Plush, Pleasant Saturday Two-Fer

02/18/12 #236 34m 38F

Rode 34miles in 3h14m (pi-time!) in pleasant weather.

Started my own riding from the Jail Trail at Swinburne Street to take a picture of two murals, one of which I've passed a hundred times and never noticed (not noticing is a recurring theme for me). One photo was of the "Unauthorized, Unfunded Mural" at the top of this post.

This second photo is an amateur composite image of "Walk on Through", a 2004 mural by Gerard Tonti, located on the Jail Trail between the Hot Metal Bridge and the Swinburne Street Trailhead:


Started a group ride with Gruppetto Pittsburgh along with Janie, Bob, Frank, Denny, Gil, Carol, and Kim, departing from Swinburne Street and crossing the Hot Metal Bridge and the Station Square Trail. Across the Ft. Pitt bridge and the Ft. Duquesne bridge, and the Chateau Trail to the Bastille.




From the trailhead we took Westhall, turn right New Beaver, immediate left on Eckert, underpass, turn left McClure, turn right on Woods Run Ave, which keeps a persistent yet humane climb up to the Allegheny Observatory.



At the top I realized I had a time crunch, as did Kim and Bob, so we departed the group and descended Perrysville Ave. and Federal Street Extension down to Allegheny Center. Then we took Ridge Ave and Allegheny Ave to the Ft. Duquesne Bridge, where I parted company with Kim and Bob. This was an excellent descent and a quick route from the top of Riverview Park down to the Point.

At Point State Park I met S, who'd been volunteering during the day and we rode down to the Hot Metal Bridge, and took the Baldwin Borough Trail down to Keystone Metals. Although we noticed no tailwind heading south, when we reversed and turned north it felt like a considerable headwind.

Approaching Station Square, in a parklet abeam South 6th Street on the river, somebody had decorated the chairs, benches, bike racks etc with a collection of stuffed plush doll/figures, it was very colorful but I'm not sure what was going on there.



We took the Station Square Trail and the Ft. Pitt Bridge, and from Point State Park we each headed to our respective cars.

I took Blvd of the Allies, Grant Street, and the Jail Trail back to the Swinburne Street trailhead. As I was packing up a long van pulled in carrying Roy Weil and Mary Shaw, which is a bit like being in the parking lot at the Rome airport and bumping in to the Pope. (no disrespect) They were using their really cool long wheelbase tandem recumbent trike, which is a string of words that does not ordinarily come in a single phrase.

It was a very nice day for bicycling for Pittsburgh in February.

		2/18/12 Week 6    this week: 89 miles		1st Qtr 477 miles 9.9 mi/dayQTR		2012: 477 miles
		Weight: Sun:237 Sat:235 Trend: BAD