Secret Stairs #39, Santa Monica—Bluffs and Beach Walk, 3.5 miles, 516 steps.

Barbara and I let the weekend heatwave dictate today's hike, and the thermometer sent us to the beach. A perfect opportunity to redo our Nov. 2015 Charles Fleming Secret Stairs Walk. Back then, the California Incline was closed for renovation. Today we hiked the length of the newly rebuilt stretch connecting Ocean Avenue to PCH. A bit of history: in 1875 the Incline was a pedestrian walkway cut through the bluff to connect Linda Vista (now Palisades) Park to the beach below, an empty stretch of sand compared to today's houses/parking lots/bike paths at the ocean. In 1905 the city made the path into a road (pictured below), then widened and structured it in 1932. In 1998 the Incline was put on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 2016 it was demolished and replaced by the fancy new version we walked today. But our hike wasn't *all* Incline. We started out at the carousel on the Santa Monica Pier, and then climbed up and down 13 staircases from the beach to the park above to the beach again between hiking the Incline. (So fun! We miss staircases!). Hundreds of people and deliriously happy dogs passed us through the park and along the bike path on the ocean. Just a gorgeous, happy, invigorating hike with a double-doses of whipped cream on iced blended mochas on the pier at the end. Heatwave? June gloom? Not for us.