in Sonoma to Fort Ross, the Camino
de Sonoma.
This sounds like a way to get one’s foot wet, so to speak.
We get packed up and ready to
go. Then we head over to Noah’s
Bagel
and picked up breakfast. There are not a lot of seats here, so we
take our breakfast into our room. At 9:30 we leave the hotel and head
down Lombard which is also 101. This takes us over the Golden Gate
Bridge. I can tell my driving is a bit tense as I am not used to
driving in such crowded conditions at these speeds.
We made it across the bridge!
The cars are a bit more spread out and I am more relaxed. When we
passed by Corte Madre I saw the other, and I think the main, Book
Passage.
We whiz by it. Then when we hit Petaluma, taking off of 101 and
traveling down Bodega Road. This is a two lane road which wanders
through the green countryside. The road seems to be rolling and we
enjoy the ride. Sherri is mesmerized by how the area looks.
We hit Highway 1 as we get
close to the coast and head north along it. After half an hour of
driving along the coast, we crossed the Russian River. Shortly after,
we rode into Jenner. This is the start of our Camino travel.
Most of this we drove
opposite of the way it is walked, except this last stage of the walk,
which we did first. Some of the way we could not follow because the
route followed a path or trail rather than a road-which to me is
better for walking. The route is broken into six stages. I will
include what I think is the route it goes on. There is an AllTrails
set of
pages which has the route for each stage, which is what I pretty much
followed.
Stage 6
Jenner to Fort Ross. The
route goes along Highway 1, but in looking at Facebook pages, it
looks like the route deviates from the Highway at several places.
My notes: The route only goes
along Highway One. Most areas which are walkable are very narrow with
the ocean down a cliff or the other side of the road is only a very
small drainage ditch. A lot of the route would have you walking on
pavement without any possibility of going to the side. There were
many curves which would give you blind corners. My impression is that
it would be dangerous to walk on this roadway. Also a few miles south
of Fort Ross there was construction over a mile or so. I have in my
notes something about a Vista trail
Later there was a Facebook
post
showing a group of people who hiked this stage. It showed pictures of
them going on
Stage 5
Occidental to Jenner.
Leaves Occidental on
Coleman Valley Road to Willow Creek Road and then Highway 1.
My notes: Before starting off,
be sure you have maps which do not rely on online maps as you will
not have Internet access throughout this walk. Having said that, we
did not get to see much of this area. We did not drive any of the
Coleman Valley Road.
We went down Willow Creek road
from Highway One. There is a sign saying that the road is closed in 4
miles. More on that later. It is a dirt road. At the start there were
some cars here, mostly parked. The first mile was a bit desolate. But
then it turned into something more green and more enjoyable. We pass
the closed
Pomo Canyon Campground
in Sonoma
Coast State Park.
We crossed a creek and traveled about a mile. |
Faith Rumm Sign at Willow Creek
|
There we met a woman who was
watching her dog. We asked her about the road ahead. She said that
last Winter closed the road to vehicular traffic. But it was open to
pedestrians all the way to Coleman Valley Road. She noted that it
was nice walking. But there were no shoulders on Coleman. But there
also was no vehicle traffic either. It seems really peaceful back
there, particularly the farther in we went.
Stage 4
Sebastapol to Occidental.
Comes out of Sebastapol on Main St. Then takes off on the West County
and Rodota Trails until it hits the Occidental Road. It goes west
along the road following the trails until it veers north to Graton
and Manzana. Walks the Green Valley Road until it merges with
Harrison Grade Road. When Harrison meets with Morell Lane it turns
off there and follows the lane to Camp Meeker. Then follows either
the Bohemian Highway or the Occidental-Camp Meeker road.
We
had lunch in Occidental at
Howard Station-a
couple of hamburgers. They were really good.
My
notes: Coming out of Sebastapol, it follows Main St with sidewalks
until it hits the West County/Rodota Bike Trail. Sometimes it follows
the main roads and sometimes it takes off through fields. It follows
an old railroad bed. When it enters Garton, the route changes to a
road walk, following Ross Road to Mazana. There were some sidewalks.
There it bisects Green Valley Road. Green Valley does not have
sidewalks and has fast and consistent traffic. But the road seems
wide enough and there is plenty of room off the pavement.
Once
you reach the hills, the shoulders disappear and the road is pretty
narrow. This might be a problem. Green Valley becomes Harrison Grade.
If anything the shoulder became non-existent and the pavement
narrowed. Also many blind curves.
When
Harrison Grade meets Morello Lane, the road conditions do not change,
except that Morello Lane is a one lane road without very much
traffic. Also it has a much calmer atmosphere. Deciduous trees are
prominent and Morello has some shoulders. This is followed all the
way into Camp Meeker.
From
Camp Meeker, there are two roads which could be traveled: the
Bohemian Highway and the Occidental-Camp Meeker Road. We drove the
Bohemian Highway. Traffic is fast and not much in the way of
shoulders. So the other road may offer better walking.
Stage 3
Santa Rosa to Sebastapol.
Walking down Montgomery Dr to Brookwood to College. Just past Finley
Park, take the Santa Rosa Creek bike path to the south. This puts
you on Fulton Rd. Go south on it to Highway 12. There you will find
Joe Rodota Trail. This will put you into Sebastapol.
All
of the route is either sidewalk or bike path.
Stage 2
Kenwood to Santa Rosa.
Heads down Warm Springs Road. Then a series of streets to get to the
Annadel Lawndale Parking Lot. From there it is a series of mountain
trails through Trione-Annadel
State Park,
exiting out onto Spring Lake Park. Eventually it hits Summerfield
Road which goes into Santa Rosa.
My
Notes: Warm Springs Road looked like it had shoulders to it. Not sure
about the other roads to get to the parking lot. But they looked like
they were not well traveled. Then it is mountain trails on dirt until
you get into Spring Lake. Summerfield Road has sidewalks.
Stage 1
Sonoma to Kenwood. Starts
at Sonoma
State Historical Park.
Follows the Sonoma Bike Path to the Sonoma Highway (12). Turns onto
to Verano Ave through some back streets until it hits Arnold Dr. The
route follows Arnold all the way past Glen Ellen to Dunbar Road.
Dunbar is taken until it reconnects with the Sonoma Highway. The
Highway is taken into Kenwood.
My notes: The first part of
the route is along a bikeway. Then a few city streets with sidewalks.
Arnold has pretty good shoulders. We did not go on Dunbar. Highway 12
has good shoulders as well.
Once in Sonoma, it was getting
pretty late. But we felt we deserved some ice cream. This desire was
taken care of at
Sweet Scoops,
which is very close to the Historical Park. After this, it was time
to get going to Fresno. We made a couple wrong turns before getting
on the appropriate highways. There was one stop in Turlock for gas.
Then it was home 90 minutes later at 9:30. Long day, but we got a
good idea of what is doable on the Camino de Sonoma and what should
not be considered.
