Washington Blvd Bakery Square Ride

08/22/11 #227 62miles

Rode 63 miles, urban trails and streets. A very nice day. This is a partial map of today's route, before MapMyRide kind of froze on my Droid:


I wanted to see the scene of Friday's four flooding fatalities, so I rode from the Western Penitentiary, out to Millvale, back to the stadia, then out along the Strip Trail and Butler Avenue to the intersection of Washington Blvd and Allegheny River Blvd. There weren't any indications of it being a dangerous roadway. There was certainly a lot of silt and debris still to be cleaned up.

While I was there I took a lap around the Washington Blvd Oval, a bike racing track. This is a picture of another bicyclist, a hardworking skinny guy on a road bike, working on the oval:


From Washington Blvd I took Fifth Avenue, and then made the right turn on Penn for Bakery Square and Coffee Tree Roasters. Coffee Tree Roasters was an oasis of comfy chairs, wifi, and ice water - I'd stop there again.



I made a stop at Performance Bikes, just to browse, and picked up a SmartPhone handlebar mount I've wanted to try. Took Babcock Blvd. toward Squirrel Hill, it's a great street with a well-marked bike lane.

In Squirrel Hill I stopped at Starbucks for a few minutes, then rode Forbes, Braddock, Hutchinson, and Lancaster into Frick Park. Rode the Nine Mail Trail to the Duck Hollow Trail, and then Second Avenue in Homestead to the south trailhead of the Jail Trail.

I took the Hot Metal Bridge to SouthSide, rode the trail down to the American Water Works closure and then reversed, and stopped at the SouthSide Subway for a sandwich and water bottle refills. Took the SouthSide Trail to the Station Square Trail, and the Ft. Pitt Bridge and the Ft. Duquesne Bridge back to the Western Penitentiary.

That was 43 miles and there was still a lot of day left, so I rode another loop for 19 more miles and ended up at 62 miles.