multi-use trails – Enviro Updates

Trail plan nearly two years in making provides a glimpse of Trione-Annadel park of the future

February 28, 2026

Austin Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

High up on Bennett Mountain near the southwest corner of Trione-Annadel State Park is an aerie known as Henry’s Knob, whose rounded contours explain its other nickname, The Boob.

With its panoramic views, that 1,525-foot eminence is a coveted destination in the park, though not, technically, a legal one. Henry’s Knob – named for Henry Szostak, a leader of the Oakmont Hikers, rather than Henry Trione, the beloved local philanthropist who spearheaded the creation of this park 55 years ago — is accessible only via unsanctioned “social” trails, which is why Don McCullough has yet to set foot on it.

McCullough, president of Friends of Trione-Annadel, said he stays off those “non-system” trails to better preserve the park’s resources.

But the day is coming when he will stand on Henry’s Knob.

A State Parks team recently completed its “Public Draft” of the long-awaited “Trione-Annadel State Park Road and Trail Management Plan,” or RTMP, whose soporific title belies the excitement — and, in rarer cases, anger — it is kindling among users of this 5,500-acre refuge on a plateau at the eastern edge of Santa Rosa.

Land UseFriends of Trione-Annadel, multi-use trails, Trione-Annadel State Park

West County Trail extension opens near downtown Forestville

April 23, 2021

Elissa Chudwin, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

An extension of the West County Trail that connects to downtown Forestville now is open, according to a news release from Sonoma County Regional Parks.

The .2-mile extension connects the trail’s northern end at Parajo Lane to Front Street in Forestville for the first time in the trail’s history. An 8-foot-wide raised boardwalk also was constructed on a section of the extension so cyclists and pedestrians can access the trail despite seasonal flooding.

The West County Trail is part of a 13-mile network that links Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Graton and Forestville.

Land Use, Transportationmulti-use trails, Sonoma County Regional Parks, West County Trail

Study of public trail along lower Russian River to kick off with Saturday meeting

May 9, 2019

Mary Callahan, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Russian River Trail Feasibility Study

The vision of a 19-mile bike and pedestrian trail linking lower Russian River communities from Forestville to Jenner is still just that, but Sonoma County officials are taking the first steps toward what they hope might make for a concrete plan one day.

Armed with more than $750,000 in grant funding for the purpose, regional parks personnel are launching a feasibility study to figure out where they might try to route a multiuse trail that would provide a safer alternative than River Road or Highway 116 for cyclists and pedestrians, offering recreational opportunities to locals and visitors.

The high-speed, high-traffic route through west Sonoma County hosts an average of 11,000 daily vehicle trips, and has a history of bicycle and pedestrian crashes, officials said.

“We’re looking at providing a trail that is actually separate from the roadway, if we can provide a safe place for folks to walk and bike,” Sonoma County Regional Parks Planner Ken Tam said. “If we can keep them away from the shoulder it will actually provide safety for the vehicles, as well.”

But “it’s a pretty daunting task,” given the breadth of the study area, significant development up to the roadways in some areas and other obstacles — like bridges, steep embankments, private property rights and the like, Tam said.

A public meeting scheduled Saturday morning in Guerneville is part of the process. County consultants want to hear from the public about priority areas for safe passage and important linkages or destinations, like schools, beaches and service centers, Tam said.

Transportationbike trails, multi-use trails, trails, walkability

Friends rally for Santa Rosa’s open-space heart, Trione-Annadel State Park

June 12, 2018

Gaye LeBaron, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Parks like this need friends, which is why, three years ago, an organization that calls itself just that, Friends of Trione-Annadel, was organized. Its membership represents the spectrum of usage — hikers and horsemen, runners, mountain bikers — everyone from the casual stroller to the dedicated botanist and naturalist on the prowl to catalog a new plant.

Today we’re talking about Trione-Annadel State Park, that magnificent stretch of hills and dales where, if a runner, hiker, horseman or mountain biker starts in Howarth and enters through Spring Lake, he or she can do at least 15 miles on pathways before emerging in Kenwood.

(Of course, as armchair jockeys are quick to point out, then they have to get home.)

I am aware I am preaching to the choir here because most of you already know what an asset this is to our area. It is the most-used park in this part of Northern California, closing in on 150,000 visits a year to its 5,500 acres.

All that love comes with some problems, as Supervising Ranger Neill Fogarty points out. One, of course, is abuse — physical abuse to the fields and forests by those who would “make new trails,” daredevils who sometimes fail to abide by the old rules of kindergarten to “play nicely with others,” and financial abuse from the hundreds, maybe thousands, of people each year who don’t pay the toll.

The appreciative ones, according to Fogarty, pay up at the Channel Drive entrance, and many park visitors have annual park passes, but there are the inevitable freeloaders, their mission made easier by the fact the park can entered from so many populated areas — not only Santa Rosa, Kenwood and Bennett Ridge but all borders in between. Many nearby homeowners can walk into the park from their neighborhood.

Land Usebicycling damage, multi-use trails, parks, State Parks