I started this post to the background noise of a washing machine as it cleansed our clothing from the dirt of the past week. The last four days of the LA River Trek come as a swirl of mountains and vistas and gentle creeks, threatening to pour away, and I need to capture these memories […]
After almost 60 miles of cycling, Glenn and I have finally made it to the official start of the Los Angeles River! Today was our third day, in which we biked from Griffith Park to the junction of Bell Creek and Calabasas Creek in Canoga Park, and it took us through the Valley and out […]
Route: Long Beach to Elysian Park Distance: 32 Miles
In just a matter of days, Glenn and I will stand atop our bikes beside the calm stretch of water where the Los Angeles River meets the ocean, about to start the LA River Trek. On our left, the black hull of the Queen Mary will censor the sky. Lorikeets from the Aquarium of the […]
The ending of a river such as the Los Angeles River is a complicated affair. I cannot sit on a boat and point towards fresh water on one side, saltwater on the other; the river slides through these categories in the shifting forms of wetland estuaries. Today, years of development have meant that the wetlands […]
In a land of dusty chaparral baking beneath the ubiquitous California sun, the Los Angeles River in history was a beacon of life, forming a corridor of aquatic habitat from the Simi Hills and San Gabriel Mountains all the way to coastal estuaries. Each phase of the river molded a home for new groups of fish, their […]
“I couldn’t even see the lane dividers on the freeway,” my sister told me, still shivering, as she dripped rainwater onto the living room floor on Wednesday night. She had just come in from the densest moments of this week’s El Nino storm, the worst of the season, which had dumped 2.5 inches of rain […]
It’s amazing how quickly a place can rise around you and absorb you. Since I last wrote, my world has grown taller, brick by brick, from the vast flatness of Los Angeles as seen from the airplane window to a world of streets and parking lots and palm trees that waft in artificial altitude. I […]
Two weeks ago, my weekend began when my scooter took a nap. Then my phone died. Then I wandered off of the bus in search of barbecue, carrying in both arms the tent and sleeping bag that the rain had rendered pointless, as the night moved from coffee shop to barbecue to CU mart. And then we discovered […]
Almost as soon as our car left Vancouver in British Columbia, the road ahead of us rose into scenic blue mountains layered in snow fields. So far, everything was in its place. But as we drove northeast over the next nine hours, the mountains morphed into something different entirely. The smooth slopes slipped, roughed, cracked […]
