July 4, 2023
After 52 stages of trekking, we had just five more hiking days to go before finishing the 800-mile California Missions Trail in the city of Sonoma. We have completed several long distance treks in the past, and we usually look forward to the end with relief that the physical effort of hiking day after day is over. In this case we felt something different as we left San Francisco to head north.
Each night of our trek we go through the photos and videos we took during our stage to organize them. During one of our stages we hiked past an elementary school. Darren and I were walking a short distance apart at the time, but when we went through our photos that night, we found that we had both taken the exact same picture.
This quote almost exactly summed up our entire trek. Even though we had hiked 800 miles in a little less than 10 weeks, we were not ready for the trek to be over. In fact, we were sad to be going home. We had developed a nice routine each day, and so enjoyed the walking and mission visits. But every good thing must come to an end, and we felt a sense of gratitude as we set off north for our final five-day section.
A Golden Gate Wedding Anniversary Celebration
When we planned this trek, our start date was predicated on when the majority of the missions would be open, as they all had different hours and closure days. When I laid the final schedule into our spreadsheet, I was amazed to discover that we would walk across the Golden Gate Bridge on our wedding anniversary.
I could think of nothing more appropriate, as crossing the bridge was something that we looked forward to during the entire trek. For Darren, it was a big reason why he wanted to complete the entire hiking distance.
After our rest day in San Francisco, we had a low mileage stage to our hotel in the city of Mill Valley. So we started the day with an anniversary celebration breakfast at a restaurant.
We left mid-morning to hike through the San Francisco Presidio, one of the four forts constructed by the Spanish in Alta California. This location, Spain’s northernmost outpost, was established in 1776. Today, it is a park in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
While in the park, we took a quick detour to visit the Yoda Fountain at the headquarters of Lucasfilm, as we are big Star Wars fans.
Next, we walked to the Palace of Fine Arts. It was originally constructed to exhibit art at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition (World’s Fair). The Palace of Fine Arts was one of 10 palaces at the heart of the exposition. Completely reconstructed in the 1960s, it is the only building that survives on the site.
We were fortunate that the fog lifted and the sun came out briefly while at the Palace of Fine Arts, making it stunning to see and to photograph.
Leaving the Presidio, we headed toward the Golden Gate Bridge.
When it opened in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge was the longest and tallest suspension bridge in the world. As we climbed up to the bridge, the fog moved back in.
Following the sign to the bridge; photo before we start the bridge crossing
Before we entered the fog, we had a nice view of the San Francisco skyline behind us.
Once on the bridge, we walked 1.7 miles across the strait at a height of about 220 feet above the water. Even with the fog, it did not disappoint and was definitely a highlight of our entire trek.
Walking across the Golden Gate Bridge
We entered Marin County and hiked to the city of Sausalito. After a lunch break, we continued a few more miles, ending the 10.5-mile stage in Mill Valley.
A Short Stage to Mission San Rafael
The next day we had another short day of hiking. We began the 9.8-mile stage by walking through the Bothin Marsh Preserve, a 106-acre wetland.
Views of the marsh preserve
Using a combination of bike paths, a horse preserve trail, a tunnel, and streets, we hiked through the cities of Corte Madera and Larkspur before arriving in the city of San Rafael.
Our 20th mission visit was located in the heart of San Rafael. Similar to what we saw in San Francisco, Mission San Rafael sat next to the more modern Church of Saint Raphael that was constructed in 1919.
The mission was established in 1817 as an asistencia or helper facility to tend to the ill at Mission Dolores in San Francisco. It was named after Saint Raphael the Archangel, who is the angel of bodily healing.
The facility became successful and expanded into a ranch with orchards and farmland. Boat building was also a specialty. It was converted into an actual mission in 1822, becoming the 20th in the system.
After the mission era, the facility fell into disrepair and all the buildings were demolished in 1870. In 1949 a replica church was completed with a grant from the Hearst Foundation. The front of the church had a star-shaped window, similar to what we had seen at Mission Carmel.
As the replica church is one of the smallest in the network, the interior was not as ornate as others we had seen.
