The erstwhile group gathered at the standard coffee shop start and headed out on a warm feeling from various forms of caffeination. We headed south on Highland through East Liberty and across the brand new busway/Amtrak bridge on Highland. Nicely done, with obvious design props to pedestrians and cyclists. Through west Shadyside on Ellsworth to Neville and down into the darkness of Panther Hollow and the river level riding. Here along the rivers are the most useful byways for bicycles; direct, level, car-free routes to downtown.
Besides bridges, there are reasons to cross the rivers. We go again to the Southside for the lights, the activity, the climbs and the views. Immediately off the foot of the Hot metal Bridge across the Monongahela River we take the river trail to 18th street. On 18th we cross from Southside "flats" to the "slopes" right at a classic set of "city steps"; staircases following the linear path of a road drawn on a map whose steepness exceeds the engineers' ability to build a street and instead becomes a concrete staircase, many keeping the street name for their ascent. On top of the high ground south of the Mon River we stop for a bit at a monastery with a view, ascend an alley and plod through Allentown dodging the trolley rails, ever seeking higher ground. We turn onto Virginia Avenue and time a few stoplights from steeply above so that we bomb down the hill to the green lights at intersections with bigger, busier roads, and carry our inertia up the subsequent hills. The top of the last one affords us a right turn and in two blocks we emerge on Grandview Avenue, high across from downtown Pittsburgh. Several sights and photo ops distract. Our elevator this evening will be Sycamore Road. A nasty, twisting steepness once used against pro riders in the Thrift Drug Classic, including Armstrong. We do what they couldn't however, we descend it in the dark. It throws twists beyond imagination, an uncertain surface and periods of elevation loss that combine to disorient until we get close enough to other lights to gain an ambient generalization of the roadway. Back to reality, or river level, we cross from Station Square to downtown on the Smithfield Street Bridge and merge onto the Eliza Furnace (Jail) trail to move in the dark towards Panther Hollow again. Once in the cool quiet of the Hollow we are sure we hear a train coming. Sort of like one of those Halloween stories but this one actually had three headlights and caught up to us just before our turn through a lower campus CMU garage. Seriously, a train crossing Neville Street at 8:30 pm? The CMU campus is a wonderland with it's LED-lit Pausch Bridge and the Santa's workshop garages on the bottom of the building, where I snapped a picture of a driverless Suburban in the build phase. It shared hanger space with a couple of buggy-like rigs destined for much more austere environs than this campus or planet. Back up in the neighborhoods, on the high ground, we trace our paths back to our start and another installation of a post ride gathering. Fast adieus following. I had a 4 am wake up and some sweet sleep to enjoy before then. As always, an enjoyable evening in the saddle seeing what is always around us in a different light, uh, rather absence of light. Again in a week! Pictures as proof: https://plus.google.com/photos/109160474815391208206/albums/5943325895674086513?authkey=CMKkwLmCtLesmAE Andy Cheatham Pittsburgh -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
