Midweek Muraliscious

09/19/12 232# 35m

My weight is up today, my fault for eating pizza last night. Today I've removed my clipless pedals (which clip in, of course) and installed platform pedals with rat-traps (toe clips), no straps, to see if that improves an ongoing issue in my left leg.

Met S. at the Bastille and we rode around the NorthSide and out to the 40th Street Bridge. Stopped to take another look at the Doughboy Mural which seems like it's complete; the kayak shelter really blocks the view of the mural.

Rode uphill through the Allegheny Cemetery, following the "white belt" route, came out on Liberty Avenue. That's a really nice way to transition up from the river, gentle slope, no traffic, trees and shade.

I had never taken a picture of the Spak Brothers mural at 5107 Penn Avenue, which has seen better days:

Here's what it used to look like:



The next planned target was this stained glass mosaic mural, an MLK project by D. Davis and J. Rutherford at 5222 Penn Ave:


There's been a mural lurking behind parked trucks and vehicles at Pistella Beer Distributors at 5514 Penn Ave, today we had a relatively good chance at a photo.


This is a second attempt at photographing this mural at Larimer and Auburn:


The East Busway terminus in East Liberty has this mural at a new footbridge connecting East Liberty with Shadyside, making Sh'Liberty?


Stopped at Whole Foods, which I'd never been inside of before. That's a different place.

This mural was originally at 5877 Commerce Street:


Today we saw some artists updating and amending the image, we stopped and they pointed out the changes, it's amazing what talented folks can do:



This is a "hidden" mural in that it's only visible from the East Busway, and also from an alley called Tay Way off Ellsworth. The mural is on the back of the Whole Foods building, and in fact their employees take breaks out by the mural. It seems like there's two murals on the wall, the first is called "Mother Nature" in some references:


The second mural (it seems like they're separate works) has an opened lock, a broken chain, and a prison of the mind; I'd like to know more about this. (another MLK mural)


This is the only Shadyside mural we've seen, at Walnut and Bellefont:


We rode to CMU, took the Panther Hollow Trail down to the Jail Trail, crossed the Hot Metal Bridge and rode south to Keystone Metals. We walked the railroad ballast to see if the Sandcastle gate was open (it was!) as a bit of recce for a trip next week.

We reversed at the Waterfront. Coming back through Sandcastle we met Andrew, a bicyclist from La Plata, Md who was riding DC-Pittsburgh-DC on a 'cross bike. He took 3.5 days to get to Pittsburgh (explaining that he spent a day off the bike due to heavy rain), so he made his trip in 2.5 days of pedalling, that's really impressive and especially so carrying camping gear.

Andrew was at a loss on how to proceed downtown, so he followed us and we rode with him to Point State Park. < soapbox >I keep meeting intelligent, articulate, experienced riders who can't figure out how to get from the GAP to Pittsburgh, and vice versa. This can't be too hard to fix, and it shouldn't wait until next year. < /soapbox >

Crossed the Ft. Duquesne Bridge and back to the Bastille. I think the platform pedals treated my leg well today so I'm going to continue with them. It was a beautiful, clear, brisk day to ride a bike.