5313, Coffeeneur 5 of 7, Colin, Braddock, Flock

10/19/12 49M

Couldn't start today's ride at the Bastille because of a protest at Alcosan over gray vs green approaches to storm water management plans, so I met S. at the Post-Gazette's North Side plant and started from there.

Rode around the North Side to the 40th Street Bridge and then crossed the Allegheny River. Took a few pictures of murals that I hadn't caught up with yet.

Whitey's Mobile Wash in Lawrenceville:

This 2001 mural by Runco Arts along with Laurie Czerwien, Dean Payne, Dave Yackovich, Ed Conner, and Ron Michel is a bit of a mystery to me. The flag appears to be doubled-over, one in front of another, but why would two flags be hung that way? What's with the tear at the bottom? Is this before or after 9/11/2001?

Cure Restaurant, 5336 Butler Street, Pittsburgh:

At 5313 Butler Street, this could be either

• Some sort of low-fi 4-bit art, or
  
• a sort of cellular automaton depiction, ala Conway's Game of Life, or
  
• something else completely.

My fifth coffeeneuring expedition of the 2012 Coffeeneuring Challenge:

drink: Cappuccino with Two Extra Shots (total Four), Black Pepper Biscotti, very good coffee shop: Cats and Dogs Coffeehouse location: 4059 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh PA date: 10/19/2012 mileage: 49 miles ride details: Rode with S. 40th St. Bridge, Larry-Ville, Coffeeneuring Trip 5 of 7, Braddock, Oakland, Flock Ride.

Intended to depart Penn Avenue to Braddock for a mural hunt, decided to proceed via Squirrel Hill so as to stop at Pro Bikes and see how Colin Albright, a young bicyclist and bike shop mechanic who was recently attacked and stabbed was doing.

When we inquired at the front desk as to when he might be coming back to work, they said "he's back in the shop" so we went over an introduced ourselves. Colin's a very nice young man, great attitude, remarkable perspective. It was a pleasure to meet him and I'm glad he's back on his feet. He's doing physical therapy three times a week.

Back on the road, Regent Square to Braddock, where we found this mural on Talbot Street:

Departed Braddock via the Rankin Bridge, Homestead Trail, Southside Trail, Hot Metal Bridge up to Oakland, and joined the group mustering at Dippy the Dinosaur for the Flock of Cycles ride. This was an evening ride, meets at Dippy at 5.30 and departs at 6.00, very relaxed, very safe, very fun, very traffic-rules-adhering; they stop at lights and stop signs (gasp!).

There was an abundance of lights and reflectors and it was a bit of Fred-City and I was thinking, I have found my people! As opposed to Critical Mass rides it was definitely non-confrontational and copacetic, I really enjoyed it.

The Flock ride ended at OTB Southside at about 8.30pm, then S and I rode back to the vehicles at the Post-Gazette plant on the north side. It sprinkled rain a bit the last fifteen minutes. Got to see the skyline in the evening from the bike trail:

49 miles on an excellent day.

S24O at Boggs Trailhead, Montour Trail

10/18/12 m

Wednesday night to Thursday morning I camped at the Boggs Trailhead of the Montour Trail, a S24O (sub 24-hour overnight) as a shakedown for an upcoming trip.

Boggs has been my long-standing fave trailhead, it's just a very pretty place, quiet and with fast highway access; it works in a lot of ways. They've recently added a hiker/biker campground that includes a table and benches, a fire pit, a supply of firewood (how cool is that), a tent site, and there's also the porta-john that was previously at the trailhead. Really the only thing that's missing (besides a Wifi-G hotspot) is a water supply, the nearest water is about 2 miles down the trail at MP13.5~ish.

I wasn't feeling very good on Tuesday-Wednesday, so I opted to make this a car ride to the campsite; R. rode his Rivendell.

Met R. at the campsite at around 5pm Wednesday, so we'd both have enough time to set up our gear and go through our learning curves before it got dark. It took me a few tries to shake out the mental cobwebs and get the rigging on the hammock quite right so I was glad we got out there early.

This was my first time using my Big Agnes sleeping bag (Lost Ranger, +15F, long version) which is built to accommodate an integrated air pad in the bottom.

Setting up camp went well. Cooking dinner went well, I was working with a JetBoil and made chicken-flavored rice and R was working with an Esbit stove and had soup, and we had Starbucks Via and cookies for dessert.

Turns out you can Bluetooth-tether a 'droid 3G phone with a 'droid tablet and surf the web, but it does use up the phone battery. It was a great night for camping, clear skies and lots of stars, light wind, no rain.

I really like the combination pad-bag for the hammock, it keeps everything from sliding around and getting astray. The temperature got down to 48F, and the bag was very comfortable.

