Posts Tagged ‘Montour Trail’
Gradum proximum
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As often stated, I’m fascinated by the parabolas and massing shapes of high speed roads, and the shaping of the overpasses and bridges which carry them. That’s a toll road pictured above, a relatively recent addition to the local milieu in Greater Pittsburgh referred to as the ‘Southern Beltway.’
AKA Pa. Route 576, this is a brand spanking new bit of infrastructure that opened for business in October of 2021.
The totality of this beltway project is staggering in terms of scale and just how long the Pennsylvania State Government has been both planning and slowly building it. The goal of the project is to eliminate a regional choke point in the current setup of high speed/volume roads which interchange in or close to downtown Pittsburgh where traffic density is highest.
To say that it’s a controversial project would vastly understate the ennui which modern day city planners and self described ‘urbanists’ feel towards the process of ‘jamming another highway through already densely populated areas.’
They will then mention Robert Moses disparagingly.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This Southern Beltway is meant to join up with other segments, eventually, and form a ring around Pittsburgh, creating high speed conduits to its satellite cities like PA.’s Uniontown, and connect to interstates leading to several nearby areas in Ohio and West Virginia. I’m told they use electronic tolling up there, but personally I avoid toll roads like the plague, unless there’s absolutely no other choice.
Don’t feel smug or provincial, New Yorkers. Every shred of traffic entering the five boroughs, or Long Island’s two counties, is dependent on the Verrazzano, George Washington, and Triboro bridges. Upper Manhattan, South Brooklyn, and Western Queens are your personal ‘choke points.’ Keep fighting about ‘affordable housing’ and bike lanes though, and ignore this basic delimiter as traffic gets worse and worse in NYC. Blame Uber and Lyft, as it’s politically simpler than building a tunnel connection to I-95 under Long Island Sound, and far cheaper than creating a barge to rail port at JFK airport in Jamaica Bay. There will never be a natural or manmade disaster you will need to get away from.
Keep saying it’s all Robert Moses’ fault.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last shot of the McDonald Trestle from my way back to the car.
It was time to start preparing for a medical procedure which I’d need to endure that was just 48 hours away. Luckily, I got to eat some of the apples and corn I bought at a newly discovered farm stand before this kafkaesque nightmare began, and I had to start a ‘water fast.’
Sucked.
Back tomorrow with something different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Alta Via
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was a ‘short walk day’ which greeted your humble narrator, on a recent morning, and desire to get out of the City center of Pittsburgh dominated my waking thoughts. A half hour or so’s drive to the nearby community of McDonald, and the confluence of the Montour and Panhandle rail trails, was thereby executed. Along the way I found a farm stand, which had phenomenal apples and some pretty decent sweet corn on sale. Yum.
Pictured above is the McDonald Trestle. I’ve brought you here before, and offered a couple of posts about the location.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Down below, the water is still running orange due to drainage from a historical slag heap that shadows it. One was in need of a quiet and somewhat contemplative scuttle on this particular day, as weighty personal matters would be playing out in the next few days.
A medical procedure was scheduled for the end of this particular week, one which would involve anesthesia, and I was required to do a preparatory ‘water fast’ (amongst other things) for 24 hours in advance of the test. The docs insisted on this one, and I complied, but couldn’t pretend to be happy about it.
This procedure is normal stuff given my age, history, and various other medical conditions. I’m not supplying specifics, but if I describe the procedure as a ‘real pain in the butt,’ you can probably guess what it was that I was going to have to endure just a couple of days after these shots were captured.
Truth be told, the entire thing was just exhausting and no fun at all, but I got see a side of myself otherwise hidden so the ebullient joys of novelty were experienced. It was like that old movie Fantastic Voyage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator’s lizard brain was busily trying to cook up some excuse or logical reason that would allow me to back out of the procedure, as that inner voice was screaming in terror the whole time. More mature thinking superceded my howling terrors, and I thereby marched gleefully forward into the clutches of the medical enthusiasts. Saying that, knowing that I’d be down and out for a few days afterwards, an attempt to get as much exercise in as I could prior to the oncoming ordeal.
I don’t feel well if I don’t follow my normal exercise patterns.
The normal day on/day off pattern would be broken by the medical situation, however, and the walk pictured today and tomorrow occurred directly following the one you saw last week in the city’s center. This spot is probably no more than 20 miles from the center of things here in Pittsburgh. Urbanity scales away pretty quickly to small towns here.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Montour Trail at Library Junction
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent endeavor found your humble narrator at the Library Junction section of Pittsburgh’s Montour Trail, taking a short walk on a very hot day. It was lovely, and one of the best kept sections of the ‘rail to trail’ setup which I’ve encountered. The surrounding countryside was suburban leaning into rural (there was an injured horse’s rehabilitation farm nearby).
Nothing in the way of sewer plants, running water, railroads, or anything else which most would consider as being ‘horrible,’ so I was a little bored on this section – to be honest.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was fiendishly hot out, and quite humid as well. One scuttled about two miles in and decidedly said ‘meh,’ then turned around to head back to the car. Sometimes you come home empty handed, photography wise. Other times you get lucky, but that’s the price of always seeking novelty, I guess.
My headphones were playing one of Dan Carlin’s ‘Hardcore History’ podcasts, specifically ‘Twilight of the Aesir,’ which discusses part of the struggles experienced by European cities during the ‘Vikings vs. Franks’ era of history.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There was a bit of historic signage describing the function of this section of the Montour Railroad, click here for a photo of the sign if interested, but suffice to say for the ‘TLDR’ crowd: in 1918 there was a mine nearby, and the Montour RR outfit built a right of way here to service it, which also connected to the B&O RR’s right of way as well.
