OMT Gallery

Welcome to the OMT Gallery, the repository of the various pictures that we’ve used as the banner header of One Man’s Tofu.

We try to update the banner at least once a month, sometimes more often, sometimes less so. The only rules are (1) they must be original photographs (usually taken on our bike rides), and (2) they must reflect the time of year that we post them to OMT.

You can click on any of the pictures for a full-sized view, and if you want to download them for your desktop background, knock yourself out. Like our writing, our photographs are out there for your enjoyment.

Some of these were taken with our old digital camera and others by our new one. We suspect you will be able to tell by the size and the quality which is which.

When you notice that the OMT picture has changed, check here for our commentary.

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GAP #24b
Added 07 May 2012

Well, we’re back on the trail again. The Great Allegheny Passage is the rails-to-trail that presently runs uninterrupted from The Waterfront in West Homestead all the way to Washington, DC. The only missing link in the entire system is the piece between The Waterfront and the Glenwood Bridge, which runs through the property of Sandcastle Waterpark. That link is currently under construction, and while they missed their target of getting it opened up by 11/11/11, they’re working to have it finished some time this year, although it wouldn’t surprise us in the least if there are more delays.

But the missing link is of no consequence to us. We have a hundred ways to bike downtown, and as for the trail, we simply bike through Swissvale, Rankin, then across the Rankin Bridge, and hook up with the trail at the back entrance to The Waterfront. So as far as we’re concerned, they can take all the time they want filling in the missing link.

As we were doing our marathon biking run that culminated in our 108-mile round trip to Connellsville last summer, we had an idea for a feature to add to OMT, and this year we thought we’d give it a go. We thought it might be a nice idea to do a new page dedicated to the mileposts along the trail. These cement posts are situated at one-mile intervals all along the trail. They are numbered so that in days past when trains ran through this corridor of the Youghiogheny River valley, the engineers would know how far it was between where they were and the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad terminal in downtown Pittsburgh, which today is the building which houses, among other things, the Grand Concourse restaurant in Station Square. These posts serve a valuable purpose along the trail today as well, giving us not only a means with which to set a proper pace, but also providing a tired biker with a sense of how much farther we have to go before we get home and can relax from the long ride. It’s safe to say that we’ve become very attached to them.

The Great Allegheny Passage – Milepost 24, between the villages of Boston and Buena Vista, Allegheny County, PA

So we thought that we could photograph all of the mileposts along the way, and then comment about some of the things that are in that immediate area — towns, geologic features, abandoned mines and other ruins — and if we learned anything last summer, there is no shortage of interesting features along the trail. We’d like to take pictures throughout the summer and into the fall so that the changes in the environment are fully represented in the pictures.

Whether or not all of this will come to fruition is anybody’s guess. But we took our first batch of pictures today, and this one is of milepost 24, between the village of Boston, and the Dravo Cemetery, which is at the rest area at milepost 25. That’s all we’re going to say about it for now, because milepost 24 will be discussed at length in the actual project. Which may never see the light of day, but maybe it will, and if it does, we don’t want to blow it here.

Those of you with long memories will remember our featuring milepost 36 in a previous OMT Gallery entry, as well as a red dog road between mileposts 34 and 35, both of which you can find by scrolling down on this page.

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Pittsburgh #7189
Added 12 March 2012

We’ve had two snowy pictures up on the blog header all through this winter, and nothing could have been less appropriate, it turns out. We’ve had one of the warmest winters on record here in Pittsburgh, to the extent that we’ve only had two measurable snowfalls, the worst of which was a 3-incher back in January. Now, some of the outlying regions have had a bit more, of course, especially over on the ridges near the ski joints, but here in the city, we’ve had it pretty easy. And with warm temperatures, to boot. It hasn’t been as if we’ve had a lot of extraordinarily high temperatures, mind you, although we’ve nudged 60 several times. But we’ve had consistent 40s and 50s throughout the winter, with little opportunity for snow to take hold.

In fact, the bulbs have been pushing their way up since February, and we noticed last Friday as we were out and about inspecting our property, that our neighbor’s daffodils were in full, cheerful bloom in the comfortable morning sunshine. And, as an added bonus, in our garden we discovered that our rosemary had not only survived the winter for the very first time in our gardening experience, but that it had thrived, and is doing beautifully. If this is global warming, bring it on.

Log cabin, Forbes Avenue, Oakland, Pittsburgh, PA

The picture here is of a log cabin that is along Forbes Avenue in Oakland, on the grounds of the Cathedral of Learning. In fact, the cathedral is to the left (behind the sign) in this picture, and if you look through the trees behind and to the right of the cabin, you will see Heinz Chapel. This entire scene is across the street from the Carnegie Library, Music Hall and Museum, which was to our back as we took the photograph. We had to wait some time for the combined events of the sun coming out from behind the clouds, and the incessant midday Oakland traffic to clear.

Busy Forbes Avenue in the heart of bustling Oakland is a far cry from the place where this cabin originated. In fact, the cabin hails from outside of Yatesboro, Pa, and was originally located just past the old Number 4 Dam (now long gone) along “Swede Alley” road. Back in the 1980s, it was purchased, dismantled and shipped to its present location where it was reassembled, and for a time, was operated as an information center for Oakland, The University of Pittsburgh, and Schenley Park. A few years ago, a new Schenley Park Visitors Center (and coffee shop) opened up over by Phipps Conservatory, and the visitor’s center in the cabin was closed. We’re not sure to what use the university puts to the cabin today, although they continue to maintain the building, which we are happy to see.

As the cabin has its origins in the same town as we do, we feel a certain kinship with it, and are glad to have it around.

