Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh’
A Schenley Scuttle
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After entering Schenley Park via a southern entrance (as described last week), your humble narrator walked along the Junction Hollow Trail. Paved with asphalt, this is a pretty easy walk through a series of sports fields and open meadows of grass. On either side of the urban corridor it moves through, here in Pittsburgh, steep hillsides sprinkled with urbanized residential areas were observed.
Pictured above (I think) is the Charles Anderson Memorial Bridge, which is currently undergoing emergency repairs that were undertaken after the nearby Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed suddenly back in 2022.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are rail tracks here (Junction Hollow!), which I’m told were once used as a main line right of way for the B&O Railroad. The rails seem to be polished and shiny, which suggests there’s at least occasional rail traffic here, but I didn’t see any while walking through.
One wasn’t here for rail shots, but I definitely wouldn’t have complained if serendipity struck. Frankly, a bit of serendipity would have been nice at this moment.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is where I was heading to, anyway, Panther Hollow and Panther Hollow lake. Manmade, a significant amount of upland storm water drainage is directed towards this body. It, in turn, drains via another water way called Four Mile Run into the Monongahela River.
There were birds and critters, and a bunch of those icehole Canada Geese milling about and despoiling the shoreline with incessant pooping.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
High above, spanning the hollow, is the 1896 vintage Panther Hollow Bridge. This was my turnaround point on the walk, which is nearly always pre-decided upon on during this sort of outing.
I had to backtrack to the car, and reverse the steps which I’d already taken. The park itself was beginning to get populated with college students who were bounding about, jogging, doing yoga stretches – that sort of thing. People… yuck.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A conversation was started up with some random fella, who was walking his dog, and it turned out that his brother lived in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint so we found some random commonality between us. The guy, and his dog, lived here in the Run and he described the neighborhood’s charms in an effusive fashion.
I bid him adieu, and continued scuttling along back to the car.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was late afternoon and time to head back to ‘my neck of the woods’ for… sigh… more on that tomorrow.
I said I wasn’t going to ever do that again… over and over, I said it…
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Run, rabbit, run
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent endeavor found your humble narrator driving over to a section of Pittsburgh called ‘The Run’ which adjoins Schenley Park. I wasn’t visiting or exploring the community, rather passing through and I was following a trail map which led through the park.
At the nearby end of the Eliza Furnace Trail is found a parking lot, where the Mobile Oppression Platform had been berthed. I should have looked more deeply at the trail maps, as I could have parked a bit closer to my destination, but I’m never one to complain about a bit of extra walking.
That’s Pittsburgh’s Second Avenue pictured above, and the large property on the right is called ‘Blair Park,’ but it used to be part of a Steel Mill (or so I’m told). Still learning about this joint, me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Second bends onto Saline Street, which then leads into a neighborhood called ‘the Run.’ There’s a great local YouTube channel, produced by a fellow named Dean Bog, that offers a nice short about this area – check it out here.
Bog’s inventory of videos explore the various communities in the Pittsburgh Metro area, and they impart the ‘vibe’ encountered when exploring the habitations of the local human infestation. Here’s one about the part of town where HQ can be found and where a humble narrator dwells – the Borough of Dormont.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My goal for the afternoon, beyond getting some exercise and seeing a place which was novel and new, was to get to a spot called Panther Hollow in Schenley Park. The ‘front door’ to this park is nearby the campuses of PITT and Carnegie Mellon University, whereas a ‘back door’ is found down here.
Back tomorrow with more.
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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.
Rolling, rolling, scuttling
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described in prior posts, one was engaged in a constitutional walk with an ulterior purpose of capturing a few photos along the way. I was scuttling along Pittsburgh’s P.J. McArdle roadway, which that suspension bridge pictured above is a part of. The bridge overflies a set of Norfolk Southern RR tracks.
There was some kind of track maintenance operation underway that was kicking up a good amount of dust, just around the bend.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The characteristic rumble of a locomotive engine from the direction of that bend signaled that a train was about to appear. The shot above is significantly cropped out of a full frame shot, in order to provide detail, I should mention. But… a train was coming.