Back tomorrow with something different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
W&LE, Montour Westland
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Created – as it was – from the remains of bankrupted railroad’s right of way, there are several branches of the Montour Trail found snaking around the hinterlands of Pittsburgh.
One of these branch lines, in particular – the Westland – is fascinating to me. The somewhat sudden emergence of an industry which harvests gas from the Marcellus Shale formation in Western Pennsylvania (and in other nearby states here in Appalachia) using the hydrological fracturing – aka ‘Fracking’ – methodology, has caused a new set of rail tracks to emerge that more or less mirrors the route of the old Montour Railroad.
Recent endeavor found a humble narrator in PA.’s Washington County, walking along the Montour Trail, and also encountering a rail yard used by the Wheeling & Lake Erie outfit along this route.
For a history of the Westland Branch of the Montour RR – I photographed a signboard which the rail to trail people have installed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was a lucky catch for me, as I had literally just scuttled up the trail from a nearby parking lot, and my arrival is exactly when the gates of the rail yard signaled an alarm and then opened up to receive this train. In the distance, a young eagle was twisting in the sky, and you could just make out the rumble of a diesel engine coming my way before it arrived.
The land surrounding this area is semi rural. A dairy farmer has a small property nearby and you could both smell and hear his cows just beyond the tree line. The trail itself was barely being used, besides myself there was some other guy jogging about and a young woman riding around on some fancy pants bicycle was also spotted.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Wheeling & Lake Erie train was hauling mainly tanker cars. Each one bore a screed exclaiming that ‘Liqueified Natural Gas’ was contained within. The fracking thing… well, I’m new here and I’ve got opinions.
Just like butt holes, opinions are, everyone’s got ‘em.
Serious consequence to ground water and seismic stability accompany the practice of ‘Fracking.’ Future generations will rue the day that our current civilization decided that harvesting this gas was a good idea.
Saying that, this industrial pursuit has accomplished a fifty year long quest to decouple the American economy from energy dependence on the Middle East, and consequently the United States has now become the leading exporter of hydrocarbons to the rest of the world. This has allowed the Foreign Policy types to introduce the Arabians to the Chinese and let them work things out between themselves. In my opinion, never have two groups of people deserved each other more, but that brings me back to buttholes.
It’s… complicated.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Montour Robinson
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
‘Pennsylvania’ means ‘Penn’s Woods,’ and the place definitely lives up to that ‘Sylvan’ label. Unlike my native NYC, where trees are often caged, the woody things are allowed to roam free out here and fill up the landscape. I’ve mentioned Pittsburgh’s abundance of urban forest before, but once you get a half hour out from the City in any direction from the center of all things, the suburbs give way to vast tracts of land where these vegetable overlords are in charge.
Recent endeavor found one heading over to Robinson Township (a low density suburb with an abundance of strip malls and chain stores, which is set against heavily wooded hills) and a section of the Montour Trail (pictured) which I hadn’t visited yet for a medium length scuttle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve mentioned this ‘rail to trail’ facility many times since relocating to Pittsburgh in December of 2022, and one often contemplates his lamentations about the world, and literally everything I’ve ever screwed up, echoing between the ears and behind the eyes while walking along it. My internal voice is seldom a pleasant companion, so I’ve recently opted for listening to podcasts and audiobooks to drown out the internal condemnations.
I’m in the mid 4th century on Mike Duncan’s ‘History of Rome’ at this point and the actions of Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, were being discussed in some depth during this walk by the author.
A side trail beckoned, and one positively plunged into the verge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Montour Run is the name of the waterway found down here, and that bridge in the shot above is the same one seen in the distance of the first shot. This water follows the trail, which used to carry railroad tracks, and looks like it’s a semi artificial waterway that provided drainage for the tracks. Based on olfactory observation, Montour Run receives a bit of residential and commercial sewerage and runoff as well.
Not too much, and mostly storm water in my estimation, as there was just a hint of of the scent of honey floating around down here. The NYC DEP taught me to call sewage honey, I should mention.
It had been a minute since I set up the tripod for flowing water shots, so I cracked out a few exposures down here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One busted through the brush and returned to the trail. The goal for the day was five miles, and so did a humble narrator lean into the walk. It was quite a warm day, and is the case with nature type settings during warm weather – kind of buggy. People were riding bikes, and jogging, and walking big friendly dogs and or toddlers.
The great thing about these rail trails is that there were originally graded for railroads, and provide a fairly easy path through the steep hills and valleys of this Appalachian landscape.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s all sorts of ‘used to be, once, long ago’ ruinations found along the path, and more than once I found myself pushing through heavy brush and picking my way amongst the trees to attain certain points of view.
A native Pennsylvanian would laugh at me for describing these wooded pockets as ‘woods.’ There are ‘state game lands’ nearby which offer actual ‘woods’ that stretch for hundreds of square acres in any direction, and these areas are said to host a myriad of seldom mentioned or observed critters. Bear, deer… hunters even report spotting Bigfoots crashing about in these wild areas.
You probably ain’t gonna see a Bigfoot traveling through here, I’d mention. The airport is about five miles away, and Pittsburgh is about twenty. Also – Bigfoots prefer Amtrak or the Megabus when they travel rather than airlines.
They need a lot of leg room, the Bigfoots. Bwah, hah, ha.
Here all week, two shows on Saturday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Having hit my turn around point on the trail, it was time to reverse course and head back towards the parking lot where the Mobile Oppression Platform awaited. This walk ended up being just over six miles in the end, rather than my planned upon five.
Back tomorrow with something different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Newtown Pentacle 