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Pittsburgh #4566
Added 17 January 2012

Since weather which is decidedly uncooperative for biking has set in, we’ve taken to walking as a means to keep moving. Recently, we’ve started walking the trail system in Schenley Park’s Panther Hollow, which drops down the sheer hillsides to the bottomland beneath Oakland, and meanders along the courses of the several tiny streams that eventually converge to form what is called Panther Hollow Lake, but which is in reality little more than a large reflecting pool underneath the graceful arch of the Panther Hollow Bridge.

It’s probably about 5 or 6 miles altogether — it takes about two hours for us to walk the circuitous route that we take — and it’s one of the little-appreciated gems of the city. The sounds of traffic fade away when you get to the bottom, and it’s not much of a stretch to imagine that the city is far away, instead of just 200 feet above you. The sounds of birds singing, squirrels and chipmunks scurrying through the leaf litter, and the water bubbling over the rocks as it rushes down the hillside to the main streams below is hardly the kind of thing one expects to find when sandwiched between two of the largest and busiest neighborhoods in Pittsburgh — Oakland and Squirrel Hill.

Stone bridge -- Panther Hollow, Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, PA

There are a number of stone bridges along the trails, all built by the WPA in 1939, when most of the infrastructure of the park was done. The one in this picture is the one right below the hillside from the Schenley Park Information Center and coffee shop, which is across from Phipps Conservatory, near Flagstaff Hill. We took the picture from the upper trail, but the steps continue down all the way until you’re underneath the bridge, and there’s another trail at the very bottom which eventually comes out where the lake is.

Although not as quiet as Frick Park, which is much more sprawling and goes all the way down to the river, Schenley is still a great place to get away from the crush of the city. Even though we live adjacent to Frick Park, it is Schenley that is and has always been our favorite among Pittsburgh’s parks. We discovered Schenley the very first summer we lived in Pittsburgh — 1976 — and we still enjoy it as much today as we did back then.

When we ride our bike from home to downtown, we have a number of different routes that we take to get there. But when the time comes to head for home, we almost always come up through the Fifth/Forbes corridor into Oakland, and through Schenley Park, and then into Squirrel Hill and finally home to Swisshelm Park. If we don’t pass through Schenley Park on one of our city rides, we feel as if we really haven’t been out at all.
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Laurel Highlands #4846
Added 01 December 2011

It’s only been a week since we last replaced the header image, and the snows haven’t yet tightened their grip on our region, but it is December after all, and we thought we’d just go ahead and move forward. This is a comparatively rare winter pic of Linn Run, a stream we’ve featured so many times before that our readers are probably tired of looking at it. We pay this little mind, though, because we never get tired of the place, and as we’re the one running the franchise here, what we like tends to hold sway.

Linn Run, within Linn Run State Park, east of Rector, Westmoreland County, PA

This is the downstream part of the run, within the confines of Linn Run State Park, and there are private cabins that dot the banks of the creek in this section. Little more than hunting camps for he most part, they are not very fancy places, but they tend to be serviceable structures, nice little bungalows for a weekend getaway. And, they have the invaluable feature of the continuous sound of the water running over the rocks in the stream below.

This picture came out a little darker than we’d have liked, but it was a perfect candidate for cropping for he OMT header, so we went ahead and used it anyway, since none of its companion pictures worked quite as well.

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Pittsburgh #4103
Added 23 November 2011

Pittsburgh’s Grandview Park is a small patch of city parkland clinging to the face of Mt. Washington, between the neighborhoods of Mt. Washington and Allentown. It’s no picnic getting there on a bike, but it’s part of our standard ride, as we climb South 18th Street from Carson Street on the South Side until we reach Mt. Oliver. Then we turn right for the Arlington Avenue climb, followed by a slight descent into Allentown, where we turn left at the light onto Warrington Avenue, only to make a quick right for the climb up the sheer face of narrow Allen Street, which takes us the rest of the way up to the summit of Mt. Washington and the entrance to the park.

Downtown Pittsburgh, from Grandview Park, Mt. Washington.

Here there are posts which prevent traffic from continuing to travel on Allen Street, as it becomes a walkway into the park, although it’s still listed on city maps as “Allen Street”. The topography prevents much development of the park, as the hillside drops off fairly dramatically. All that the city has managed to do in the park, apart from the walkway, is a small playground at the entrance to the park, and the overlook from which we took this picture in November of 2009. The only significant change to this scene in the past two years is that as we write this the old Civic Arena — pictured here as the silver dome in the right of this scene — is starting to be torn down. We were up there just last week, and portions of the domed roof are already gone, but, unfortunately, we didn’t have our camera with us, which was doubly tragic, because it was an even more perfect day than it was the day we took this picture.

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Laurel Highlands #5853
Added 11 November 2011

When the weather cooperates, we like to go up to the top of Laurel Ridge for some late-fall biking up in the woods. It’s got to be a sunny day, of course, because it’s always 10 to 15 degrees colder up on top of the ridge than it is here in the city, and the wind is nearly always blowing (which is why Laurel Ridge is becoming one of the centers of Pennsylvania’s wind energy industry). So if it’s even marginally overcast, conditions become unacceptable, or at least unenjoyable, for biking.

Marshall Fields Trail, Laurel Summit, Westmoreland (and quite possibly, Somerset) County, PA

This picture was taken along the Marshall Fields Trail, a gated road that runs from Hickory Flats Road (regular vistors to the OMT Gallery are already familiar with that one) for about a mile and a half until it converges with the Powdermill Loop (about 5 miles of tough riding) and the Quarry Trail, which meanders along the summit for several miles before plunging down the sheer sides of the Linn Run valley. Just before this grand convergence of trails is an unnamed spur that veers off of Marshall Fields, which leads to the top of the heap of mountain innards that we described in our Gallery entry of 15 September 2011.