There is a landfill adjacent to the trail, and there were trucks coming and going through the evening. Woke up at sunrise and it took us about 1+30 to have breakfast and break camp. Coffee is a wondrous thing on a cold morning.

Connellsville, Ohiopyle, Autumn Colors

10.16.12 231# 38M

Drove out to Connellsville with S. in hopes of finding near-peak autumn colors on the trees.

In Connellsville we found this mural at 139 West Crawford, home of Artworks Connellsville. The equipment is preparing the adjacent site for a new building, so the view of this mural won't be maintained for very long:

In a similar manner, this mural was partially blocked for a carport:

This mural survives with an unrestricted view at the same building. Term du Jour: viewshed preservation.

Connellsville has a segregated bicycle boulevard along South 3rd Street, which is the most sophisticated bike lane I've seen between Pittsburgh and DC. On one of the structures along that street you'll see this mural:

About six miles west of Ohiopyle, there's a clearing with a remarkable view, it's one of my favorite places in the world:

This is about two miles west of Ohiopyle:

For years my view of Ohiopyle has been the trail, the visitors center, and the country store. Today I saw Cucumber Falls which was very impressive:

I also got to see an area called "The Slide":

I had originally intended to ride to Ohiopyle, get a snack, and ride further to Confluence and reverse course for a 60-mile day but I did not have the mojo today; where I'd ordinarily be doing 13mph I was producing 8 and 9 mph and I was feeling off, so I got something to eat at the Ohiopyle Bakery and then we reversed back to the start.

On the return leg the sun started to break through the overcast and the bright colors became a bit more pronounced:

Returning to Confluence, there's a series of murals on three metal tanks that seem to represent Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. This collage is a ham-fisted PhotoSchlepp to try to show a wraparound of the artwork:

On the way back to Pittsburgh, stopped in Monroeville at Moio's for cannolli, wow very very good. 38 miles on a cool, dry day.

Coming out of the bakery I saw a 2012 Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 3 Jeep Wrangler. No, I don't think this unit will have any problem giving me four feet of clearance when passing in urban tactical situations. Double-yoi. It reminds me of what Robin Williams said about cocaine: It's God's way of pointing out that you have too much money.

Cranberry, Bradford Woods, Ambridge

10/15/12 232# 56M

Today was a great day for small adventures.

Departed the res' at 0900 for an 1130 lunch date with Z in Cranberry. I rode over there in about two hours. Went out for Chinese food, we had two different kinds of dim sum including soup dumplings (which I'd never seen before and predictably made a mess with), and we also had szechuan green beans — it was all very refreshing and tasty, quite excellent. After lunch we stopped at Crazy Mocha for Monkey Mochas, chocolate espresso's with a hint of banana syrup, also very cool.

Z rode out with me to the edge of the housing development, I thought that was very nice. I departed for Bradford Woods. Google Maps does a good job of bike directions through Cranberry, mostly RobinHood and the industrial park (both very bike friendly). It did rain a bit on this segment, which alternated between pretty blue sky and the sort of haze-gray that the Navy paints surface ships. As I rode around in unfamiliar places, straining to hear my nav directions, I could see (hear?) the usefulness of a BlueTooth earpiece for the turn-by-turn directions.

Discovered Bradford Woods and this excellent mural by August Vernon at 825 Oak Street:

This mural fits so naturally into the setting that it's a sign of great mastery. It's really an awesome thing to see. Also, on the corner of this property there's a mason jar of dog treats for people passing by, walking their dogs; very nice.

The artist explains there's a visual effect; if you keep your eyes generally focused on the open area of the bridge while moving laterally across the street, the bridge seems to move with you.

Departed Bradford Woods. Consulted with the Google-Map and put my trust in the gizmo, temporarily suspending my personal hueristic of avoiding roads that are called "State Game Land Road". It worked out well. Eventually I busted out onto the Red Belt and known territory on my way to my next stop, Ambridge.

Along the way I saw this mural-of-opportunity at 706 Ambridge Avenue, and it's the sort of thing that makes you stop and take a picture even though it's raining out:

Back on the bike and over to Ambridge Bike Shop, Pittsburgh's best Local Bike Shop. Picked up two spare tubes and back on my way. This third leg coincided with the afternoon rush hour but everybody was very courteous and it was a great ride. I think that when you're out in the rain, drivers tend to think you're crazy and they tend to give you a bit more room; nobody wants to mess with teh crazy man.

What a great ride. A visit with an old friend, interesting food, a new neighborhood and a new mural, an excuse to visit my LBS, and 56 miles. It's all good.

Akron to Cleveland, Ohio; Why Dogs but not Horses?

10/12/12 231# 48M

Today brought an interesting opportunistic adventure. Committments and logistics would cause me to be west of Akron Ohio at about 3pm today and leave me with an open schedule until 9pm and what does any bicyclist do in that situation? I checked Google maps and I saw that there's a tremendous trail corridor the Ohio and Erie Canalway trail that runs from Cleveland to Akron and beyond to New Philadelphia.

