I was taking a break on the serene L.A. River Bikeway just north of the Hyperion Viaduct in Atwater Village during an afternoon bike ride late last week, admiring an egret and a great blue heron waiting together for their respective next meals to swim by. All of a sudden moving noisily upstream, the biggest bug I’ve ever seen at the river shot out from under the bridge, and I just had time to flip my cam to video mode and capture the anomaly. Check it out for yourself (but do please excuse the semi-maniacal laughter that issues forth from my amazed self).

By the time I quit my silly giggling and pedaled downstream of the bridge the water bug was gone, leaving a telltale trail of the wet stuff up the east bank where no doubt it retreated to the streets via the entrance to Red Car Park. I’ve seen some preeeeetty strange and random things in the river, but this just about takes the prize.

If the embed above isn’t viewable you can check it out on YouTube directly.