This meet up is all about exploring Los Angeles on foot.  There are so many interesting parts of Los Angeles that you never notice as you drive by it in your car.  By getting out and exploring the city, we'll discover new things we didn't know existed.  We'll try to keep most hikes between 4-7 miles to make sure we have time to complete the hike and have time to explore during the hike.

What is Urban Hiking?

An urban hike gives us the chance to explore the terrain we live in, to contemplate how we live and interact with the urban space we call home. We break out of the limitations of our daily agendas and how they circumscribe our perception of where we live. I think we’re more likely to give nature its due as independent, animated space. How do we perceive the shape and spirit of the cities we live in? We too often disconnect from our urban spaces, but in doing so we forget that we’re always creatures of habitat. Whatever place we reside, we learn to “be” in that place – survive, thrive – just as our ancestors did. What can change in our “being” (or being there) when we come to know the city we call home?

Likewise, urban hiking can help us reclaim our own natural wayfaring instincts. As with nature hiking, we can explore our urban environments with the trekking mindset. Urban hiking isn’t just a walk after all: like any hike, it’s a journey we undertake, a physical and sensory passage we retreat within. We engage with a place by acting within it, moving within it, taking it into our senses and imagination – not as isolated landmarks but as a full and continuous terrain. As much help and assurance as cells phones and GPS can be, take it in on your own terms. See where your whim takes you, where the landscape of people and activity and architecture lead you. Absorb the chance for deep, contemplative solitude or relish the opportunities for new acquaintance and conversation. Lose yourself for a fall afternoon in the complex configurations and meanderings of the place you’ll never see the same way again. 

[From http://www.marksdailyapple.com/urban-hiking...]