My secondary task, my diversion during empty hours, now seemed as attractive as the primary task. It's a well developed trail, it has rivers and canal locks and trailheads and towns, and possibly best of all - it has a train.

The Cayahoga Valley Scenic Railroad (CVSR) operates over the northern 51 miles of the Ohio & Erie Canalway. Normal fare for the trip? $17. Fare with a bicycle? $2. You can start in Cleveland, ride the train south for a deuce, get off and ride back to your car; amazing.

My 3pm task complete, I started riding crosstown to intercept the trail. There are some rich people in Ohio judging by the real estate. I saw a black squirrel which I've read about but not seen. They seem to call small waterways Runs here just like in PA.

This trail is wonderful, a combination of the best of several trails. The surface is like the best sections of the Montour trail or the GAP. In one brief section where the trail is a boardwalk it's very reminiscent of the Mount Vernon trail although much calmer. In a paved section around MP29 there's a bit of yank-and-bank that's reminiscent of the Peters Township trail.

The people on this trail are much more "normal" than "bikey"; very few helmets, very little bike-specific clothing, but a lot of sweaters, jeans, and sneakers. Very good trail etiquette.

The maps available at the ranger stations (it's a national park) are very good. One I liked in particular is a sort of ribbon-map; it's two inches wide by two feet long, perfect for rolling under the hem of your shorts or into a pocket. It doesn't show much of the communities at all, just the trail, trailheads, and crossroads. I thought it was an interesting, novel, and very useful bit of wayfinding.

There's one area called the Peninsula that's a mini-Ohiopyle. I rode north until I penetrated the Cleveland MetroParks segment at Thornburg Station and figured that counted as broaching Cleveland. I was mildly eager to turn around because most of my return leg would be after sunset.

The return trip was also great. There were a few birdwatchers, bicylists and walkers still out at sundown. Quite a few deer.

Several sections of the trail are open to equestrians, and their scatalogical remains left me wondering: why do we insist that civilized dog-owners clean up after their pets, yet we find it normal for horse-users to not clean up after their animals? Don't all the dog-owner arguments apply to the horse-owners? Isn't it ludicrous for the owner of a tiny dog to be cleaning up after Bitsy's tiny mini-poop while the owner of Black Beauty leaves large droppings in their wake?

Or, is it okay for just a few people to leave horse droppings behind them, but it wouldn't be okay if everybody did it? Isn't that an elitist, 1% sort of a position? Doesn't that fail the Kantian categorical-imperative test?

The last 90 minutes of the trip were dark and there's no illumination or reflectors along the trail. The last hour of the ride was in a pretty steady rain but it was a great ride, firmly in the Type 1 Fun category. I was glad that I'd covered most of the route on the original segment in daylight.

Really a tremendous trail. I'm going to go back and try to do a greater length in a day trip in conjunction with using the train. 48 miles.

Oct 13, 2012 Week 41 this week: 203 miles

231#

4th Qtr 357 miles 27.4 mi/day4qtd

2012: 5668 miles

Polish Hill and Sandcastle

10/12/12 26M

Coffeeneuring 2012-4 of 7.

Started at the Bastille at 0830 with S. and R. again, but today's temps were 45F at the start which seemed much more civilized than yesterday's 35. We rode around the North Side, and were stopped by a crew filming an Exxon commercial along the bike trail. Considered not stopping, but they said "please" so we played nice.

Crossed the 16th Street Bridge, so took a picture of this Chevy mural at 1519 Penn Avenue:

And while I was standing there, took another shot of the "Welcome to the Strip" mural:

I finally came across this commercial art when the door was closed and nobody was parked in front of it:

Rode up to Polish Hill, which was great because I'd never been up there before (even though I generally try to avoid places with names that include words like Mount, Hill, Summit, etc). Polish Hill seems like a great neighborhood.

Our target was a Sprout Fund sculpture at 3106 Brereton Street, a mural-by-other-means called "Meeting-Departure" by Paul Bowden, a Polish Hill resident who is also an illustrator for Carnegie Museum of Natural History's Mammals Department.

My own photograph doesn't do it justice, so I'm presenting a photo from the Polish Hill Community Association's blog:

With the artwork found, we set about locating LiLi's Coffee*Shop for our Coffeeneuring mission. Wow!

Lili's Coffee*Shop is located at 3138 Dobson Street, in the same building as MindCure Records and the Copacetic Comics Company. Must. Be. Seen. Among other things, a few more of Paul Bowden's sculptures are mounted on the walls. There was some vegan chicken soup on the menu, that seems to require a too-willing suspension of disbelief.

