Were you at the The Great L.A. Walk Saturday? I joined the annual many-mile trek down major thoroughfare (or two)  of the sprawling metropolis on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. This year, the Walk was a 14-or-so-mile trek starting at the Shrine Auditorium.

Walkers explored the historic West Adams neighborhood before heading down Adams and Washington Blvds., walking across Culver City to get all the way to Venice beach.

And for the first year, I walked the whole thing with about 250 other Angelenos! (Last year, I only walked the very last mile….)

Why walk The Great L.A. Walk? “Why not?” is the answer from Mike Schneider at Franklin Avenue, the organizer behind the event. “There’s no special reason, no charity, no protest, no issue we’re promoting — other than a passion for Los Angeles.”

The goals of the walk are more nebulous than the Google-maps-planned route, but basically, the annual walk lets Angelenos see the city up close — discovering parts and aspects they may have missed while whizzing by in their cars. Walkers also get to meet other peripatetic neighbor citizens, learn a little history of the city, discover new restaurants and food trucks, enjoy the beach at sunset and imbibe with new friends at a post-walk happy hour.

I walked most of the way with Esther of e*star LA and H.C. of L.A. and O.C. Foodventures most of the way, with a longish lunch break at an Ethiopean restaurant called Palm Grove — where I ate way too much injera. Here’s the veggie plate before:

Here’s the plate after:

Esther and H.C. helped a bit! But I was too full to eat anything when we stopped by the Samosa House for an afternoon snack. Tracy Helpler of Your Daily Thread and her boyfriend Alex joined us in Culver City — and we all made it to Venice Beach right before the sunset at 4:45 pm.

Missed The Great L.A. Walk? Walk vicariously by looking at the Flickr photostream for the event.

Below’s me with Michael, who put the whole thing together, at Baja Cantina in Venice for the post-walk happy hour. If you can’t wait until next November for your next L.A. walk, plan to join the 2nd annual Big Parade LA — a multi-day walk that explores the many stairways we have around the city — happening May 2010.

Earlier: Walking in L.A. with D.J. Waldie: Car-free living attracts a crowd

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