Today’s Xootr Street scooter ride adds to my expanding familiarity with the network of bicycle trails in and around Los Angeles.
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A Xootr Street Scooter ride and the great Egret
A few weeks ago, my friend Jorge and I had ridden our scooters down to C. David Molina Park on the Los Angeles River Trail, within striking distance now of the Port of Long Beach, only six miles further away.
There’s a side trail along Compton Creek, going northwest for just over two miles, from very near C. David Molina Park. I wanted to get it under my belt before Jorge and I continue our push to Long Beach.
The 18” wide, partially paved sidewalk
It’s about a half mile walk west on busy Del Amo Boulevard to get to the entrance to the Compton Creek Trail. This ride idea seemed crazy to me while I walked to the trail, on a sidewalk that’s about 18” wide, and only partially paved, while cars and trucks sped by just an arm’s length away.
Once I got to the Compton Creek Trail, however, I was glad I’d chosen this ride. The creek flows in the center of a lush bed, with wide swaths of dense green vegetation on each side. I saw lots of birds, a passing freight train by on the opposite side of the creek, and well-tended lots for commercial truck companies on the other side of chain link fences parallel to the trail. No homeless people on the trail north of Del Amo, no other riders, and no pedestrians. I had it all to myself. Well, almost.
Meeting the great Egret
A great Egret was ahead of me on the trail on my return. I’d stop to admire him, then he’d fly ahead, and we’d repeat our dance. I left him part of my oat nut power bar, on the trail, as his snack reward for giving me such a show.
At the end, I rode a hundred yards south from Del Amo to see if I could go all the way to where Compton Creek flows into the Los Angeles River. At a cluster of tents in the dip between the embankment and businesses on the other side of a high fence, I asked a homeless guy, who told me that to go from Compton Creek to the river trail, I’d have to walk down the embankment, because the trails don’t connect.
Conclusion
So, I walked back to my car at C. David Molina Park on the narrow sidewalk, smiling at the memory of my new friend, the great egret.
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