L.A. River ride — latimes.com
L.A. River Expeditions founder George Wolfe led the first trip down the L.A. River since it was given the designation of “traditional navigable waters” and the Los Angeles Times went along for the ride.
Associated article at the LA Times:
A journey of discovery on the L.A. River
An expedition along a muddy strech of the waterway offers a glimpse into the potential recreational and environmental jewel running through the city.
By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times
August 1, 2010Environmental activist George Wolfe has always believed the best way to know a river is to kayak it. So when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently designated the entire Los Angeles River a “traditional navigable waterway,” he organized an expedition.
Toting a waterproof first-aid kit and a sack of binoculars, Wolfe led seven people clad in T-shirts, shorts, sun hats and life vests to a lush, eight-mile stretch of river bottom near Griffith Park known as the Glendale Narrows.Awaiting them downstream were quiet pools draining into noisy chutes, strewn with shoes, clothing, shopping carts, tires and plastic bottles, and shaded by cottonwood trees, cane forests and cattails. Plastic grocery bags snared in tree limbs rustled in the breeze. The river was running warm, greenish and, as one of the kayakers put it, “smelly as old socks.”