This Saturday morning, a group of urban hikers will gather at 7:00 A.M. at the Angel’s Flight Stairway for the Big Parade, a hiking event being organized by Streetsblog contributor Dan Koeppel, best known in this part of the blogosphere for his piece on L.A.’s DIY bicycle culture.  Despite it’s long route, we’re not talking about a marathon.  The slow pace and numerous stops of the Big Parade encourages people to join the core group of ten walkers doing the whole trip.  Already, Koeppel is expecting several community groups, a marching band, and other assorted fun in different sections of the walk.

The Big Parade will follow a two-day, 40 mile, route that starts in the Downtown, passes through the area south of the 101 Freeway toward
Angelino Heights, goes up through Echo Park, crosses into Elysian Park, and
heads into Silverlake, then turns south again toward the freeway, back
through Silverlake, into the Franklin Hills, up to Los Feliz, until
Griffith Park to the observatory, across the park, into the Beachwood
Canyon area, up to the old Hollywoodland subdivision, and finally to
the Hollywood sign.

Did you catch all that?  If not, you can check out interactive maps for day 1 and day 2 at the Big Parade home site.

So what inspires someone to map out and plan such an event?  According to an email from Koeppel, it’s a love of L.A.’s diverse collection of artistic and beautiful staircases.

The background for this is that I have spent the past six months
developing the route; you may or may not know that I’ve spent five
years mapping and developing stairway routes in Silverlake and Echo
Park, and – along with stairway knowledge from other folks – this is
the culmination of all that.

There’s a lot more information available at the Big Parade website, more than I can fit here, so if you’re interested in joining them, check out what Koeppel and friends are up to.  The Big Parade FAQ is extremely detailed and has an answer to everything from, "are you really planning on camping between the two days?" to "are you twittering the trip?"