Hiking This Year

As I write this, it is the tail end of the year's first day. I've been out hiking today. Don't get the idea that this is something connected to New Year's resolutions or self-betterment. It certainly is not. I just used to hike a lot back home, and in Los Angeles I have done so rarely. When the opportunity arises, I take it. It's a fairly pleasurable experience to share with friends, and if I get any fitter as a consequence, that's good.

It's interesting to compare and contrast the experience with its counterpart back home. One of the first things that occurs to me is the view. Phoenix and LA are both shrouded in smog all too often, but LA's hiking trails often seem to offer more to see. There are of course one's fellow hikers, who often are rather fit and sometimes famous. There are also plenty of famous landmarks to see, from the city's buildings to such things as the Hollywood sign (which one can approach relatively closely from behind).


It depends on the trail one takes, but crowds can be avoided here. I suppose that's so there too, but here I have managed to never be menaced by reckless cyclists. I am a cyclist now, but of the road. Those who go off-road seem frequently to have little regard for others, and I'm not sorry to be rid of them. I'm a little sorry to not see horses as is common back home, but it's a small price to pay. I hate a crowded trail.

I enjoy the company that I have here in LA. That's not to slight my hiking partner back home (which would be my father), but it is nice to have a variety, and to do it with friends my own age with whom I have a lot in common (if not blood). Perhaps this year I will manage to hike more, although I will not have that interpreted as any sort of resolution. Resolutions are more the way that we are down on ourselves at the end of the year than they are the way we are hopeful at its beginning.