As for the day we took this particular picture, all we can say is that it was frightfully cold, but the combination of sunshine and dark clothing made it bearable. So did the scenery, actually. We have a particular fondness for this time of the year, immediately after the leaves have fallen and before the first heavy snows arrive.

For those of you who are Star Trek fans, you will recognize that could formation as being the energy ribbon that is the portal to the Nexus where an “echo” of James T. Kirk might still be living.

Or not.

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Laurel Highlands #6720
Added 22 October 2011

We’ve been away from OMT for the most part since the last time we changed the header, and that’s of particular concern because our absence comes right smack dab in the middle of the time of year when we usually change the header photo just about every week with some new autumnal scene. That’s the way it goes sometimes, we suppose, and so this year in addition to our meager offerings in the way of writing, we match it with equally meager offerings in photography. This particular one was taken about a fortnight ago on one of our bike trips (natch) in the Forbes State Forest, just east of Linn Run State Park. It is, in fact, Linn Run that you can see cascading over the rocks in this picture.

Upper Linn Run, Forbes State Forest, Westmoreland County, PA

We’ve had an unusually wet summer and fall this year, and while this has made it difficult to impossible for us to travel some of the trails that we usually bike this time of year (since a few of them actually run in what would under normal conditions be dry stream beds) it has, on the other hand, provided us with a rare opportunity to photograph Linn Run and its tributaries in full flush at the same time that the leaves are the most showy. We acquired a number of shots of this waterfall on that particular day — which is, we estimate, about ¾ of the way up Laurel Ridge — each photo getting nearer and nearer to the falls themselves as we jockeyed for a better picture. We were standing on a rock in the middle of the stream when we snapped this one, and as soon as the shutter went off, our foot shot off the slippery rock on which we were standing, and we went right into the liquid ice that passes for a stream, about halfway up to our knees. We almost lost the camera in the water, but managed to snatch it up just before it went in, an act which caused us to lose our balance and … well suffice it to say that we rode wet for the rest of the afternoon, and ended up cutting our trip short as conditions were overcast, and, of course, it was pretty cool up on the ridge that day.

Still, we had a great day, even as our shoes squished the whole way back to the car.

All in all, we think the picture was worth it.

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Laurel Highlands #141
Added 15 September 2011

As it is already September, with the days dwindling down to a precious few, we felt that we were overdue in replacing the header picture with something more indicative of the changing of the seasons. Fall is right around the corner, which is our primary picture-taking time, and once the leaves get all dolled up in their festive autumnal regalia, we’ll probably be changing the header picture every other day with some colorful new scene. But it’s not here yet, and we don’t have much in our archive in the way of late-summer photos. It took some digging before we came up with this one.

This is a single little goldenrod plant, struggling to make a go of it in a rather inhospitable environment. We are on top of the heap that represents the innards of the Laurel Ridge that were unceremoniously disgorged some 70 years ago when the Pennsylvania Turnpike was cut through the area of the Somerset/Westmoreland County border. Any good soil for growing was among the first to be scraped off and buried at the bottom of what would become this mountainous monument to man’s stewardship of the environment. All that is left on the surface is what came from the deepest part of the cut. The exact opposite of what nature had labored for millions of years to create. Hardly a suitable place for encouraging the growth of plants.

Golden Rod, on the Laurel Ridge, straddling the Somerset/Westmoreland County border, in south-central Pennsylvania

But as we said, it’s been over 70 years now, and, as we witnessed in the shadow of Mt. St. Helens, it doesn’t take that long for life to find a crack or a nook in which to drop down roots. Although the area is still mostly rocky and gravelly, there is a surprising amount of life clinging to the heap. There are various grasses growing in clumps, some mosses, and of course, the inevitable sumac, which seems to be able to grow anywhere. But there are a few surprises, too. Some pines and maples have established a foothold, as have a few quaking aspen. And whole sections of this area are lousy with wild huckleberries, the tiny kind that explode with that unmistakable sharp, rich flavor when you pop one in your mouth. But one is never enough.

This area is accessible only by foot, or, as we got there, on bicycle, from a spur that veers off the Marshall Fields trail, very near to where it converges with the Quarry Trail and the Powdermill Trail loop on top of the Laurel Ridge. Being essentially a clearing at the very top of the ridge, it offers a spectacular view of the Turnpike in both directions, as well the surrounding countryside. On a clear day, you can even see the windmills in the distance, at one of the wind farms that are popping up all over the region to harness the nearly constant winds at the top of the ridge.

We’re just not sure that the view is worth all the devastation that went into producing it.

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GAP #6276
Added 3 August 2011

Well, the reality of the previous picture has been altered. Last week the deteriorating pedestrian bridge spanning the railroad tracks in the foreground was finally demolished, and so we felt that it was high time to replace the picture. As a major news organization, it is in OMT’s mission statement that we “reflect the ever-changing landscape of America”, and this includes responding to the destruction of obsolete pedestrian bridges, as you might expect.

In its place, we’ve decided to include a picture that hearkens back to our growing up in a small coal mining town. Pictured here is a road whose surface is covered with what we used to call “red dog”, a byproduct of the coke manufacturing process (at least, that’s what we’ve always believed), that was produced in such copious amounts by the mines near where we grew up that all of the country roads in the area used it on their surfaces instead of limestone. Great piles of the stuff could be found near the mines, including one particularly large Mars-like landscape near our home that we used to call the “bony dump”. It’s been years since we’ve seen a red dog road, as most of the

Red Dog Road to the abandoned Banning Mine #4, south of West Newton, Westmoreland County, PA

old bony piles were cleaned up years ago, and so we were surprised to find this one. It veers off the main path of the Great Allegheny Passage rail trail, between mileposts 34 and 35, just south of West Newton. This particular road leads to the abandoned Banning #4 mine, the ruins of which are an interesting diversion from the trail. We pass through a number of old coal mining towns all along the Yough River Trail segment of the Great Allegheny Passage, especially the “Yough North” part between McKeesport and Connellsville. Those company houses that are still standing in these settlements have for the most part been fixed up, some of them rather nicely. We are impressed by how these little town fragments along the river are invariably neat as a pin, with well manicured yards, and in some cases, impeccable gardens, burgeoning with vegetables.

