During the drive out to our hike at Trione-Annadel two days ago, Coppertone and I saw the Sonoma Valley Trail in Sonoma Valley Regional Park.  We realized we had not yet hiked that segment so we made a mental note to come back for it at a later date.  That date was today.

The fog was quite thick and everything seemed a bit moist as we walked from the trailhead.  The trail surface was more than that.  It was very muddy!  This was a bit surprising since it had been perhaps a couple of weeks since our last rain.  Our boots were caked in mud in the end.

Sonoma Valley Trail parallels Highway 12, which runs along the middle of Sonoma Valley.  This close proximity to the road has a major drawback with the near constant road noise.  One can look uphill, away from the road and get a view of nature.  But one has to drown out the noise to try and make a tranquil scene of it.  A lone egret hunting uphill from the trail didn't seem to mind.  We saw him at the start and end of our hike.

There is the potential of views across the valley to the Mayacamas Mountains but the fog and haze was thick enough to block any sweeping views on this day.

We turned around at a sign that marked the end of the trail and doubled back.  We elected to walk a bit on the paved Valley of the Moon Trail to knock off some of the caked mud from our soles and to get a bit more mileage before calling it a day.

Coppertone and I were anxious to get outside and stretch our legs after days of rain in the Bay Area.  Because everything was so damp we opted for a paved path at Sonoma Valley Regional Park.  We did a simple out and back along the Valley of the Moon Trail, which bisects the park between Highway 12 and Arnold Drive.

I'm not sure we'd been to the park when it was so green and lush.  All of the recent rains have made everything green.  In addition to Black Canyon Creek that parallels the trail the park seemed appointed with countless other smaller streams, many of which we had not noticed before.  All of them adding to the ample flow of Black Canyon before it empties into the larger Sonoma Creek.

Near the turnaround point of our hike we could hear the water in Sonoma Creek crashing through some rapids.  It made quite the racket.  By the time the creek got closer to Arnold it quited down quite a bit though the flow was impressive.

In the end we logged less than 3 miles of easy going walking but it felt really good to get outside.

Coppertone and I went on a guided hike with the Sonoma Ecology Center to illustrate the area's ability to recover from the recent wildfires that ravaged the area.  Technically, the hike was in the Sonoma Developmental Center property but it's adjacent to Sonoma Valley Regional Park and many hikes there include a visit to Lake Suttenfield here.  Many locals also consider the undeveloped acres of the SDC part of the park anyway.

We found grass fields with verdant green abundant new growth.  Even trees and bushes with blackened trunks have started to show bud breaks for new leaves.  Still, there were dark black or whitish ash patches where the fire burned hotter and regrowth has not yet been able to establish itself.  In some cases trees that had previously fallen and burned on the ground left marks that reminded me of body outlines at a crime scene.

Overall, the area showed more improvement at this point than we were expecting.  We left feeling a bit better about the valley's ability to recover.  This wasn't the first fire to come through the area and it won't be the last.  In time it will look as beautiful as when we first saw it.

Went on another Sonoma Activity Group outing starting out with a hike around Suttonfield Lake at Sonoma Valley Regional Park.  With all of the rain this past winter the grasslands were still mostly green, a startling contrast from the browns of last fall.  The lake is also filled to capacity.

After completing the loop most of us headed to the Jack London Lodge Saloon for some refreshments.  The wet winter has also created a bumper crop of mosquitoes so we cut our usual stay a bit short before heading down the street for a burger at Glen Ellen Inn.

Coppertone and I joined about ten other folks with the Sonoma Activity Group for an early evening hike around Suttonfield Lake.  We started from the Arnold Drive trailhead just north of the Sonoma Development Center.  After a very brief segment of paved trail we hopped on the packed dirt trails leading towards the lake.

Most of the group elected to take an optional detour up a steep hill above the lake, so the mapped path doesn't match the lake exactly.

It was a fairly hot day, even for the early evening.  Every brief respite under the shade of the trees was welcome.  Still, we did a quick 2.5 mile loop in just under an hour, so we didn't suffer much.

Afterwards, the group drove to the saloon at Jack London Lodge in Glenn Ellen for some cold beverages and pleasant conversation.