To see every stair in Silver Lake
I was thrilled to see this story by Janet Cromley in today’s LA Times, “StairMaster with a view: Hiking the stairways of Echo Park, Silver Lake.” Not just because finding and hiking the stairways in my neck of Hollywood has become my own personal obsession, but because the subject of the story, Dan Koeppel, took me on an abbreviated version of his 16.2 mile hike a few years ago.
Dan’s a freelance writer with outdoor inclinations (and, if I remember correctly, the calf muscles to match). But his step obsession began while writing the memoir To See Every Bird on Earth. The book is about his father, who basically left their family to become one of the pre-eminent birders in the world (he’s seen over 7,000 species). Dan needed something to help him escape his own head, so he started hiking and cataloging a route that started outside his front door. When Dan and I took our walk, he was working on Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World (which came out last year) and peppered our hike with at least 50 fascinating banana anecdotes. I got the feeling Dan might need more than a simple stairway hike to download after he finished that book.
I still have a paper version of the map that Dan gave me, an eight-page document rainbow-coded to elevation gain (red=thigh burn), along with a spreadsheet that gives directions and tips (”Tricky, make sure you’re on Lucile!”). Now Dan’s put the map online so fellow stairmasters can join in the hike. When we parted ways almost three years ago I swore to create a route linking my stairs with his. The stairs are there—I’ve got a solid route from my neighborhood all the way west through Beachwood Canyon, and I’ve hiked some in Los Feliz Estates, throughout Franklin Hills, right down into to Silver Lake and Echo Park, and beyond into Eagle Rock—but I failed to keep up my end of the bargain. Maybe I need to write a book.
April 16th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Would love to know the stairs you’ve found in Beachwood Cyn, Los Feliz Estates and Franklin Hills…could you share??
April 18th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Hey Veena, There’s a great book called Stairway Walks in Los Angeles, it’s out of print but I found a used copy on Amazon; also try City Walks: Los Angeles by my friend Eric Hiss for stairway walks and more urban adventures!
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Greetings, stair aficionados. I am another obsessed stairwalker. I’ve walked and mapped every staircase in Silver Lake, Echo Park, Franklin Hills, Los Feliz, Hollywood and Mt. Washington, as well as Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades, and parts of several other communities. I was walking Beachwood and Hollywood Dell this morning, in fact. I’m compiling a book, and assembling a website, but I’d be happy to share nuggets if you have specific areas of interest. I’m misterfleming@aol.com …
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Hooray, I knew if I didn’t do it for long enough someone else would do it for me! Charles, please be sure to send me the website and information about the book when they’re ready!
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Working … working …
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:08 pm
PS: I don’t recognize it from the picture. Where’s the “hollywood passage” in that photo?
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:22 pm
I think that’s one of the smaller walkways by the Hightower stairs—only because other photos taken on the same day were in the same area. I’ll be sure to edit the photo when I know for certain!
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Ah … I take a group of friends out on the first Saturday of the month. We’ve been doing Echo Park and Silver Lake. Next month, though, we talked about Hightower and Whitley Heights. I’ll keep an eye out for this walkway.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I admire your whole entire effort and interest in urban landscape, I would have invited you to give a lecture when I was involved with teaching!
I look forward to your future work, and hope that you will organize a tour of your choice when you feel like it, I am sure many more like me will like to attend, even for a fee, why not ::)) YA