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GAP #6192
Added 19 June 2011

The Great Allegheny Passage, the rails-to-trail that proposes to run from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC, is getting ever-closer to completion. The missing link between McKeesport and The Waterfront development in West Homestead has finally been completed after years of delay (it’s been open since just after Memorial Day, but the “official” opening was this past Friday), mostly in getting clearances from Kennywood, whose grounds the trail runs literally underneath, and in trying to squeeze the trail into the existing CSX railroad corridor. The latter effort involved taking two dilapidated pedestrian bridges which steelworkers used to use to cross over the railroad tracks to get to the mills and rehabilitating them and converting them for use on the trail. As the bridges are some 30 feet high so that they can provide proper clearance for the trains, they required that ramps be built so that bikes and hikers can access them.

From Whitaker bridge ramp, Great Allegheny Passage, Pittsburgh, PA

Which is what you see here. In this picture, taken from the landing on the bridge in Whitaker and looking down the ramp, you can see the recently rehabilitated Rankin Bridge in the background, and you can also see one of the old, unrestored pedestrian bridges in the foreground. There are still a couple of these along the tracks, and they have since been condemned, and will soon be brought down. This is especially necessary now that the adjacent trail has been opened, and there will now be people walking along who will inevitably ignore the signs and jump over the barricades so that they can climb up onto these crumbling structures and end up killing themselves so that their survivors can file a lawsuit, as is the practice in America today. The Rankin Bridge (the graceful blue bridge in the background) was in terrible condition prior to the 2008-2010 rehab, which consisted of building an entirely new deck, a new sidewalk, new lighting, and a spiffy new blue paint job. In addition, and probably in anticipation of the trail opening, there are two new wide bike lanes on the bridge, which make it much easier for us to access the trail.

The rehabilitated Riverton Railroad bridge, on the Great Allegheny Passage, crossing the Monongohela River between Duquesne and McKeesport, PA

There are a total of three bridges on the new section of the trail; the two bridges that cross back and forth over the CSX corridor, and an old railroad bridge across the Monongahela River between Duquesne and McKeesport that was built in 1891, but has now been shored up and had both a brand new deck and a ramp attached. The entire section follows the Mon, and when we ride the trail, generally early in the morning, we find that there is nothing so peaceful as the river at dawn, clouds of gnats notwithstanding.

Being able to ride vast distances on our bike without any automotive traffic whatsoever is nothing short of a dream come true for us, and as we continue to work on developing our long-distance riding (as of this writing, we have recently completed a 75-mile day) we look forward to riding the trail from our home all the way to Washington, DC sometime before the summer is out. If we can arrange for the logistics, and that’s a big “if”.

But, we’re determined.

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dlion #004
Added 18 April 2011

Well, that picture of the frozen landscape in the Laurel Highlands has gotten a bit long in the tooth, and as it’s well into April, it’s high time we brightened things up a bit with a picture that is more in keeping with the season. We don’t have too many spring pictures and so we had to dig deep into the OMT archives before we came up with this one. Taken on April 24th, 2000 in a location that is now lost in the mists of our memory, this picture seemed like the perfect way to announce our return from a long hiatus.

Dandelions - Don't know where this was taken ...

Nothing says “spring is here” quite like a field of dandelions. Why people consider these eternally cheerful plants weeds is beyond me. Created in the sun’s very image, these bright yellow flowers are telling us in no uncertain terms that, the occasional squall notwithstanding, winter is now in full retreat, thank God (or whomever), and we can look forward to longer, warmer days ahead. It’s something we all want to hear.

Now why would anyone want to dig one of these out by the root, or spray it with Roundup®? I’ve heard of killing the messenger, but isn’t that supposed to be when the news is bad?

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Laurel Highlands #4757
Added 27 December 2010

(Please note that this entry was made as we were shutting down OMT “for good”. For better or for worse, “for good” in this case apparently does provide for a change of mind. We’ll leave this entry stand as originally written … this isn’t the first time we’ve rebooted the franchise.

           -daj)

For our final OMT Gallery entry, it seems only fitting that we use a picture from Linn Run State Park, which regular readers know is one of our favorite places to bike, and which we have included here in the Gallery on numerous occasions.

We also like the “riding off into the sunset” quality that this picture provides, as we bring a close to OMT.

This picture is just inside the park from the back entrance, facing into Forbes State Forest.

Linn Run Road, Westmoreland County, PA

The bike sign serves as an indicator that the junction to the Quarry Trail is just ahead on the right. The Quarry Trail goes deep into the woods for miles and terminates near a high overlook above the Pennsylvania Turnpike, from which you can see for miles around. On a clear day, you can even see the wind farm in Somerset County.

But all that was just a memory when this picture was taken.

Thanks for reading …

(-daj)

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Pittsburgh #4091
Added 06 November 2010

Inside the city limits, fall color seems to hold on almost until Thanksgiving if the weather cooperates. Even when most of the trees have dropped their leaves, you can still find a number of them tucked away on remote streets or in the parks that haven’t yet gotten the message that they’d better get ready for the snow that will soon be flying. Or have, but are ignoring it.

And who can blame them? There are few things finer than a sunny November day when the temperature nudges the 60s. With the warm, dry air, the sun slung low in the sky, the rustle of leaves at your feet and the sweet smell of leaf litter in your nose, November can be a delight for all of the senses. Of course, within a matter of hours, it can turn into torture for them, too. Such is the variety offered up by this most fickle and unpredictable of months.

