Paul Haddad - 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A.: 57 Walking Adventures

SECOND EDITION
Revised and Expanded with New Walks

10,000
STEPS A DAY IN L.A.

57 WALKING ADVENTURES

by Paul Haddad

Copyright 2020 by Paul Haddad

All rights reserved.

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part or in any form or format without the written permission of the publisher.

www.santamonicapress.com

Printed in the United States

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This book is intended to provide general information. The publisher, author, distributor, and copyright owner are not engaged in rendering professional advice or services. The publisher, author, distributor, and copyright owner are not liable or responsible to any person or group with respect to any loss, illness, or injury caused or alleged to be caused by the information found in this book.

ISBN-13 9781595800992

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Haddad, Paul.

10,000 steps a day in L.A. : 57 walking adventures / by Paul Haddad.

pages cm

Description: Second Edition. | Santa Monica, California : Santa Monica Press, [2020] | Previous edition: 2015.

Summary: The first book to integrate the 10,000 steps fitness phenomenon into the Los Angeles terrain, 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A. : 57 Walking Adventures takes readers through the beaches, mountains, parks, rivers, and reservoirs of L.A. while immersing them in the citys lore, history, landmarks, and sometimes quirky locales--Provided by publisher.

ISBN 9781595800992

1. Los Angeles (Calif.)--Tours. 2. Walking--California--Los Angeles--Guidebooks. 3. Physical fitness--California--Los Angeles. I. Title. II. Title: Ten thousand steps a day in Los Angeles. III. Title: Ten thousand steps a day in L.A. IV. Title: 10,000 steps a day in Los Angeles.

F869.L83H23 2015

979.494--dc23

2019953710

Cover and interior design and production by Future Studio

Maps by Bryan Duddles

Photos by Paul Haddad

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

GREETINGS, WALKER!

S ince you made the decision to pick up this book, you are obviously a walking apostle. If you are a new reader, I salute you for your dual interests in maintaining an active lifestyle and exploring Los Angeles. Youve definitely come to the right place! If you are someone who purchased the original version of this book, Im happy to say that this version includes six new walks and updates to the original fifty-two routes. (Sadly, due to severe damage to Peter Strauss Ranch and Paramount Ranch from the 2018 Woolsey Fire, the Agoura Hills walk has been eliminated from this printing.)

No matter which category you fall in, we all can take a certain satisfaction in knowing that some of humanitys greatest mindsfrom Ludwig van Beethoven to President Truman to Steve Jobsenjoyed daily constitutionals. And since you live in the twenty-first century, chances are youre the owner of a pedometer, a Fitbit, an Apple Watch, or some other digital doohickey that measures your steps on a daily basis. (And if you dont own one, no worriesyou can still do these walks without one.)

For many of us, 10,000 steps a day has become our mantra. The concept first took hold in Japan in the 1960s. Dr. Yoshiro Hatano determined that a person who takes 10,000 steps a day would burn twenty percent of their caloric intake. To this day, a pedometer in Japan is called a manpo-kei (literally, 10,000 steps meter).

Flash forward to the present. The benefits of 10,000 daily steps are hailed by a number of health institutions: the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Center for Disease Control, the American Heart Foundation, and the Surgeon General. Companies like Kaiser Permanente and the Mayo Clinic have joined health experts Dr. Oz and Bob Greene (Oprahs trainer) and a growing list of celebrities in publicly endorsing the 10,000-steps program. On a local level, friends of my wife and mine are known to display their daily steps to one another with the same gushing pride once reserved for pictures of their kids. Ive personally become so obsessed that Ill sometimes pace my living room before bed just to rack up the steps needed to get to that magical five-digit number. Hey, at least I dont have a treadmill desk. Yet.

Attaining 10,000 daily steps is a reminder that staying active as an adult takes work, especially in a car-centric city like Los Angeles. In fact, since the original printing of this book in 2015, I would contend that it takes even more work to find the motivation to walk. Sidewalks have become battlefields as pedestrians jostle for space among homeless camps and scooters. The relative affordability of on-demand electric vehicles and ridesharing services further reduces our incentive. Like winking mistresses, they beckon us to take the easy way out instead of hoofing it for that last extra mile.

Growing up in the Santa Monica Mountains, I became so familiar with the canyons near my house that I could practically hike them blindfolded. Fitness milestones were not a thing I had to worry about. Apparently, my dad didnt either; his favorite pastime was taking the family out for Sunday drives. This was around the same time that the new wave band Missing Persons was telling us nobody walks in L.A.

What accounts for our budding love affair with our feet? Many things: strong communities built around younger families, millennials moving into urban digs, city planners pushing denser, transit-oriented projects, and a renewed awareness of nature and the environment. All of these are byproducts of healthy living. Long walks make us feel good; without them, our day feels incomplete.

Still, some days 10,000 steps prove elusive. Your boss keeps you late at the office. The kids have karate practice. The refrigerator repair guy gave you a four-hour window and hes still running late. But theres always the weekend. For many of us, Sunday drives have been replaced by weekend jaunts or hikes, when we can carve out more time to seek out our surroundings than during the work week. Its why this book was originally broken up into fifty-two walksone for each weekend of the year. Which leads to another aspect of walking, perhaps the most important of all, because without it, we wouldnt want to do it in the first place:

Walking should be fun.

I may be biased, but I believe there is no greater walkable metropolis than Los Angeles. My observation has been shaped by a lifetime of exploring L.A. and traveling to forty-eight other states and thirty countries. Like Manhattan, we have our own cultural enclaves marked by historic architecture and exotic cuisine. But we are also blessed with a temperate climate and a famously diverse topography that includes a swath of mountains right through the center of the city. We also have Hollywood. Whether its moseying through an old Western movie set, checking out La La Land locations, or dropping by not one but both churches where future president Ronald Reagan married his two wives, this book trains our pedometers on L.A.s unique and endlessly fascinating stature as the entertainment capital of the world.