At almost every mission we visited we saw the 14 Stations of the Cross (scenes showing events during Christ’s crucifixion) that were either hung or painted on the church inside walls. The ones in Mission San Rafael were among the most beautiful.
Three of the 14 Stations of the Cross on the walls of the Mission San Rafael church
Our visit to San Rafael was timed to ensure that we would arrive during the hours that the gift shop was open so we could get our mission stamp. Their hours varied from just two to four hours a day. Fortunately, we arrived about an hour before closing, so had no trouble getting our stamp.
After the mission visit we had about 1.25 miles to hike to our hotel. It was getting hot, so we stopped for a cold drink break on the way to make the walk a little more bearable.
Hitting a Heat Wave and a Real Road Closure
We had only two hot days of hiking since leaving San Diego on April 26, but now had a heat wave in the forecast during our last few trekking stages. The temperature forecast for our 13.2-mile stage was in the 90 Fs, so we left before 7:00 am to start walking toward the city of Novato.
The route alternated between bike paths and streets. Fortunately, there was quite a bit of shade from the trees.
Walking along bike paths between San Rafael and Novato
We even saw an El Camino Real bell while walking on a frontage road next to US Highway 101.
After completing about 11 miles in four hours, we entered the city of Novato and spent some time cooling off at a Starbucks and eating lunch at an Irish Pub. We timed our final two-mile push to our hotel to get us there just before check-in time at 3:00 pm. It was 94 F when we finished for the day.
Another hot day was in the forecast for the next stage. This time we had to navigate through a real road closure with a manned checkpoint. A section of road, connecting to a bike trail, had been damaged from last winter’s storms. As the closure was located at the beginning of the stage and right next to our hotel, Darren walked over to the checkpoint to see if there was any way we could walk through, as the detour would add 17 miles.
After a conversation confirmed that we could not enter, we called an Uber to drive us around. This shortened our hiking distance by two miles to only 8.4 miles for the day.
Once the Uber dropped us off, we spent the entire stage walking on streets. The 8.4-mile distance included a slightly longer alternative route that climbed through beautiful hills and farms on a quiet road. It also had more shade, which was helpful while walking in the heat.
Since we had been hiking through more urban areas as of late, we enjoyed the respite in the countryside. We walked past farms with animals and wide open hillsides.
Farm views – an old barn; turkey; pig
We reached the city of Petaluma at a little before noon, as the temperature registered 89 F. While walking through a neighborhood, we came upon a lemonade stand. The cold drink tasted good in the heat.
The modern city of Petaluma traces its roots to a 66,000-acre rancho Mexican land grant in 1834. After eating our lunch in a shady park and running a few errands, we walked a short distance through the downtown to our hotel, again timing our arrival to the check-in time.
Our hotel was located in the former Petaluma Silk Mill building. It reminded us of our Irvine hotel stay during the second week of trekking in a building converted from an old silo that held beans and barley.
Arriving at our hotel in the old silk building; inside our room with old Petaluma map window shades
We ate dinner in a beer garden. With the hot stage over, the cold beer tasted great.
A Ringing Trek End at our Final Mission Stop
Waking up on our final day of trekking, we had just 15 miles to go to the city of Sonoma. To arrive there we needed to walk along a series of busy roads for most of the stage. It had been a couple of weeks since we had done this type of road walking, so it took a little getting used to again. At least the shoulder was wide the entire time.
The time seemed to fly by as we took in the Sonoma County vineyard views on either side of the road.
Before we knew it, we were on the outskirts of Sonoma. Turning off the road, we walked along a peaceful bike path. Darren looked at his watch and announced that we had less than a mile left on our 800-mile trek.
Looking down the bike path; noting our final mile (0.89) to go on Darren’s watch
We left the bike path to enter the heart of the city, with historic buildings on one side and a grassy plaza on the other.
It was in the plaza during June 1846 that the 25-day Bear Flag Revolt took place. A group of settlers occupied Sonoma Plaza and proclaimed a Republic of California, independent from Mexican rule. The Bear Flag raised in Sonoma was the inspiration for the modern California state flag.
