Why yes, LA does have a river. It's no Amazon or Nile, but it snakes 51 miles through LA from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach. I found it accidentally as I did an urban hike through Silverlake.
I've gone past this river a zillion times, but always assumed it was just a sewage passageway or something. Nope, despite having a concrete bed, it's teeming with vegetation and wildlife. Who knew?
Since I normally drive past these gates, I always missed them.
It's not pretty, but if you close your eyes the flowing water is quite calming.
In certain parts there are thick areas of bushy trees and there are a ton of ducks and storks.
There are train tracks weaving alongside the river with the occasional, lonesome train zipping by.
As I was walking past, I saw this guy reeling in a fish. He proudly showed it off for me. He said it was his first fish he caught on the river. His uncle told him to come out to this spot because last week he caught 40 fish! I was astonished and disgusted at the same time. Once again, who the hell knew?
H.
