Posts Tagged ‘Mount Oliver’
This time around, I used my compass
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mountain Avenue to Yard Way part one.
So… that recent walk where I accidentally headed off in the wrong direction, and ended up scuttling – in terror – along the side of a de facto highway, without sidewalks, because of that mistake?
Also, that I had resolved to head back to the starting point of the walking path which I originally intended to scuttle along?
Ok, I’m not saying that there weren’t any obstacles this time, but your humble narrator didn’t ‘eff this one up,’ and headed in the correct direction. The area and neighborhood designations are a still little hazy for me, but I was on Mountain Avenue in what I’m told is the ‘Mount Oliver’ section, at the starting point for this effort. I started this one right about here.
As the title would imply, I used that little plastic compass which dangles off of my camera bag to vouchsafe my intended direction, this time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This scene, I would mention, is a little bit over two miles away from the dense urban core of Pittsburgh’s central peninsula. Mind you, it’s semi-difficult to live amongst these hills, particularly during the winter months, and more difficult to build housing into various plots and properties.
The path I had meticulously laid out, and then completely ignored on my initial walk, would carry me away from Mount Oliver towards and over the ridgeline of that massive elevated landform found along the Monongahela River called Mount Washington (Oliver is actually a part of it) and into a neighborhood that’s known as the ‘South Side Slopes.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First dealie was walking up the hill, and up to the ridge line. This ridge and cliff face wears a street upon it, called Arlington Avenue, which snakes diagonally down the prominence’s city facing side. Once you’ve gotten to Arlington, you’re in the ‘South Side Slopes.’
This ‘zone’ has been absolutely what the doctor ordered, as far as getting past the aftereffects of the ‘orthopedic incident.’ The downward angling of the streets here allowed me to address the muscular atrophy caused by that misery, stretching and strengthening the musculature in the front of the thighs and calves. Of late, I’ve been walking ‘up’ these streets.
The trick to walking around here, while compromised, is to not allow yourself to pick up speed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Crossing Arlington Avenue allows egress to St. Patrick’s street.
There are few if any sidewalks along this path, but it’s a pretty low volume road, lined with private housing there’s not high traffic counts to fret over. You just stay to the side.
This may strike terror into your heart, but there is no bike lane there.
As you may have noticed, after a couple of months of walking around the ‘North Side’ of Pittsburgh, my curiosities had led me back to an area that’s a bit closer to HQ. As my physical capabilities have been returning to normal, the concept of being adventurous again has crept in.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
St. Patrick’s street feeds into a gully, or ravine, or possibly a ‘hollow.’ Mishegoss.
It, in turn, leads to a short set of City Steps which elevate pedestrians up to the level of the serpentine course of South 18th Street. There’s a grandiose set of City Steps here, which I haven’t experienced yet, that I was heading for.
The landform which is called Mount Washington forms a ridge along the Monongahela River. Mount Oliver and the other ‘named’ hills surrounding it are part of the same geologic shaping. Ultimately, the land summits up to the ridge and then plunges, in the sharp manner of cliffs, towards the flood plain at the river below.
Behind the ridge, to the south, there’s a series of hills and ‘hollows’ which play out for miles and miles, in a region called ‘The South Hills.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
To position myself for the set of City Steps which I was heading for, this example of that sort of infrastructure needed to be surmounted in the ‘up’ direction. I decided to have a quick sit down at the top, and check on my compass again. A quick scan of the ‘make a right, make a left’ directions I had prepared in the notes app on my phone was also accomplished.
I find that ‘sitting down’ should never be any longer than a few minutes, otherwise you lose momentum. The camera, camera bag, and all the crap I need to carry around with me is fairly heavy, so it’s useful to give the lower back a rest, and an ‘uncoil’ every now and then.
Back tomorrow with more, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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What you do and what you say
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The title of today’s post is from another one of the idiotic aphorisms which swirl about, within the brain box of your humble narrator.
‘Do what you say’ is fairly obvious, but ‘say what you do’ needs a bit of explaining. I think it’s important to – out loud and to the crowd – say when you’ve ‘effed something up, rather than performing some aggrieved martyr act intoning that you are an innocent whom ‘something bad just happened to,’ as a defense mechanism.
There’s a reason I’m starting this post with all of this admonition, Y’see…
I really ‘effed up on this one, and could have gotten seriously hurt.
We’ll explore my stupidity, committed here at the edge of Pittsburgh’s Mount Oliver section, over the next couple of posts. My ‘mea culpas’ need an audience, after all.
Meanwhile… welcome to Mount Oliver.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Despite the usual preparations – for some dumb reason, when I was dropped off by a cab at the start of this walk, I scuttled off in the completely wrong direction.
I had even been gazing at a map that morning, before I left HQ, and considered the path I accidentally ended up on and said ‘no way.’ My rejection was based around a long stretch of high speed road with zero sidewalks which I’d have to navigate.
Of course, that’s exactly the direction which I stupidly headed towards, without realizing it until it was far too late to change my course.
Oh, unhappy act.
This street I was walking along in Mount Oliver is called Mountain Avenue, if you’re curious as to where all this played out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Steep as the name would imply, when walking on some of Mountain Avenue’s rare sidewalks, nearby an intersection, there was some sort of city step action going on. There mostly weren’t any sidewalks, forcing me to just walk on the side of the road, which is actually kind of normal for Western PA. – to be honest.
As a note – Mountain Avenue is a local, and fairly low volume, street. My problems were still ahead of me.
Crap.
It was right about at this point that I had realized my mistake, and the direction that I was heading for. If you were in Pittsburgh and overheard blue language and angry ‘cussin’ in the vicinity of Mountain Avenue and Becks Run Road, on the afternoon of the 13th of April… yeah, that was me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Becks Run is an urban waterway.
