A cool collection of notebooks from the Overlook Trail in Sonoma, CA.
Make the trek to the top of the Overlook Trail and you are treated to a terrific view and the chance to take a minute to write down whatever’s on your mind.
“My feet hurt.â€
“I didn’t trip once.â€
And “I’m proud of myself,†are all recent entries in the Hikers Notebook, a spiral-bound treasure trove of thoughts sitting on a stone bench in a plastic box complete with pens and the invitation “Share Your Thoughts or Just Sign In.â€
…Roy Tennant is a volunteer trail steward who has been hiking the trail every day for almost a decade. He writes blog entries about his thoughts and findings on the trail’s website, overlookmontini.org, and for its social media pages. He’s now read all 23 of the filled hikers notebooks and is writing about the most interesting comments for the blog.
“I wondered what we were doing collecting all these if you are not going to share some of the entries,†he said. “I’ve been plowing through them and photographing the most interesting pages.†He started in March and said “the vast majority express gratitude and encouragement.†Since the writers have not given their permission for their words to be printed names are not shown in the photographs of pages included in the blog. (Names are also not included in this story.)
“It’s very interesting and hugely gratifying,†he said about the project. “It’s wonderful to see how much people appreciate the trail.â€
Read more: Overlook Trail hikers notebook offers ‘slice of humanity’
I live near the Appalachian Trail, which provides similar trail logs for hikers at intervals along the trail. The former manager of my laundromat was a member of the Appalachian Trail Club and kept a log book, decorated with a large AT logo, on top of the change machine. When hikers came down off the trail to do their laundry, they wrote in the log while waiting for their clothing to wash and dry. Alas, the management of the laundromat changed, and although the hikers still need to do their laundry, the log book is there no longer.