Strange things in the L.A. River at night (Santa Ana: camps, homeless)

[jackson_coupage]

Today, my girlfriend and I walked the river bike path to Los Feliz from Burbank this afternoon. After it got dark, we decided to chance the walk back tonight, figuring it'd be the quickest way back.

Almost immediately, we discovered someone shining a flashlight around from within the brush/jungle-like weeds down in the center of the riverbed. They noticed us and would shine their light at us. Pretty eerie.

About ten minutes later, closer to Colorado blvd, we found another being using their flashlight down among the foliage. Except every other minute, the area around them would glow orange or bright blue, we even caught their silhouette (short-haired, seemingly male) when it would light up.

Te immediate thought was "homeless person" but a few things seemed odd: this was on wet, marshy, muddy parts of the river, someone had to walk through a few inches and be sitting/standing on wet debris/foliage, the areas certainly were not camps. Second, the flashlight movements seemed frantic, like searching for something. Perhaps cops? But no cars, no access to the area close by, no copter overhead, etc.

It was a spooky enough walk as it was but these people creeping in the foliage added another layer. Any ideas as to why someone would be down there? Any similar experiences? Anyone ever seen anything strange there at night?

[Tlaneloli]

LA LLORONA

[nightlysparrow]

Homeless people lighting up, smoking dope and making sure you weren't the police?

[jackson_coupage]

Originally Posted by nightlysparrow

Homeless people lighting up, smoking dope and making sure you weren't the police?

A lot of risk and work to smoke there. But seems likely. I can't imagine soaking my shoes/clothes is sewer water to smoke. It'd be easy to do so under any bridge or among the many stretches along the path with bushes/trees. I was surprised to find zero homeless along the path.

[theGreat1]

Originally Posted by jackson_coupage

Today, my girlfriend and I walked the river bike path to Los Feliz from Burbank this afternoon. After it got dark, we decided to chance the walk back tonight, figuring it'd be the quickest way back.
Almost immediately, we discovered someone shining a flashlight around from within the brush/jungle-like weeds down in the center of the riverbed. They noticed us and would shine their light at us. Pretty eerie.
About ten minutes later, closer to Colorado blvd, we found another being using their flashlight down among the foliage. Except every other minute, the area around them would glow orange or bright blue, we even caught their silhouette (short-haired, seemingly male) when it would light up.
Te immediate thought was "homeless person" but a few things seemed odd: this was on wet, marshy, muddy parts of the river, someone had to walk through a few inches and be sitting/standing on wet debris/foliage, the areas certainly were not camps. Second, the flashlight movements seemed frantic, like searching for something. Perhaps cops? But no cars, no access to the area close by, no copter overhead, etc.

It was a spooky enough walk as it was but these people creeping in the foliage added another layer. Any ideas as to why someone would be down there? Any similar experiences? Anyone ever seen anything strange there at night?

First of all, I would not walk through the LA River at night. Not sure what you saw but, have heard that some parts of the river are haunted by people that were killed there or did some type of sacrifice or suicide. Your story sounds like somebody just goofing around in the river. Griffith Park is very haunted.

[Harrier]

How come you didn't ask the flashlight wielder what they were doing?

Why are you asking us?

We weren't there.

[jackson_coupage]

Originally Posted by Harrier

How come you didn't ask the flashlight wielder what they were doing?

Why are you asking us?

We weren't there.

Are you familiar with the river/bikepath? If not, it's a 40+ foot sloped distance from the path (where we were) to the river (where they were), surrounded by rushing 5 freeway noise.

I asked for similar experiences, thoughts on this...discussion, basically. Found it fascinating and am curious if others have encountered similar things. Pretty straightforward.

[Harrier]

Originally Posted by jackson_coupage

Are you familiar with the river/bikepath? If not, it's a 40+ foot sloped distance from the path (where we were) to the river (where they were), surrounded by rushing 5 freeway noise.

I asked for similar experiences, thoughts on this...discussion, basically. Found it fascinating and am curious if others have encountered similar things. Pretty straightforward.

Harrier hasn't walked on the L.A. River trail, but he has done so on the San Gabriel, Rio Hondo, and Santa Ana River trails.

There have similar sloping distances.

If Harrier was truly curious, he would have asked the people on scene.

[rzzz]

Do they still do graffiti in the river? graf guys would act like that. It's probably just run of the mill lurkers, though.

[nslander]

Obviously, it was an Unidentified Submerged Object. Probably of Xenu origin. They're known to lurk in the LA River in depths up to 8 inches while they work on NBC's fall lineup and offer free Theta audits.