Battling the Ridge Trail ‘Wall’ on Sonoma Mountain

The Bay Area Ridge Trail across Sonoma Mountain climbs a series of switchbacks at North Sonoma Mountain Regional Park and Open Space before crossing a narrow isthmus of dedicated open space and plunging headlong into the forest at Jack London State Historic Park. The “wall” was purely psychological as we crossed the 80 percent completion threshold on our Ridge Trail trek.

We are hiking the 405-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.

TRAIL MAP (date hiked)

• Jack London State Park to North Sonoma Mountain Regional Park (Feb. 7, 2023)

Our Journal

We’ve been day-hiking the Bay Area Ridge Trail for nearly two years. We’ve take several weeks-long breaks from the trail to help manage the needs of our extended family and enjoy some vacations and the holidays. Dan needed some time off last summer after a successful heart procedure. Sometimes we’re just lazy.

Now more than four-fifths of the way toward completing our journey, we’ve lost a bit of our enthusiasm. We still have some tough hikes ahead. And as the number of miles hiked (including connectors and trail returns) climbs past 500, we’re kind of ready to get this thing done. Call it the Ridge Trail “Wall.”

So how are we managing the wall? On this outing we pampered ourselves a little bit. We spent a pre-hike night in Glen Ellen and enjoyed a nice dinner at The Fig Cafe and Wine Bar and breakfast at Les Pascals Patisserie. And we engaged our daughter, who lives not far from Sonoma Mountain, as our shuttle driver between trail heads.

Did it work? Well, we checked another segment off of our list. Onward.

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