In the Beginning, There was a Book

So, hello. This is the first of what I hope will be many posts. About hiking. Or, rather, it'll be about walking on dirt paths in and around the greater Los Angeles area.

Three years ago, my mom bought me a great book about hikes in LA. She bought it for me because we'd taken a trip that year to O'ahu, Hawaii, and I'd done a bunch of hiking there and hadn't stopped talking about it since. When Christmas rolled around, *poof!* There was the book in my stocking. The book is called, 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles, by Laura Randall.  Look! My first link in my first blog! Okay, moving on.... I have the 1st edition, which doesn't look at all like the 2nd edition, but whatever. The places are still there.

[Lesson Learned: If I talk enough about something, eventually my mom may do my favorite thing: buy me a book about it.]

So, I decided, finally, after 3 years of putting things off and finding reasons not to go hiking, to get into a routine and get out the book. And, after thinking about this for three years, I decided to make my foray into local hiking a much bigger deal than it really is...and to blog about it.

[Lesson Learned: When you get an idea, get off your butt and just do it. Now.]

So, here's the plan: Start at the beginning of the book, and work my way to the end. I'm a full-time swim coach, and I have Multiple Sclerosis, which means my schedule is whacked, and I need sleep and lots of recovery time. I coach a few mornings a week, so I decided that each Thursday, after morning practice (during which I coach adults, which involves no physical activity whatsoever on my part), I'll go on the next hike in the book.

But there are 60 hikes, you say! One measly hike a week will take more than a year to complete! Well, right you are, dear reader, so I'll do my best to take my trusty book along with me whenever I go to a swim meet or whenever I have a day off, and I'll pledge to get in a hike on those days, too. Whenever my schedule allows me to take an extra hike a week, so be it. But each Thursday, come hell or high water, I'll do a hike from the book.

I'll write about each hike here, take pictures on my trusty phone, log time spent, miles logged, and calories burnt using Endomondo, an app on said trusty phone, and I'll also log any lessons learned, so you don't have to make the same mistakes I do, should you try to replicate any of my little journeys about town.

So, here we go. Onward and upward, to hike #01, in Baldwin Hills....