Grandview Park between Mt. Washington and Mt. Oliver, Pittsburgh, PA

This picture was taken in Grandview Park, which straddles the area between the Allentown and Mt. Washington neighborhods in Pittsburgh. High up above the Monongahela River overlooking the downtown area of the city, if offers a breathtaking vista of which very few people, outside the residents of the immediate area, are aware. Since our bike rides take us to virtually every corner of the city, we are lucky enough to encounter such hidden treasures. Yet, this picture does not share with you the gorgeous view of downtown that can be had from this very spot, which you would be looking at right now if we had turned 45 degrees to our left before we took it.

Actually, we did just that immediately before and immediately after taking this one, but those pictures weren’t acceptable for a number of reasons, and so we settled on this one.

Not to worry, though. We’ll be up there again on some other nice day and perhaps a picture from that trip will be in the Gallery one day.

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Laurel Highlands #5584
Added 14 October 2010

It’s been tough this year finding really vibrant fall color. The drought we experienced from about mid summer until the end of September did a real number on the trees. Many of them are badly stressed, and once they suck the last of the chlorophyll out of their leaves, the damage is unveiled. Many of the leaves are brown, shriveled and full of holes, and among those that still manage to have color, it is much more subdued than normal.

Beam Run Road on the Laurel Ridge, Somerset County, PA

Still, there’s some color out there, and in some spots, and on some days, it can still be breathtaking, even in an off year like this. This particular shot was taken yesterday along Beam Run Road, on the Somerset County side of the Laurel Ridge, just west of Jennerstown, in Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands. The sun belies the the temperature; up on the ridge yesterday, it didn’t manage to get out of the 50s. There were still patches of frost in low, shaded areas when we started out, all of which made for a brisk, but enjoyable ride.

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Laurel Highlands #0456
Added 17 September 2010

This has probably been the longest stretch we’ve gone without updating our header photo, and with good reason. We spent most of the summer offline, away from OMT and enjoying ourselves doing things like biking in places far away from the city, where this picture was taken.

Cabin, Linn Run State Park, Westmoreland County, PA

This is in the cabin area of Linn Run State Park, and as you can see from the leaf litter on the ground and on the cabin roof, not to mention the slightest hint of yellow among the leaves on the trees, the picture was taken in the September of another year. Linn Run, as regular visitors to the OMT Gallery are probably sick of hearing by now, is an important part of our Laurel Highlands bike excursions. We park the car at the bottom of the hill in Rector, PA, and it’s about four miles from there to where the Linn Run cabin area is. Thus, it’s only the beginning (and sometimes, if we come back this way, the end) of our journey. It is here where we fill up our water bottle for the ride ahead at one of the two public springs along the road.

That’s it … not much more to add. Just a cabin in the park. This pic is really just a placeholder until we can unleash some of our fall pictures in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

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Laurel Highlands #3197
Added 23 June 2010

This is just another pic from our vast library of photographs from our bike rides up in Southwestern Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands. We’re on Hickory Flats Road in this one, which provides access to various timber and natural gas installations, as well as to the extensive trail system along the peak of the Laurel Ridge. Hickory Flats runs in something of a serpentine pattern along the ridge, and even though it looks like it’s a level road, this is an optical illusion, because depending on which direction you’re headed, you are either able to build up speed with ease, or you are left wondering why it’s taking so much effort to go along what for all intents and purposes is a perfectly flat road. It’s frustrating when your mind tells you one thing and your legs another.

Hickory Flats Road, Laurel Ridge, Westmoreland County, PA

Of all of the various roads and trails along the Laurel Ridge, Hickory Flats is distinctive for being the most unremarkable. There’s nothing terribly interesting along its course, unless you find a Pennsylvania State Forest timber harvesting demonstration area to be interesting. And in this case, trust us, you won’t. First, you come to what appears to be about a 2 acre swath in which the forest has been given what amounts to a crew cut with a sign that says, “Here is an example of clear-cutting”. No shit. Further along, you’ll find another sign that says, “This is an example of sustainable harvest”, and so on, for about a mile along the road. We rarely see anyone when we’re biking up there, so we wonder exactly who the audience is for this attraction.

But then, we have always found the simple beauty of the forest to be infinitely interesting, and fortunately, the section in this picture is representative of most of the area along the road.

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Pittsburgh #2075
Added 19 May 2010

It’s been almost two months since we’ve changed the header picture on OMT, and so we thought we’d better get to it. Although this has mostly been due to our recent lack of attention to the franchise, we’d be remiss if we failed to blame our recent collarbone break as being at least partially responsible (we find that it’s just so convenient to have this thing which we can use as an excuse for almost everything. It almost makes the constant pain worth it).

This is just one of our boilerplate pictures of the downtown area taken from Mt. Washington. We can’t wait until we can get back on our bike and go back up there again, and not just for the views. Our entire exercise regimen has ground to a complete halt since our accident, and we’re starting to feel the effects of taking in more calories than we’re burning off. We don’t like it one bit, and we’ve developed a serious jones for riding our wheels again.

We’re up on one of the overlooks on the aptly named Grandview Avenue on Mt. Washington, taking in the view of the Monongahela River and what, at least for a while, was called the “Firstside” part of downtown. We haven’t heard the term “Firstside” used in some time, so it would appear that whatever promotional value the word once had has since expired. Of note is the Mon Warf, a parking area underneath the Parkway East, that runs right along the river.

