 | To the poor pickup truck driver who lost his Balls on Griffith Park Blvd: Sorry, bub. I didn't have the stomach to pick 'em up. Some kid from Marshall High probably has 'em now hanging off the coffee-can muffler of his slammed Civic. |
 | Screaming down the Los Feliz hill toward the path, I get up to about 30 or 35 on knobbies. It is wickedly cold, and my knuckles are numb by the time I reach bottom. |
 | Crossing the river of lights. Trucks and tradesmen's vans off to work almost outnumber the early commuters. |
 | This railing is low and I'm perched high on the bike, just a swerve and a stumble away from being a smear on the 5 and bad nightmares for 20 commuters. Somehow whenever I cross, I can never help thinking, "What if an earthquake hits while I'm crossing?" What do you think about? |
 | Traffic on the on/off ramps for the 5 can be dicey. Sometimes people don't even slow down. |
 | Sign says "BAUM BRIDGE. April 1, 2002" |
 | Sun's not up yet. |
 | I kick it into a higher gear and pedal harder, trying to warm up. No luck. It's farkin' cold out here. |
 | Mystery anchor. There are about eight of these, four planted on each bank on the upstream side of the Los Feliz bridge over the river. Leverage anchors for winching storm debris clots off the bridge footings? Safety tie-offs for swift-water rescue teams? |
 | Horse people are usually up at the crack, riding their mounts along the river bed from stables nearby. No one out this morning. |
 | Homeless man with cart - one of a half-dozen or so I encounter every morning. He wasn't this blurry in real life, but I'm doing 20 and he's doing 0. When I rode past on the way home, he was trying to assemble pieces of a shingle he'd apparently torn apart. I avoided using the flash so as not to bother or identify him. |
 | One of the flotsam trees native to the L.A. river, resplendent in spring foliage. |
 | Mark of either a Marine or a patriotic tagger. Next to it, someone has scrawled in Sharpie, "BRING OUR TROOPS HOME TO PROTECT US HERE" and someone else has added in wax pencil, "ALIVE." |
 | Heaps of mulch dumped alongside the path by greens crews are composting. Even in the cold, you can feel heat rising from them, and the steam is rich and fragrant. |
 | No, really, stay the hell off the high-tension power-line towers. |
My short-morning-ride destination: a gritty-gorgeous utility facility just north of the 134, keepin' it real. A good place to chill and stretch a bit before turning around for the big grind home. Click it to ENLARGE IT
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