Across from the plaza was Mission San Francisco Solano and the end of the trail. During the trek, we had been sharing our progress with the California Mission Walkers group on their Facebook page. They are also the group behind one of the books we used to plan our trek.
When we arrived at Mission San Francisco Solano, we were greeted by a group led by California Mission Walker Sonoma Ambassadors Dave and Jennifer.
They presented us with certificates and patches signifying our successful completion of the trail. We were the 78th and 79th hikers and 28th and 29th thru-hikers to complete the 800-mile distance!
After celebrating with some sparkling cider, we posed with Dave and Jennifer in front of the mission and a trail marker signifying the end of the Spanish Mission trail. The marker detailed the span of 300 years between the first Spanish missions in today’s Mexico and the 21 structures built in Alta California.
Mission finish photo with Dave and Jennifer; mission trail marker (click the photo to read the inscription)
After all the celebrations we still needed to visit our final mission on the route. Mission San Francisco Solano was established in 1823 as the 21st mission in the network. It was the only mission built under Mexican, instead of Spanish, rule.
The mission, at its peak, encompassed 10,000 acres of land. However, it only lasted 11 years before it was secularized in 1834. The buildings were mostly destroyed after the 1906 earthquake, but subsequently rebuilt by preservation groups.
Entering the mission chapel; close-up of the altar
While at the mission we also received our final stamp. as well as a special one certifying that we had walked to all 21 missions.
First and last pages of our mission passport stamp book – the final 800 mile stamp is in the bottom right corner
(Click the photos to view in more detail)
Smiling at the Trekking Memories
Starting at Mission San Diego on April 26; Completing 800 miles at Mission San Francisco Solano on July 3
It’s difficult to boil down almost 10 weeks of trekking into just a few sentences. In addition to the mission focus of the hike, we experienced so much of California, from its coastal beaches, to urban cities, to vast farmlands, to majestic redwood and oak trees and peaceful rolling hills.
Here are some random statistics that we compiled from our trek:
| Number of Stages Trekked: | 57 |
| Number of Rest Days: | 12 |
| Actual Miles Hiked (includes to / from hotels, stores, and activities off the route): | 839.4 |
| Average Number of Actual Miles per Stage: | 14.7 |
| Average Hours of Hiking per Stage: | 5:51 |
| Longest Actual Stage Miles (Monterey to Salinas, including to / from hotels): | 21.1 |
| Shortest Hiking Miles between Missions (Mission Santa Clara to Mission San Jose): | 17 |
| Longest Hiking Miles between Missions (Mission San Juan Capistrano to Mission San Gabriel): | 63 |
| Number of Counties Hiked Through (California has 58 counties): | 15 |
| Money found on the Route (along the side of the road): | $21.34 |
We are, at heart, wilderness backpackers, so a mostly paved road trek of this duration was something that we have not done before. The variety of the things we saw made it interesting. But the road walking on some of the stages was mentally taxing. We both agree that the physical side of this hike was not as challenging for us as the mental aspects were.
Worn out shoes – Sandy’s on the left, Darren’s on the right
But the trek was definitely worth the effort for us, as we saw places in California that few ever see. We also learned a great deal about the state’s origins and history, And it was nice to enjoy different locales each night and sleep in a hotel. With all the caveats mentioned above, we would definitely recommend the California Missions Trail to others who might be interested.
Even though we were sad about the trek coming to an end, we had smiles on our faces from all the great memories from the 57 stages and 800 miles of trekking as we started our journey home.
Thanks so much to all of you following our trek and supporting us with your likes and comments. It means so much to us!
Take a look at our final section update video, with our highlights from San Francisco to Sonoma:
Darren and Sandy, thanks for your commentary and photos from this incredible trip. That’s pretty amazing that there haven’t been very many thru hikers. It’s quite an accomplishment.
Great memories. Where are you thinking for your next adventure?
It was an amazing journey, and we were also surprised to be among so few that have completed it as a thru hike. We are off to the Washington PCT next. Thanks, John!