Category Archives: Outdoors

Git ahta tahn!

passageSeveral years ago, I was a bike geek. 50 to 80-mile Saturday rides were typical, and I’d race across the city – after work – to meet my riding buddy for a weeknight sprint of 20 miles or so. While most of those rides were on the country roads of Westmoreland County, we also spent a lot of time on the vast array of rail-trails at our disposal.

Southwestern PA is blessed in this regard. Mid-1990s initiatives gave us a jump on most areas of the country. To this day, we’re still a leader and have far more trails than any other region of the state. Abandoned railroad right-of-ways – yet another relic of the Industrial Revolution – have been reborn into multi-use paths that have become focal points of communities long abandoned by coal, steel, glass and rail. Many of these towns – places not typically branded progressive – embrace these linear parks and realize their potential through bed & breakfasts, trailside ice cream and barbeque stands, repair shops, summer festivals, and charity events. In many cases, they have become focal points of the community.

A comprehensive network is congealing in Southwestern PA, the cornerstone of which is the Great Allegheny Passage – a 350-mile-plus network comprising of the Montour, Steel Valley, Three Rivers Heritage, Youghiogheny River, and Allegheny Highlands Trails. A patchwork of other trails is filling out the metro area as well. Notables include the Freeport-Butler Community, Ghost Town, Panhandle, and Armstrong Trails.

Two online resources are the best place when mapping your route. The state DCNR has an extensive site with an interactive map. You can use this to plan a trip, as well as get directions to trail heads and parking areas, and links to sites dedicated to certain trails. You can even get local weather.
www.dcnr.state.pa.us/railtrails/SouthWest.aspx

The Allegheny Trail Alliance, stewards of the Great Allegheny Passage, offer a great knowledge base of trailheads, restaurants, lodging, campsites, and recreation for the Great Allegheny Passage. This site has been around for seven years, and is still one of the most comprehensive. I utilized it heavily when planning my Pgh-DC trip several years back.
www.atatrail.org

Three Rivers Heritage Trail

i heart dock

An old furniture store in Braddock is the new site of a collaborative public art project between Braddock, The STUDIO for Creative Inquiry and The Carnegie Mellon School of Design.

This building will once again cast light on Braddock Avenue. The five large glass-block windows which run up the eastern corner will have alternating light projections of contour line images of landmarks in Braddock transitioning to large projected letters. The word spelled out in the four top windows will change between DOCK and DOCC. The name Braddock is often spelled -Braddocc- by younger generations there.

Things are happening in Braddock, keep an eye out for more interesting projects in Braddock. It is exciting to see that people in the area are seeing great potential in the ruins of a town that has gained a reputation for being a wasteland. For more information on Braddock and the opportunities for creative development there check out the Mayor’s website – http://www.15104.cc/

This is a picture of the project during the light up night celebration. It was a happy coincedence that one of the other spectators is a fellow Pittsburgh lover.

I heart Braddock

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Art N’At – The 2006 Three Rivers Arts Festival Runs Through This Weekend

Flowers, And Not Flowers Fountain, Gateway One Plaza Junkanoo! I Saw Three Guys With A Cooler Of Iron And Nerf Shotguns Approaching As I was Walking Away

Amazingly, it hasn’t been particularly rainy in Pittsburgh this June, which is odd, because the annual Three Rivers Arts Festival is well underway. I mean, this is not normal – there was talk at one point of having the Fest go on the road to drought-plagued regions of the world, perhaps re-greening of the Sahara or the Gobi…

Tiny Graffiti (Graffitino?)I stopped down last Saturday, took some pictures, trying to catch the overall feeling of the fest. Music, sculpture, arts, crafts, food… It’s all there downtown, and it’s all good. Stop by the PPG Wintergarden and check out the sculpture, and while you’re there, you or the kids can cool off (Whoa! ‘Cause it’s warm and sunny! Git aht!) in the fountains in PPG Plaza. Then, wander through the Gateway Center Plazas, check out all the great artists presenting their work – paintings, photographs, jewelry, crafts…

Come Hungry (And Wealthy)And come hungry – the food booths are scattered about, but concentrated in front of the Hilton. Everything you’d want to eat while walking through a park on a sunny day is there – Gyros, Panini, Fried Vegetables (With Cheese, of course. I mean, fried isn’t quite bad enough for you, right?)… And of course, Italian Ice, lemonade, funnel cake for the sweet tooth.

Take a walk down to the fountain at the Point – the late afternoon sun behind you, and look back at the skyline, beautifully outlined against an azure sky.

If you stay until night falls, check out some of the shows or concerts presented at various venues around downtown.

The Arts Festival only comes once a year, and is truly one of the things that makes Pittsburgh special and a great place to live.

Vote for Gabrielle!

A call to action for one of our own! Ms. Gabby Means (age 11) is > < this close to winning a complete refurbishment of Gladstone Field in Greenfield, but she needs our help! Gabby is a contestant in the Briggs & Stratton Diamonds in the Rough Contest; her heartfelt essay to this national organization has put her in the running for a $20,000 grand prize and baseball clinic from Hall of Famers Lou Brock and Carlton Fisk! She is competing against 15 other kids from around the country and she needs our help. You can read more about Gabby's story in the Post-Gazette article below. Please vote for her here – it only takes 2 seconds!

http://www.briggsdiamondsintherough.com/

Voting ends this Sunday, May 21st, so please vote today!

Softball player, 11, makes pitch for a field like the boys’
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

For Gabby Means, 11, it’s all about fairness. Fairness and fair balls, actually.

Gabby, of Greenfield, has long smarted at conditions on Gladstone Field, where her Pink Team plays in the Greenfield Organization’s softball league. It wouldn’t be so bad to play on an uneven, overgrown, rocky field, if it weren’t for the fact that the boys play on vastly superior Hammer Field, nearby.

“I’ve always felt it was unfair,” she said. “I think that everybody should have a fair chance of becoming as good as another person.”

When she saw an ad for engine maker Briggs & Stratton Corp.’s Diamonds in the Rough competition, she saw her chance to even the score. The company annually grants $5,000 for improvements to 16 youth ballfields nationwide, and another $20,000 to the grand prize winner, chosen through online balloting.
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