As established in the past, Pennsylvania uses the term ‘run’ for flowing but not terribly deep waterways which other municipalities would call a ‘creek’ or a ‘stream.’ It’s fuzzy, the naming convention.
Haven’t been able to discover what differentiates a waterway being called a ‘run’ as opposed to a ‘creek’ or a ‘stream.’ River, yeah, that’s volume and depth based, but ‘run’?
Like nearly all urban waterways in Pittsburgh, Becks Run flows in an engineered manner around a series of residential and business properties, which are found along a roadway named for it. A lot of traffic from the South Hills area gets focused along this particular roadway, as it’s sort of the gateway to get out towards Homestead, where a retail Mecca called ‘The Waterfront’ is extant, and where one of the local Costcos is found.
Big draw, lotsa traffic, the Waterfront.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After turning onto Becks Run Road, a roadside memorial was encountered. Have no idea what sort of tragedy occurred here, but it was likely caused by a pickup truck driver, and it was obviously deadly.
Seriously, the pickup truck guys seem to think that they’re driving in indestructible Batmobiles or something. Drifting along the road at speed, playing games with other vehicles, tail gating…
Somebody tells me ‘a car got hit by a train nearby,’ my first response is going to be ‘did the pickup’s driver survive’?
Anyway, this post is all about my own stupid decisions, not somebody else’s. Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Noticed this dead thing on my way. To me, it looked like an Eagle while ‘in the field,’ but one of my buddies insists that this is likely a dead Hawk of some kind. Any opinions? Here’s a full body shot, and one of its particularly wicked looking foot. Whenever I try to say what kind of a bird that a bird is, I get it wrong.
Leave opinions in the comments, if you’ve got one.
Back tomorrow with more… and… the horror…
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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“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.
Tripling down
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just a short post today, carrying a trio of somewhat random photos captured during my various and quite ultramundane travels through the Pittsburgh metro area.
The one above depicts a street level view of the Wheeling & Lake Erie RR outfit’s ‘Rook Yard’ at the border of Carnegie and Green Tree. It was a Sunday, and nothing profound was happening there. Cracked out a shot as I had made a special trip to spy upon them.
The photos in today’s post were largely gathered while operating the Mobile Oppression Platform, a Toyota.
Needless to say, but the car’s transmission was in park mode as the shutter was depressed – before anyone asks or shouts ‘j’accuse.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one is from the evening of Halloween, and was captured in Dormont, where Newtown Pentacle HQ is located, while on foot. It didn’t rain, believe it or not, despite the warnings of the meteorological crew.
Your humble narrator has been feeling pent up, boxed in, and the old wanderlust has recently reignited. Physical limitations due to the ankle dealie have been lessening, and it’s time to bust out of my rusty cage and roam again.
As far as the limitations go… they just set parameters for me to work within at this point, and I’ve also grown quite tired of such matters getting in my way. The ‘will to power’ urge grows within, like a cancer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another ‘behind the wheel’ shot, this time from one of Dormont’s neighboring communities, in Mount Oliver. Something about that converted garage apartment just grabbed me. Very, very, Greg Brady, but with a dystopian air which satisfied me.
Back tomorrow with something a bit more substantial.
“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.
Get’s and go’s
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s a T light rail entering Potomac Station in Pittsburgh’s Dormont, where Newtown Pentacle HQ currently is found. I really have to get back to doing night shots, I’ve decided. Miss it.
Problem is that Pittsburgh is a very, very daytime focused place – or at least my style of life here has been. I get up early these days, about six in the morning, and am usually back in bed by about eleven at night. A huge change for me, this is, given how thoroughly nocturnal I used to be back in NYC. It’s darker here, I should mention, as there’s far less scattered light pollution bouncing off of concrete and buildings.
It’s funny, I feel like I’ve been slacking lately, although in reality I’ve been pushing the physical envelope as much as I can, post broken ankle wise. Every one of the longish walks I’ve been showing y’all has resulted in a day or two of painful soreness, but echoing in my head is ‘everything’s ok now, push harder.’ In reality, everything is definitively ‘not ok,’ but I’m trying. Everything will be better if I just work harder.
Really do miss the night stuff, though.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next door to Dormont is Mount Oliver, and amongst other things, that’s where Moe the Dog goes for his dog training. He’s good at being a dog – to be clear – what with all the barking and the pooping so he doesn’t need any help on that front, but Moe has a lot of rough edges and bad habits we’re trying to coax him out of.
After dog training, it was time for me to figure out a route for my next walk. As mentioned, ad nauseum, one the goals at the moment is to pick routes which will provide certain otherwise hard to impact muscle groups in my legs which atrophied during my hermitage a decent workout. I also want to ‘see some stuff’ along the way.
On this walk, I had the whole kit with me – tripod, prime lenses, zoom lens. For this sort of carry, I prefer a knapsack, and the one currently on my back is from the Patagonia brand. Water resistant, lots of internal pockets, multiple compartments. The bag itself weighs practically nothing. This particular bag can – and has – held more than I had packed into it on this outing, but this was a day trip and not an overnighter. Additionally, I have to be concerned with how much the bag weighs which I’m slinging it onto my back because… you guessed it… the ankle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
St. Patrick’s street, in the South Side Slopes/Allentown zone of Pittsburgh, that’s where I had a Lyft driver drop me off. I’ve been up here a few times in the past, but have never walked this particular route before. It’s almost like I’m systematically working my way through the street grid of an intriguing neighborhood, isn’t it?
I’ll show y’all what I saw along the way, on what ended up being a four and change miles scuttle, much of which was walked downhill at quite a steep grade. Interesting neighborhood, this.
Back tomorrow with more, at your Newtown Pentacle.
“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 