City of Pittsburgh, from Mt. Washington

This picture was taken a couple of years ago, before the warf’s renovation, which is still underway at the time of this writing. It’s being made into a combination park/trail, which connects the Eliza Furnace bike trail to the North Side (excuse us, North Shore) trail system which currently dead-ends in Point State Park. It’s supposed to open up this summer, and as of the last time we looked at it, the place is shaping up nicely. Trees and shrubs are being planted all along the warf, and when they’re done, we think it’s going to be a great addition to the Pittsburgh waterfront. The whole thing will be subject to flooding when the river rises, but it’s being designed with that in mind. And as anyone from New Orleans will tell you, these engineers really know what they’re doing. Consequently, we’re not only looking forward to the grand opening, but to the grand re-opening after the Mon subjects the warf to its next inevitable spring deluge.

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Pittsburgh #0159
Added 23 March 2010

We really had to scour our archives to come up with a spring picture, because for some reason we aren’t particularly moved to photograph anything in the springtime. Turns out that we didn’t have anything at all among the pictures taken with our new camera, so we had to go back and find something that we took with our old Sony Mavica, a camera that was really cutting edge 10 years ago (at .8 megapixels, it recorded the photos on a floppy disk that you inserted into the camera … real Buck Rogers stuff at the time). The resulting pictures are smaller and far less detailed than those we take today, but it was a kick to go back through those old photos from so long ago.

Allegheny River, 7th Street Bridge, and the city of Pittsburgh as viewed from the North Side, 1999

This one was taken sometime in the Spring of 1999, just as things were starting to green up. We were over on the North Side (excuse us, North Shore) looking back at the city. To the left is the 7th Street (excuse us, the Andy Warhol) Bridge. At this time, Three Rivers Stadium was still standing, and the land about 50 yards behind us was just then being cleared for PNC Park and Heinz Field, despite the fact that the people had voted down the idea of taxpayer dollars for two new stadiums (stadia), and that taxpayer money was going to be spent anyway. Oh, yes, and while the taxpayers still owed $30 million dollars on the soon-to-be-imploded Three Rivers Stadium.

But it was a really nice day, wasn’t it?
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Laurel Highlands #4761
Added 29 January 2010

Again, we’re in the Laurel Highlands, and again, at Linn Run State Park. This time, we’re at the back entrance to the park, where Forbes State Forest takes over, and where the buzz from the park (although a muted buzz it is) fades away to the quiet peace of the forest. At this time of year, though, it’s all quiet, except for the whistle of the wind as it blows through the pine needles and the creak of frozen trees as they bend under the force of the breeze.

Linn Run Road, Forbes State Forest, Westmoreland County, PA

On the day that we took these pictures (a month ago today), it was frightfully cold at this elevation, and the wind was unrelenting. We found ourselves constantly taking our gloves off to negotiate the tiny controls of our digital camera, and that wasn’t doing our general well-being a bit of good. It wasn’t long before we had to retreat to the car, crank the heater to full blast, and warm ourselves up before we could continue taking pictures. But as they say, truly great things come only with great suffering, and if that’s so, we proved it on that day. We came back with some truly fine pictures, of which this is only one. As you look on the road, you can see beams of light whose source is a mystery to us. As you can see, we’re at the bottom of a valley and the sun is behind us as we take this picture (the valley wall straight ahead of us is in full sun). Obviously, it’s a reflection from somewhere, but we didn’t notice it when we were there, and it’s difficult to determine where it might be coming from based on the photo.

It wasn’t long after we took this particular photograph that the camera started to freeze up (all of its functions were slowing down), and as we recall, we weren’t in much better shape ourselves.

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Pittsburgh #4544
Added 31 December 2009

In most cities, urban parks are something of an oxymoron, but here in Pittsburgh, we’re lucky enough to have four of the finest city parks you’re likely to find just about anywhere; Frick, Riverview, Highland, and Schenley. All of them are surrounded by some of the most populous and busiest neighborhoods in the city, and yet they all have secret places were you can (almost) completely escape from the crush of urban life. When walking down the stone steps from Phipps Conservatory into Panther Hollow in Schenley Park, for instance, the noise from traffic and other human activities slowly fades away, and by the time you get down by the little creek that supplies Panther Hollow “Lake”, which is little more than a reflecting pool, it’s almost as if you’ve entered another world.

Trail in Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, PA

Although not in Panther Hollow, this picture was taken along one of Schenley Park’s trails, this one closer to the Squirrel Hill entrance to the park. This was actually a road until about 10 years ago, when the city finally gave up trying to keep it from its ultimate destiny of crumbling down the hill. So now it’s been reduced to a walking/jogging/hiking trail (biking is out of the question because several trees have fallen across it since the road was closed). There are many like it throughout the park where even in the winter you can spend an hour or two in decidedly un-urban surroundings.
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House #3056
Added 16 December 2009

Well, the holiday season is upon us, and it seemed appropriate to have a picture on the OMT header that reflected that happy fact. This one is from last year, actually, when we remembered to have some firewood delivered. This year we forgot completely, and so we are left to buy a couple of bundles of firewood at Lowe’s when we want to spend a cozy evening at home.

Pontius snoozing by the fire. OMT World Headquarters.

The wood in those bundles doesn’t even begin to compare with the firewood you can get from people who specialize in that sort of thing. Last year we had ⅓ of a cord of oak, cherry, and maple delivered, beautifully seasoned, which turned out to be exactly the right amount for us. If we’d gone for ½, it would have been too much, and if we’d gotten any less, we’d have run out in January. Fortunately, the people we got it from sold it in thirds of a cord, so it worked out fine.

This year the living room looks different than it does in this picture, since we re-arranged things around September when we got sick and tired of everything looking the same, and we felt compelled to shake things up. The picture is very dark, but if you look closely, you will see our cat, Pontius, curled up on the couch, right next to the far pillow. That black smudge is him. That he appears in this year’s Christmas pic means that we have apparently started a tradition here at OMT, in which we include Pontius in our annual Christmas picture. If we’re still around on Christmas of 2010, we’ll see if the tradition holds.