Hooray for me, I can be happy again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Happily photographed, the train continued along its way and so did I. This was a relatively short walk, and I had other things to do back at HQ. I looped around the waterfront and headed back to the T light rail station, where I caught my ride back to Dormont some five or so miles distant.
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.
Peripheral scuttling
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The walking route which occupied this particular Tuesday afternoon has become kind of familiar to me, and it’s a path which mirrors the Monongahela River’s southern shoreline. One was scuttling along the elevated P.J. McArdle roadway. The roadway has a nice pedestrian and bike lane which is separated from vehicle traffic by a line of concrete ‘Jersey barriers.’
The roadway structure juts out from a slope and is supported by a cantilever, which sticks out from the steep side of Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington. Above me, and to the right in the POV above, I’m told that the neighborhood is called the ‘South Side Slopes,’ and down below and to the left in the shot above – it’s the ‘South Side Flats.’
This is a great Pittsburgh walk, as it’s all downhill, but you get to walk on a comfortable and graded angle. I’ve also walked up this path, and that’s a real and sweaty workout as it’s a steady ‘push’ against the elevation.
I was walking downhill, as I’m lazy – just ask anyone.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Railroad tracks are set into a berm on the landform’s base, which is one of the lines which carry the Norfolk Southern RR outfit’s rolling stock through the city. Traffic along these tracks is pretty frequent, but it’s become one of my missions to find unoccluded points of view on the line – which is somewhat easier said than done.
The leather reclining chair spotted alongside the tracks made me wonder, and more than wonder. Admittedly, there’s a few homeless camps in the area, but – wow – it must have been quite an expenditure of effort to get that heavy leather chair to this spot. Odd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a small bridge which is part of the roadway, one which overflies the aforementioned rail tracks. It’s a neat spot to get rail shots from, and it’s one of several spots where I’ve ‘gotten lucky’ in the past.
Again – to be clear – not railfanning. I just like taking photos of trains.
Saying that – back tomorrow with some Choo-Choo.
“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.
Now, more than ever, scuttle on
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Tote that camera, lift them feets, scuttle forth – that was the order of the day for a humble narrator, after clearing the deck of other ‘have-to’s.’ The now familiar routine of climbing a hill, and then another shallower hill, found me again standing at the T light rail station here in Pittsburgh’s Borough of Dormont, waiting for a ride ‘into town.’
It was exercise day again, but I really wasn’t feeling it. The main thing I was feeling was pain in my right shoulder, and a certain bewilderment about how I managed to injure myself while sleeping. Doesn’t matter, really, as everything hurts all the time these days. Pain is my oldest and most loyal friend.
The plan on this particular day – which was a Tuesday – was to commit about three hours of time to constant movement, with the hope that I might randomly encounter a few things worth pointing the camera at.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My first destination involved what was probably trespassing, but there we are. I hung around this area and did a bit of scouting nearby these railroad tracks, but the signal boards visible behind me were all flashing steady red indicators, and there was some sort of track maintenance hullabaloo underway in the distance – so ‘No Bueno’ as far as trains a the time I was there. One hung around for a few minutes nevertheless, whereupon the fact that this was a ‘photowalk’ and not a ‘photo stand around and wait’ occurred to me.
One of my many rules, loosely followed during these photowalk/exercise day outings, is to keep moving. If there isn’t anything interesting going on when I’m passing by, it’s ‘not meant to be’ and I should keep scuttling along until something interesting collides with my path. I call this ‘serendipity,’ but I’m famously an idiot. Just ask anyone.
A humble narrator is not a patient man, but I’m working on that flaw. I’ve got an entire portfolio of flaws, just ask anyone.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the downtown Pittsburgh skyline pictured above, as seen from alongside this set of empty railroad tracks. A South Hills bound T light rail train set was leaving the Panhandle Bridge over the Monongahela River, and crossed into the camera’s frame.
I would encounter rail traffic later on in my afternoon, I’d mention, which you’ll see ‘shots of’ in a subsequent post. The History of Rome podcast was still active on my headphone’s playlist, and was describing the reign of Emperor Tiberius and his treacherous Praetorian henchman Sejanus. Given that I’m a huge fan of the British ‘I, Claudius’ television series, it’s difficult to not picture a young Patrick Stewart when Sejanus comes up.
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.
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