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
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.
Background
Sweet Scoops. Ice Cream was calling us; Sweet Scoops satisfied us. We had the homemade mint chocolate chip which we split a single between us. This was enough to keep us happy. The server was accommodating to our needs. We did consume our ice cream across the way at a park-there was limited seating inside the place.
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