Tofu Towers, One Juliette Plaza, Swisshelm Park, Pittsburgh, PA

We went back and forth over the idea of showing our living room to the world, as our home is our refuge, and sharing it like this takes some of that away. But we’ve put a lot of work into our house in the past 15 years that we’ve lived here, and we’re rather proud of how things turned out. We inherited absolutely none of our Dad’s facility with all things carpentry, and so we take a lot of pleasure in how well things have turned out here. Of course, we had good solid housing stock to start with, and most of the rest of it involved the undoing of the damage that the previous owners, who had absolutely no taste whatsoever, had inflicted on this fine city house. How fine a city house is evidenced from this bonus pic taken from the street, which was also from last year. This year we put lights around the awning over the door, but since we haven’t yet had snow this year, we thought we’d go with last year’s pic.

So, Merry Christmas from the staff and management at OMT.
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GAP # 2658
Added 25 November 2009

Fall is a great time to ride along the Great Allegheny Passage, the rails-to-trail that runs from McKeesport all the way to Washington, DC. There aren’t many crowds this time of year (although even in the summer there aren’t many people once you get a good distance from the trailheads), and November carries along with it a surprising beauty in the woods, although it’s not the obvious, showy, crowd-pleasing kind of beauty that has made October the Saturday-morning-in-the-Strip-District of the Gregorian calendar (a reference that only another Pittsburgher will appreciate). With the leaves almost entirely down, except for some of the smaller understory trees that are enjoying the riches of sunshine not available to them when their superiors are awake and photosynthesizing, you get a chance to see things in the woods that have been in hiding during the warmer months; a crumbling house here, an abandoned mine entrance there, or a train on the other side of the river that you only heard before, muffled through the leaves, but clear as a bell both aurally and visually now.

Great Allegheny Passage, Mile Marker 36, Washington County, PA

This shot was taken at mile marker 36 (which the sharp-eyed observer will notice at the extreme left in this photo; it’s the little white stone marker about halfway down from the top of the frame), overlooking the Yougiougheny River, a tributary of the Monongahela. This is about the limit of what we will do when biking directly from our house. The mile marker indicates 36 miles from The Point, where the Allegheny and the Monongahela meet to form the Ohio in downtown Pittsburgh. We live on the bluff right above where Nine Mile Run enters the Monongahela River, the Run taking its name from the fact that it enters the Mon nine miles up from The Point. As the rivers flow, this means that the 36-mile marker on the Great Allegheny Passage is 25 miles from our house, which means further that this a 50-mile round trip for us. But it’s actually more than that, because we have to divert between McKeesport and home, due to the missing link on the trail between McKeesport and Pittsburgh. A stretch which has some pretty hideous traffic, too, which on the way back we encounter just about the time we’re hitting the wall.

Still, we love it; it’s a sickness, we suppose.

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Pittsburgh # 4028
Added 05 November 2009

Pittsburgh’s Frick Park is adjacent to our neighborhood here in Swisshelm Park. In fact, the Nine Mile Run entrance to the park is right down the hill from us. Although we’ll always have a special place in our heart for Schenley Park, we especially like Frick Park because it’s handy, much bigger, and much less developed than Schenley. The bike trails in Frick Park are not entirely unlike those that we ride up in the Laurel Highlands, although not nearly so secluded.

Along one of the trails in Frick Park, Pittsburgh, PA

Frick Park is surrounded by Squirrel Hill, Edgewood, Swisshelm Park, Point Breeze, Homewood, Regent Square, Swissvale, and Park Place, so there are always a lot of people with their kids and dogs everywhere in the park, even on weekdays, and on days when the weather isn’t that great. As a result, the park shows signs of heavy use in some sections. Also, we’re used to going to remote places to bike and hike, and sometimes the noise, traffic and, well, the constant crush of people in Frick Park can get on our nerves. Especially since it really can be a great place to take a break from the city when there’s no one around.

This shot is along one of the hiking/biking trails, not too far from the tennis courts, looking down into a ravine carrying one of the tiny off-and-on streams that feed Nine Mile Run, which winds its way through the lower part of the park and on through the woods until it empties into the Monongahela River at Duck Hollow. It was taken just last Sunday, after the rain the previous day had knocked down most of the leaves. These ones managed to hang on through the storm, but we’re sure that by this time they’ve packed it in and called it a season.

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Laurel Highlands # 2479
Added 11 October 2009

Once again, of course, we’re in the Laurel Highlands, this time along Laurel Ridge Road, which, as the name suggests, runs along the peak of the ridge, from Linn Run Road all the way to US 30, spilling out on to that highway between Laughlintown and Jennerstown. This picture was taken at one of the state forest fire ponds, those places where small creeks are dammed up to form a pond that firefighters can use in the event of a forest fire. In the summertime, this location is conspicuous only in its profound unremarkableness, if that’s a word, and we don’t think that it is … but in the fall everything changes.

Fire pond, along Laurel Ridge Road, straddling Westmoreland and Somerset Counties, PA

There is a mix of hardwoods around the pond, along with a few white pine, mountain laurel and rhododendron, all of which makes for a very full and rich palette of colors. If you’re lucky enough for the wind to be calm, always a crapshoot at this elevation, the pond becomes like a mirror, reflecting the trees in complete upside down perfection. But even with the wind blowing, and the surface of the pond disrupted, you’d be hard pressed to find a prettier spot. It’s set back from the road about 50 yards, and surrounded by trees, so that when you’re on Laurel Ridge Road, unless you know it’s there, you could go right past it without even noticing it.

