Hiking

Hiking trails are good for more than a challenging outdoor walk. The uneven terrain forces the body to use more stabilizing muscles in the abdominals and back, which improves balance and strengthens the core. Sprints or walking fast uphill puts you into an anaerobic zone, which taxes the muscles and benefits the cardiovascular system. We took to some trails near Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the San Gabriel Mountains foothills with Keli Roberts ( www.keliroberts.

"Whoso walketh in solitude, and inhabiteth the wood . . . into that forester shall pass . . . power and grace." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson But what if I snap my ankle? Or blow a cardiac gasket? Or fall or get stuck on a mountain where I can't go up or down, what climbers call getting "cliffed out"? What then, Ralph Waldo? I won't give a tinker's damn about power and grace then. I'm going to be looking for that orange-and-white rescue whirligig in the sky. Swing low, sweet Stokes litter.

I've CLIMBED higher and higher still, side-stepping lizards, sweltering under a searing midday sun, craving even the slightest sliver of shade. I turn to gaze at the ocean, which is invitingly blue but too far away to leap into. Thankfully, it issues a sweat-cooling breeze that allows me to continue my quest to find Nicholas Pond. I'm on the Nicholas Flat Trail within Leo Carrillo State Park in the western Santa Monica Mountains, and descriptions I've gleaned from the Internet are apt.

What happens when the idea of adventure is still compelling, when the desire to commune with nature is strong, when you still fancy yourself an outdoorswoman but the appeal of pitching a tent has lost its luster? Here's what you do: You find places that provide opportunity for strenuous exertion, but with the reward of a bed and a glass of chilled wine at the end of the day. In March, I was talked into going to New Zealand to hike the Queen Charlotte Track with a friend on a fitness bender.

A 14-year-old boy who apparently broke his ankle Thursday afternoon while hiking with friends in a mountainous area of Glendale was found after a brief search and taken to safety by helicopter. Several fire department and law enforcement agencies, led by the Glendale Fire Department, responded to a 911 call from a group of five teenagers, including the injured boy, near Brand Park shortly after 5 p.m. Glendale Fire Capt.

Carolyn Dorn has long been considered a free spirit by her family, an outdoor lover who thought nothing of grabbing a child's tent and a wilderness survival guide and hitting the trail for a couple weeks on her own. The 52-year-old from South Carolina was drawn to southwestern New Mexico, where the rugged landscape is peppered with cliff dwellings used by people of the Mogollon culture more than 700 years ago.

Fans of the television series "M*A*S*H" would recognize this rugged terrain. In the show's standard opening, two helicopters swooped over craggy peaks to land on a dusty plateau, where military doctors rushed to save the wounded soldiers aboard. A magnificent backdrop -- but not in South Korea. The popular CBS-TV series, which ran from 1972 to 1983, was filmed in a remote area of the Santa Monica Mountains that is now part of Malibu Creek State Park, near Agoura Hills.

THE Alpine Club of England is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, an occasion of interest not only to climbers but also to travelers, geographers and lovers of glorious scenery. The club, founded in 1857 -- five years before the Austrians and Swiss started their own climbing organizations -- played an important role in opening up some of the most vertical parts of the world, including the Alps and the Himalayas.

THAT hiker wielding trekking poles like kendo sticks may be onto something. Although researchers have found that using trekking poles while hiking on downward slopes eases stress on the lower body, there's been little study of the effects of using trekking poles while wearing a backpack. Now, investigators at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Ill., and Willamette University in Salem, Ore.

EVERY weekend for the last 15 months, K.C. Durfee has boarded the National Park Service's ParkLINK shuttle for a scenic tour of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, winding through rocky canyons, enjoying panoramic ocean views, seeing colorful wildflowers and other vegetation, spotting the occasional horse and rider. Once in a while, she'll disembark for some beach time at Zuma.