Another all-day hike, this time to Annadel State Park near Santa Rosa! This is where we go for not just hills, but seriously rough ‘n rocky trail.

Driving toward Santa Rosa from where we live in Petaluma, we could see the mountaintops were dusted with snow, and brrrr, it was cold! When we headed out from the trailhead, we were wearing all our layers plus gloves.

Thanks to a bit of rain recently, the plants were really perking up, and the wildflowers are starting to bloom, though not with the size and vigor and profusion they usually have. Most blooms were rather small and sparse. I saw a lot of wild forget-me-not and the first of the shooting stars.

The route we like to follow includes a trail named “Rough Go” and that is a very accurate description! It’s extremely rocky, and the rocks are mostly all volcanic. This whole area was once the scene of volcanic eruptions. Mt. St. Helena, just to the north and dusted with snow today, actually is a volcano, and even has a petrified forest at its foot. The many hot springs in this area are a pretty good indicator that “it ain’t over yet”; there is molten lava deep within the earth below us.

On really rocky trail, Fixit (Bill) just goes bopping along at full speed regardless, while I am picking my way and choosing where to put my feet down. The reason is that I’ve had several falls (one pretty bad) on the rocky trails in this park, and have learned that I just have to slow down. It is really frustrating when I know I COULD be going a lot faster, but dare not do it. Part of the problem is that I have really BIG feet in proportion to the rest of me, plus I have bifocal glasses, so if I look through the top of the glasses, the ground looks like it’s waaaaaay far down, and if I look through the bottom part, the ground looks like it’s at my knees. I depend a lot on my trek poles to let me know where the ground actually IS!

But aside from that, I love hiking here. There are so many different aspects to this park: tree-covered mountains (Douglas fir, all kinds of oaks & madrones & laurel, plus occasional redwood groves) as well as a lake and a marsh, and many lovely, open meadows. Today we saw many, many wild turkeys. It’s pretty obviously the time of year when the boy turkeys are looking for girl turkeys! We heard gobbling off and on all day and saw many of the toms strutting their stuff. One of them looked like he was practicing–he would “buff up” and hold it for a few seconds, then go back to normal, then “buff up” again. He kept doing this over and over.

Annadel State Park is also a favorite destination for trail BIKE riders. We meet lots of them here! They are brave. You could not PAY me to go careening down these trails on a BIKE. We’ve stood by and watched as paramedics had to helicopter out a bike rider who wrecked his bike and himself. The medics told us that about once a week they have to go in and rescue injured bike riders. I believe it. These trails are rough & tough. I prefer HIKING them!

Our favorite lunch spot here is at Ledson Marsh, where we are practically guaranteed some good birdwatching–water birds in the marsh (a lot of geese today) and raptors as well as smaller birds.

Two years ago, during the awful fires near Santa Rosa, a large part of Annadel Park was burned. We went through some of the “burn zone” this morning, and the afternoon part of our hike today took us through a part where the burn was pretty bad. Almost all the trees were killed. Some are resprouting from their roots, but many magnificent oak trees are completely dead. It is so sad. You can tell how bad the fire was in any given area by looking at the tree trunks. In the badly damaged zones, the trees are black and burned all the way to their tops. In other areas, the black burned bark goes only partway up the trunk, and in other areas, there’s a bit of black on the trunk, but only on one side.

But we really like seeing how everything is slowly recovering. There were even some oak trees that last summer looked dead, but this time, on maybe one small branch, they are sprouting a few leaves. Amazing!

Back home, we continued “collating stuff for the AT” and collecting boxes to put it in. I just finished drying a lot of slices of leeks and I’m crumbling them up into little bits to bring with us and add to our dinners on the trail. We are both feeling strong and looking forward to when the adventure begins!

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