Pier Walkers Find California Piers Great for Exercise
Photo: San Clemente Pier round trip = 35 calories. A 175 pound adult walking at a non-stress 2 mph pace for a recommended 20 minutes burns around 70 calories during 2 round-trip walks on the San Clemente Pier.
You probably have seen the pier walkers. They’re the people who seem to be there most days walking at a brisk pace and sometimes walking the pier twice or three times. At San Clemente Pier in Orange County, Calif., pier walkers find that a 20 minute walk to get the heart rate up may require walking the pier two times. The pier is approx. 1,296 feet long and requires one walking trip to clock in almost half a mile. Two round-trips plus the uphill trek to your car at the parking lot above the pier provides a solid mile walk, the minimum recommended amount of exercise for real benefit.
San Clemente Pier is one of the shorter piers in California. The longest pier, Santa Cruz Wharf, is over half a mile long and provides a decent walking regimen requiring just one trip down to the end and back. Except for the currently closed San Mateo Werder fishing pier, there’s nothing that compares to Santa Cruz’s pier in length. And though it may seem like everything is downhill after that, not so! Each pier offers a unique set of parking conditions and surrounding obstacles to make the exercise worth a try. The trick on each and every pier is to not get caught up in all the things you could easily stop to look at. It’s harder said then done.
CALIFORNIA PIERS -WALKING FOR EXERCISE, MINIMUM RECOMMENDED WALKS
- Santa Cruz Wharf – 1 round trip does the trick. Pier is 2,745 feet long.
- Ocean Beach ‘OB’ Pier in San Diego – 1 & 1/3 round trips. Pier is 1,971 feet long.
- Pismo Beach Pier – 2 full round trips, plus stairs at base of pier to the beach. Pier is 1,250 feet long.
