Athletes
Route
Route variation
out & back
Multi-sport
No
Gender category
Male
Style
Unsupported
Start date
Finish date
Total time
3h
33m
45s
GPS track(s)
Park_to_Playa_out_and_back_FKT.fit402.44 KB
Photos
Report
Ran the new Park to Playa Trail out and back - really cool trail. Incredible that you can travel across half of LA only waiting at two crosswalks! Ran this as an early FKT attempt. As far as I'm aware the trail just opened its entirety in October.
I did it in road shoes; if you wanted to you could go in light trail shoes, but there is no real technical terrain just hard pack dirt trails and cement. I would not recommend heavier trail shoes as they'll be pretty clunky.
Routing is not bad, but a few notes if you are going to try this:
- Generally, there are blue arrows marking the Park to Playa trail at least to the bike path where it's very straight forward.
- About 1.5 miles in when you end up in a parking lot at a major intersection you want to cross the big intersection basically going diagonal to where you are into Kenneth Hahn park. The formal crosswalks take forever; you are better off going right then left as it cuts down on one street you have to cross.
- Just past the bathrooms where you make a left in the parking lot of Kenneth Hahn, stay left on the sidewalk that's headed downhill, the trail to the right brings you around the upper part of the park whereas you want to target the lower picnic area.
- after crossing through the main Kenneth Hahn picnic area you end up in a parking lot and you'll see a blue arrow pointing down a grass hill. Follow the blue arrows till you hit the road and hang a right. There is no real "trail" for this short section
- Coming downhill after the steep uphill on the west side of Kenneth Hahn, watch carefully for the left into Culver city park which will lead you around the baseball field and to a wooden boardwalk section. Probably the coolest section of trail, but the sharp left across the road was unexpected and didn't feel right.
- The formal turnaround for the trail is at the last bridge crossing over towards the left. I went all the way to the ocean where the trail turns to rock, but that is not technically part of the trail.