Very muddy Sonoma Valley Trail

Trail View
Look uphill, away from Highway 12 and try to ignore the road noise.
User: Austin Explorer - 12/26/2022

Location: Sonoma Valley Regional Park

Rating: 2stars
Difficulty: 3stars  Solitude: 2stars
Miles Hiked: 2.10 Miles  Elapsed Time: 57 minutes

Comments:

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.



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Trail View
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