Doctor has some walking points for you

Roy Meals, 80, trekked 342 miles along L.A.’s city limits, finding surprises and lots to love. His advice: Just get out there.

- STEVE LOPEZ

DR. ROY MEALS walks through the Arcade Building on West 6th Street in San Pedro. He wrote a book about his ambulations.

Dr. Roy Meals, a longtime hand surgeon, likes to move his feet. He has climbed mountains and he has run three marathons.

But when he shared his latest scheme with his wife a couple of years ago, she had a quick take.

“You're nuts,” she said.

Maybe so. He was closing in on 80, and his plan was to grab his trekking poles and take a solo hike along the 342-mile perimeter of Los Angeles. His wife found the idea less insane, somewhat, after Meals agreed to hook up with hiking companions here and there.

But you may be wondering the obvious:

Why would someone hike around a massive, car-choked, pedestrian-unfriendly metropolis of roughly 500 square miles?

Meals had his reasons. Curiosity and restlessness, for starters. Also, a belief that you can't really get to know a city through a windshield, and a conviction that staying fit, physically and mentally, is the best way to stall the work of Father Time.

One more thing: Meals’ patients over the years have come from every corner of the city, and the Kansas City native considered it a personal shortcoming that he was unfamiliar with much of L.A. despite having called it home for half his life.

To plot his course, Meals unfolded an accordion-style map for an overview, then went to navigata.lacity.org to chart the precise outline of the city limits.

The border frames an oddly shaped expanse that resembles a shredded kite, with San Pedro and Wilmington dangling from a string at the southern extremities.

DR. ROY MEALS strides along Miner Street in San Pedro, one of the paths he wrote about in "Walking the Line: Discoveries Along the Los Angeles City Limits."