My fourth coffeeneuring expedition of the 2012 Coffeeneuring Challenge:


drink: Cafe Au Lait with an oatmeal-raisin cookie, very good
shop: Lili's Coffee*Shop
location: 3138 Dobson Street, Polish Hill, Pittsburgh PA
date: 10/12/2012
mileage: 26 miles

ride details: Rode with S and R, enroute to Sandcastle for groundbreaking ceremony. Bike friendly coffee shop. The place is named "Lili" after owners Robert Levkulich and Carrie DiFiore's young daughter.

Coming out of Polish Hill, I stopped to take a picture of the mural at Klavon's Ice Cream.

We rode around the Point and took the Jail Trail to the Hot Metal Bridge, made a (heated, indoor) potty break at REI, and continued along the SouthSide Trail and the Keystone Metals walkway to get to Sandcastle just in time for the groundbreaking ceremony for the Sandcastle-Keystone-Metals trail section, due to be complete by April 15, 2013.

In this photo, Linda McKenna Boxx and Rich Fitzgerald stand by while former mayor Tom Murphy talks about trail building. I thought it was really excellent that they recognized Tom Murphy's contributions to Pittsburgh's trail development:

After the ceremony we rode north to Station Square, then continued north to the West End Circle and stopped at Hunt Stained Glass. We knew there was a mural by Nick Parrendo on top of the building that really couldn't be seen from off-site, and we made bold to stop and ask permission to come inside and take a picture of the mural. They were very gracious and invited us in.

This is how the mural looks:

We were given a tour of the workshops, including a room where we saw several young craftsman doing amazing things.

26 miles on a day that went from drizzle to blue skies, and ranged from naked sculptures to media events to sacred artwork. Not bad.

Present Tense, North Braddock Aviary, No Brouhaha

10/11/12 232# 39m

Coffeeneur-2012 ride 3 of 7.

Started at the Bastille at about 0830 at 35F. Brisk, bracing, cold. Rode to the Casino, Ft. Duquesne Bridge, Ft. Pitt Bridge, Hot Metal Bridge, Junction Hollow, Fifth Avenue, Squirrel Hill, Murray Avenue, 61C Cafe.

My third coffeeneuring expedition of the 2012 Coffeeneuring Challenge:


drink: Latte w/extra shotte
shop: 61C Cafe, 61Ccafe.com
location: 1839 Murray Avenue, Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
date: 10/11/2012
mileage: 39 miles

ride details: Rode with S and R, enroute to Braddock and E. Pittsburgh. Keith was on duty at the counter, very nicely done. Excellent shop, great coffee, great snacks, great wifi. The cafe is named after the bus route that runs by their door. Very bike friendly.

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We had missed a local mural on our previous sweep of Squirrel Hill, so we continued down Murray Ave to catch the 2009 MLK mural on the side of the pet shop:

It may not come across in the photo, but it spells out "Squirrel Hill" while presenting various animals you might find in a pet store.

As we rode out of the neighborhood we saw a few canvas-sided sukkot in people's front yards in celebration of a Jewish holiday, that was pretty interesting.

We rode around Regent Square, through Edgewood and Braddock and into East Pittsburgh looking for a mural at Bessemer Ave in East Pittsburgh. My navigation took us on a very long, almost a Columbus-like route, and we serendipitously found this mural in East Pittsburgh at Linden Ave. and Electric Avenue:

Eventually (with the help of a mailman) we found 416 Bessemer and this mural, "Present Tense":

We were able to get back to Braddock without retracing our great-circle-route, and came across the Transformazium, an 1880's United Brethren Church repurposed as an artist's studio.

These are "street pastings" by the artist Swoon in a doorway:

Also by Swoon, on the rear facade of the building:

With the help of yet another mailman, we found our final mural target-of-the-day at Ajax and 4th in Braddock. This is an amazing little alcove of art, and if you didn't really need to be here you'd never have any reason to stumble across it.

The title mural proclaims the artwork as representing the "North Braddock Aviary - Hall of Male Birds in Courtship Plumage". Wow.

After that we departed Braddock and crossed the Rankin Bridge. We parted company at the south entrance to the Waterfront. I needed to make time back to the vehicles at the Bastille in hopes of keeping a coffee date with an old friend, so I stayed on 837 to the Hot Metal Bridge (noticed some new signage on the HMB), took the Jail Trail and scooted back. R and S took the Waterfront Trail, the Sandcastle and Keystone Metals route, and stopped SouthSide at ThickBikes, which is a pretty awesome place for indulging your inner bike geek.

It was a beautiful day for a ride. While it started off cold, it was about 50F when I got off the bike, sunny and blue.

As I drove away I realized we'd rode bikes all morning and never once had anybody mentioned the whole George-Levi-Frankie-Lance-brouhahaha. I like that.