A new pilgrimage route, the Camino de Sonoma, runs right through Sebastopol
The 75-mile Camino de Sonoma runs from the mission in Sonoma to Fort Ross
Everyone knows that walking is good for your body, but the people behind the Camino de Sonoma, a 75-mile walk from the mission in Sonoma to the Russian Orthodox chapel at Fort Ross, say it’s also good for the soul.
The original Camino de Santiago in Spain sees over 400,000 pilgrims each year. The Camino de Sonoma, which was founded by two Sonoma County men, Adam Peacocke and Tony McCormick, in 2019, isn’t anywhere near that, but it’s popularity is already outstripping the ability of the founding group of volunteer guides to keep up with all the requests from would-be pilgrims.
The Camino de Sonoma is divided into six stages 12 to 14 miles long, each of which can be walked in one day. Accordingly, walking the whole 75-mile route takes six days. The Camino, which has no official markers, is about 60 percent on trails, 40 percent on roads.
The fourth stage starts in Sebastopol’s downtown plaza and winds its way for 13.1 miles through vineyards, farmland, and redwood forests to Occidental. That’s an elevation gain of 1,246 feet.
According to Camino guide Stephen Morris, who works for the Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa, 150 people have walked the entire route since it was founded. Last year around 600 people walked at least one stage.
The Camino de Sonoma was envisioned as a continuation of the mission pilgrimage route that runs through California from San Diego to Sonoma. You might suspect therefore that the Camino de Sonoma was a Catholic project. In fact, its founders are devout Protestants, and the Camino is a distinctly ecumenical venture.
All are welcome to make the pilgrimage—regardless of their faith tradition or lack of one.
“It’s 100% nondenominational,” said Morris. “It’s for all people, but also we don't shy away from faith.”
Pilgrimage is an essentially spiritual practice, and the Camino de Sonoma is no exception.
“It's more than a hike. It's a religious experience. It's a healing path,” said Dr. Steven Winter, a professor of kinesiology at SSU, who is in training to become a Camino de Sonoma guide.
Winter walked the Camino’s final stage (Jenner to Fort Ross) for his 60th birthday and once he did, he was hooked. Morris and Winter joke about what they call “OCD” or “obsessive Camino disorder,” the feeling that once you walk one stage, you have to walk all the rest—and then walk them all over again.
However, Morris knows that not all people view “a long walk” as a good thing. For some Native Americans, the idea of a long walk has a “trail of tears” connotation—and this is particularly true of the Pomo people who were forcibly removed from the Santa Rosa/Sebastopol area and marched northward to Covelo in Mendocino County. Morris said the founders of the Camino purposely reached out to local Pomo people to make sure their culture and history were incorporated into the experience of the Camino de Sonoma.
The Camino, like all pilgrimages, is meant to be a healing experience—and sometimes healing involves contrition for past wrongs.
Morris said they’ve incorporated a Native American idea about the importance of footsteps on a journey.
“Their footsteps are considered forms of prayer,” he said. “So if you walk one day on the Camino, that is about 12 to 14 miles—everybody has different strides—we count that as about 25,000 steps, or 25,000 prayers of healing.”
But the walking isn’t the only thing that’s healing about the Camino de Sonoma, according to its advocates.
“It's more than just good exercise,” Winter said. “It's good fellowship, spending a whole day walking and talking with people.”
On these walks, stories are exchanged, hopes and burdens are shared—“which is easier to do when you’re shoulder to shoulder rather than face to face,” Morris said.
Unlike the European pilgrimage routes, the Camino de Sonoma is not dotted with hostels and quaint trailside inns. People walking the whole route or several stages have to stay overnight in local hotels. Morris said that Alliance Redwoods in Occidental has made yurts available to pilgrims at reasonable prices, and a few local homeowners, after finding out about the Camino, have allowed their yards to be used as regular rest stops.
“I know you’re not supposed to have favorites among your children, but Stage Four is my favorite,” Morris said of the Sebastopol route. “It has everything that all the other stages do—except the ocean—and it has a difficulty level that makes you feel like you’ve done something hard, what with all the up and down.”
Which is, if you think about it, a good metaphor for life.
“Each of us brings a different healing path to this for sure, as we are all on our own journey,” Morris said.
These personal journeys are also tied to a broader historical journey, Winter noted.
“If you think about it, Sonoma County plays an interesting role in the history of Christianity,” he said. “The Sonoma mission and Fort Ross are both in our county. And the Sonoma mission is the highest [i.e., northernmost] of the Spanish missions.” It was the last California Mission, built in 1823. “Western Christianity went through the Mediterranean into South America, up through California, and the Orthodox faith went through Eurasia, through Russia, down through Alaska. Both of those things—the two major forms of Christianity—east and west—went all the way around the world and met in our county. That’s remarkable.”
On Thursday, Feb. 22, guides from Camino de Sonoma will be leading a 13.1-mile Sebastopol to Occidental walk. RSVP for this walk here. Learn more about the Camino de Sonoma and other upcoming walks on their website.
Walking the Sebastopol stage of the Camino de Sonoma
You’ll learn a lot of local history if you walk with a Camino de Sonoma guide, but you can tackle the Camino de Sonoma on your own as well. You can find Stage 4 of the Camino de Sonoma—Sebastopol to Occidental—on AllTrails. Here’s the route description from that website:
Camino de Sonoma Stage 4, Sebastopol to Occidental, begins at Sebastopol Central Park [the downtown plaza]. Head to Main St. N, pausing to reflect at the Pomo mural on the south side of McKinley St. Turn right on Main St. N. and go three blocks to pick up West County Trail, which will eventually parallel Gravenstein Hwy. N. until you reach Occidental Road. Andy's Produce Market is a great rest stop for a coffee drink and snacks of all kinds. Head west on Occidental Road to re-connect with West County Trail to Graton. Willow Wood Market Café is a good stop for coffee and pastry. Stay on West County Trail to Green Valley Road, turn left and follow to Harrison Grade Road. Enjoy the shade of the redwoods as you climb up Harrison Grade Road to Morelli Lane. Follow Morelli Lane, enjoying the many scenic vistas of west Sonoma County, to Occidental-Camp Meeker Road. Keep an eye out for Big Foot near this intersection. Occidental-Camp Meeker Road follows Lancel Creek through the Redwoods to the beautiful hamlet of Occidental.
I love the idea of a Sonoma County pilgrimage route but question the wisdom and sensitivity of tying it to the Franciscan missions and Spanish conquest which decimated the local population.
Might it be more appropriate for it to remind pilgrims - and all of us - of the cultures that have existed here for over 10,000 years? In all likelihood, this route follows earlier Pomo and Wappo trading routes.
I dearly hope there is acknowledgement that this was the route that led directly to the deaths of most Native Americans in Northern California, as corporal Ignacio Miramontes spread smallpox from Ft. Ross to Sonoma in 1837.