Santa Rosa, California: Road to trails conversion in Annadel State Park

The Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew and local volunteers had no qualms with working in the rainy weather.
The recent rains made it obvious where trail maintenance was needed.
Installing a knick will allow the water to drain off the trail.
This narrow trail used to be about 25-feet wide.
State Parks along with SCTC did a wonderful job transforming the roads into narrow and windy trails like this one.

In February 2005, Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew leaders Nat and Rachael Lopes visited Annadel State Park in Santa Rosa, California located one hour north of San Francisco. The 5,000-acre park has more than 40 miles of hiking, mountain biking, and equestrian trails that wind their way through the parks many ecosystems including the 26-acre Lake Ilsanjo and the comparably sized Ledson Marsh. The park also has a rich cultural history from Native American usage to mining, cobblestone quarrying and ranching. As a result, many miles of existing dirt roads were used as trails for years until 1993 when the park began a roads to trails makeover.

The goal was to improve the quality of the recreational experience while rehabilitating the ecosystems that were impacted by the construction and existence of large dirt roads in the park. Because the dirt roads were not originally intended for recreation or sustainability many of them were over grade, impacting resources and causing erosion and soils transport into the parkšs creeks. The popularity of the park only exacerbated these environmental problems. Marla Hastings, the Senior Resource Ecologist for the Diablo Vista District of the California State Parks spearheaded the conversion project.

The first step was to evaluate the existing roads and trails and decide which ones should be reclaimed, realigned, reduced into singletrack or left alone. Between 1998 and 2001 about 15 miles of roads were converted into narrow trails, about seven miles of road was reclaimed and another three miles of singletrack was newly constructed to substitute reclaimed road alignments. The strategic placement of massive locally-sourced boulders and a revegetation effort has resulted in the creation of flowing sinuous singletrack that provides an intimate natural trail experience, while reducing user speeds, radiant heat and dust and environmental impacts.

Ken Wells, President of the Sonoma County Trails Council estimates up to 300,000 mountain bikers visit Annadel each year because of its high quality and extensive network of singletrack trails. Mountain bikers now constitute the largest user group in the park according to California State Park Ranger Bob Birkland. This large number is the result of the rapidly growing population of the greater Santa Rosa area, and because Annadel is one of the few parks around that offer a diverse range of quality singletrack riding opportunities.