14-346

Mile 979.  Started at Grand Ave at the north end of El Segundo beach and headed south on the Marvin Braude Bike Trail to the end of the Strand at the Manhattan Beach line.  Then turned around and walked to lifeguard station 57 (most of the way to Imperial Highway) before returning to my starting point.

There's a map of all this, a very generous portion of pictures including a 37 second video clip, a snippet of Tortoise history, and today's walking thought by Malcolm Jeppsen waiting for you when you click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

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And we're off!  Building on the left are restrooms ...
but they're closed until Memorial Day.  Sign by the
power pole welcomes you to El Segundo beach

Standard Oil built a refinery here almost a century ago.  Chevron
operates it today.  Very clear division between the refinery
and the beach ...

I had forgotten how many birds are here.  The first two make a nice backdrop
as they glide over the rocks and water.

The trail prepares to turn left around the end of the refinery and join the Strand,
an  iconic beachside path in Manhattan, Hermosa, and Redondo Beach

Lou has turned around for the first time today.  The views are amazing
following 12 hours of heavy rain earlier today

Clouds hand over the Santa Monica Mountains and bay
as another large plane takes off from LAX

8 miles north of the beginning of the Marvin Braude Bike Path (in Torrance).
Here's the history snippet:  Marvin Braude first ran to represent my district (11)
in the Los Angeles City Council in 1965 just after I moved on from elementary
school.  Until then, to me he was simply my neighbor who owned the travel agency
where Gary and Karen Lynn's mom June worked,.and the man whose daughters Liza
and Ann went to school with me.  Now I walk the trail he worked hard to establish ...
(He served 32 years on City Council.  Wow.)

Another evidence of mixed use on this section of beach -- the Hyperion
Sewer Treatment Plant ... serving a huge area of Los Angeles

Hard to distinguish the trail from the beach in places for all the
sand that blew over in the storm last night

Anyone for camping here?

Today's second turnaround point.  Restrooms on the left,
Lifeguard Station 57 on the right.  

A historical relic.  A working pay phone :-)

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power also has
the Scattergood steam generating plant here

Back in El Segundo.  Nice benches!

Mileage signs every direction, delighting Tortoise ...!

Walk done, tortoise now tries to get some beach pictures 

and clouds

and waves

and birds

The hills across the water are on Catalina Island

and sounds.  I wish I could capture the smell of the salt in the air also,

but sadly Tortoise does have limits ...

Who's this fellow, ha, ha

Today's walk was 3.62 miles, surprisingly, with 158 feet climbed in 55:14 minutes, giving it a 6.2 tortoise rating. Surprisingly, because Lou never got more than 68 feet above sea level. 599 calories were burned on this walk.  

Another day, I can imagine the comments coming about this not being a very tortoise like 
pace ... :-)

Here are the overall stats so far for 2014:

979.55 miles walked, which is 97.86% of my 2014 goal.

308:08:45 hours walked, which is 98.45% of my 2014 goal

47,795 total feet climbed 

155,131 calories burned
94.89% of the year has passed

I've walked 71 consecutive non-Sundays since my last missed day on September 20, and overall have walked on 284 of the 297 non-Sundays thus far in 2014, a 95.62% consistency rating.

The purpose of the percentages is to have a higher percentage of distance and time walked than of the year. This tells Tortoise that he is on track. Yes, this is more numbers than you are likely interested in, all Tortoise can say is he's really good at setting high goals and having them slip away because he doesn't do them every, every day.

And now for today's walking thought, originally presented in April 1994:

"Our eight-year-old granddaughter was busy at work recently making cookies. She was following a recipe given to her by her mother but was stymied by one ingredient that was to be added to the recipe. It called for two teaspoons of soda. She asked her parents: “Does it matter if it’s root beer or 7-Up soda?” When the cookies were baked, they tasted awful. Her mother concluded that the recipe had failed because her daughter had misinterpreted a half teaspoon of salt to be a half cup of salt.

"If the ingredients in the recipe for cookies are important, how much more important are the ingredients in the prescription for spiritual healing? And how much more important is it that we not misinterpret those instructions, as was done with the cookies?"

To watch, listen to, or read this message in full, please visit https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1994/04/a-divine-prescription-for-spiritual-healing?lang=eng   #ShareGoodness

The tortoise is smiling!