Secret Stairs #40: Santa Monica—Rustic Canyon Loop, 3 miles, 1,069 steps

Barbara and I start our hikes at 8am, spoiled by the solitude of having the streets and steps to ourselves. Very few people exercise that early on Sundays and those that do are generally friendly and walking happy, tongue-hanging dogs. Today's hike had the friendly dogs, but solitude? Not on Santa Monica's notorious 4th St. staircase (first picture) where athletic-types in varied stages of fitness ran up and down the 189-step staircase like it was their personal outdoor StairMaster. At the top, Adelaide Drive was their makeshift exercise studio—people in the street doing sit ups, push ups, weights, and yoga stretches before attacking the wooden staircase going down (or up, depending on the plan.) Disgusted local homeowners tried to close the 4th St. steps to the public, but couldn't. The steps are part of the region's tsunami escape system!

Overall, our 1,069 step hike seemed demanding at the outset, but the climb was divided over 10 different staircases. We've done more strenuous but it's always a treat to spend the morning near the ocean.