The Newtown Pentacle

Friday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As described yesterday, your humble narrator was involved with another exploratory scuttle in the Borough of McKees Rocks, a part of the Pittsburgh metro area here in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County. A walk over the Wind Gap Avenue Bridge had been perpetrated, and now my footsteps were pointing in the direction of an industrial zone.

I wasn’t using my headphones on this one, as I wanted to be 100% aware of my surroundings. Lots of industrial driveways, nearby residential… if you’ve ever been certified by OSHA instructors, you know the mantra: How can I get hurt? How can I avoid getting hurt?

Simply speaking: never, ever, cross an industrial driveway without full stopping, and looking. If there’s somebody sitting inside a vehicle in that driveway, do not cross in front of it until the driver definitively acknowledges your presence. Indicate what you’re going to do next, as in point at where you’re planning on walking through.

Overkill? Yes. Not killed? Better.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s the church, St. Mary’s apparently, which would be my landmark for most of this part of the day. I like having a prominent building to use for such purpose. Given my recent idiotic proclivity towards walking in the completely wrong direction, I obviously need assistance.

The residential area is built on an elevation. The industrial area i was scuttling through is lower in altitude, and obviously built on the flat flood plains surrounding Chartiers Creek. There are also lots of rail tracks running through this ‘zone.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The path I had figured out before leaving HQ led to an underpass beneath that rail trestle pictured above. As far as I could surmise from the Google Maps app, consulted in advance, that was the iron gateway to the industrial zone, from the Wind Gap Avenue side. The truss roadway in the background is the Wind Gap Bridge, featured in yesterday’s post.

I don’t like driving on pavers, at all, but they’re not too shabby for pedestrian usage. You just have to watch out for paver bricks which have been ‘frost heaved’ out of position and create trip hazards. That’s how you’d get hurt here, with the prophylaxis against a fall down injury being ‘watch your step.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I’m almost certain that these are Norfolk Southern tracks. That picture above would look pretty cool with a train in the middle of it, huh?

Unfortunately, these tracks were dead as a door nail on this particular morning. Something else I had to do evaporated on the day I visited this section of McKees Rocks, so the opportunity to get out a bit earlier than usual was taken.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The intersection under the rail trestle is the kind which has signs instructing drivers to honk their horns before turning, as the intersection is ‘blind.’ If you’re curious – here’s a Google Maps link depicting where this spot can be found.

This actually ended up being a pretty cool day.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s ‘routes of convenience’ for walks, which I’ve discovered here in the Pittsburgh metro area. The many rail and river trails, for instance, are cheap and convenient places for to engage with, and mass transit provides an alpha and omega to the effort. Another example of ‘frequented areas’ include my ‘North Shore’ scuttles, which are again in the reach of mass transit, specifically the T light rail.

McKees Rocks isn’t one of those easy places. It takes a bit of effort to get here, and back again.

I had a definite end goal for this McKees Rocks scuttle on this particular day, and a plan to get back to a light rail station cheaply. Saying that, there were several interesting things ahead of me.

More on all that next week – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.

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