We’re glad for that; if more people knew about it, we’re sure that before long it would be … well, you know what people tend to do to anything that’s special …

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Laurel Highlands # 0738
Added 16 September 2009

(Note from -daj: Of course, the following paragraph is obsolete. OMT is no longer “kaput” .. we’re back on the air and fully in business. But rather than edit that paragraph out, we felt it important to let it stand. Nothing worse than rewriting history, you know.)

Well, if you’ve checked out our main page, by now you know that OMT is kaput, gone, finished, consigned to the dustbin of history, as we like to say. But before we closed up the offices, sold off all the equipment, and brewed one last pot of java, we thought it might be a good idea to do one final update to our Gallery page. Especially since we are now on the cusp of a new season, and, as regular readers know, we have something of a glut of fall pictures.

This pic was taken along Jacob Miller Road, just outside of Rector, PA, the little town were we park our car when we go on our Laurel Highlands bike excursions. The road used to go all the way up to the top of the ridge and then back down the other side to the village of Edie in Somerset County, and used to be called Rector/Edie Road. Now, however, it stops about a mile outside of Rector and becomes private before eventually petering out in the woods.

View from Jacob Miller Road, Rector, Westmoreland County, PA

On the other side of the ridge, however, it’s still an open road all the way from Edie to the peak, and then becomes a gated trail, called “J. R. Miller Road”, which starts back down the other side and presumably meets up with Jacob Miller Road somewhere in the woods, but we’ve never been quite able to navigate the entire trip. The road is virtually absorbed by the woods and becomes impassible for bikes, horses, and even on foot.

It’s been a gas sharing our pics with you, and we hope you’ve enjoyed them. But as George Harrison said, “all things must pass”.

Later …

                -daj

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Cook Forest # 1827
Added 24 July 2009

We don’t often get up to Cook Forest anymore, mostly because it’s such a long drive. With the Laurel Highlands just an hour away on the Turnpike, the trip up to Cook Forest, especially with that section of PA 28 above Kittanning that is two-lane, with lots of curves, and the tendency to get stuck behind slow-moving trucks, is something that we really have to want to do, and we don’t want to do that very much. Besides, having to spend a grand total of over four hours on the road on days when we go up there takes a lot of the fun out of the proceedings.

Once we get there, though, all of the trouble of getting there fades to black in the face of the quiet beauty of the surroundings, especially when you get outside of the state park proper. This picture, taken from the bridge in the village of Clarington, just east of the park, can serve as an example. As you might expect, it’s particularly beautiful in the fall.

Clarion River looking west from the Clarington Bridge, Jefferson (left) & Forest (right) Counties, PA

But even in the summertime, on a quiet weekday morning like this one, when the tourists are gone, the air is a little crisp, and the river is mirror-like still, a ride through the Clarion River valley is just the thing to recharge the batteries. We haven’t had an opportunity to make the trip yet this year, but we’ve been thinking about it a lot, and stumbling across this picture has gotten us to jonsein’ for one of our long, peaceful rides along River Road.

It may have to wait until fall this year, unfortunately …
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Pittsburgh #0023
Added 02 July 2009

Pittsburgh’s riverfront trail system has, in the past few years, become quite extensive. As an avid mountain biker, we find them to be a constant source of enjoyment. On the Allegheny/Ohio, you can bike all the way from Millvale almost to McKee’s Rocks. Along the Monongahela, you can go from the Glenwood bridge to Station Square on the south bank, and from Schenley Park to Point State Park on the north bank (the infamous “jail trail”).

Plus may others … there are spurs that veer off and eventually peter out, and completed segments that just sort of stop short on either side, like the one on the north shore of the Mon across from The Waterfront, that starts in a parking lot in Duck Hollow and stops abruptly at the railroad tracks in Hazelwood. It’s maybe two miles long, and it’s one of our favorites because its isolated location and lack of easy access make it a trail that is little used. We often try to squeeze its four-mile round trip into our nightly run, when we have the time.

40th Street Bridge, Allegheny River, Pittsburgh PA

The picture you see here is of Pittsburgh’s 40th Street Bridge (whose formal name is Washington’s Crossing), along the Allegheny River. That’s Lawrenceville in the background. The side of the river that we’re shooting from is the Millvale Riverfront Park, right along the trail. This is a nice spot, especially in the evening, to sit and watch the river. There are picnic tables, and a small pavilion, and most of the time is quiet and largely deserted. Probably the best feature about the trails along the river are places like this where the trees and the weeds are cleared out and you get treated to a nice vista. Along the majority of the trails, river views are generally blocked, but at regular intervals, things open up, and Pittsburgh’s inherent beauty hits you full force.

The transformation of this city’s riverfronts in the past 20 years has been nothing short of remarkable. The city of Pittsburgh has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the land along its rivers, and its citizens are extraordinarily lucky to have groups like the Riverlife Task Force leading the way to transform these former industrial wastelands into the beautiful assets they have the potential to become.

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Pittsburgh #0609
Added 01 June 2009

Market Square at lunchtime on a weekday is a great place for people-watching if that’s your thing, and it’s not especially ours, but one can easily get swept up in things. It’s been a hub of activity ever since we first encountered it back in the mid ’70s, when we were taking classes and working part time in the old Sperry Rand building, and it had been for many years prior to that. The Sperry Rand building was later demolished to make way for PPG Place, which abuts the one side of Market Square. Back then, Market Square was where good, clean fun and bad, dirty fun co-mingled in a way that always made it a worthwhile stop, even at night when the risk factor went up exponentially.

Still, we were young then, and risk was part of the game, and we only got mugged twice, which is not bad, considering.

Market Square, Pittsburgh, PA

These days though, it’s exclusively in the daytime when we visit Market Square, on our bike, usually with the camera. Sometimes we’ll buy a 5-lb bag of bird seed to feed the pigeons. After watching them drink up the steaming condensation dripping from a Port Authority bus tailpipe to wash down someone’s discarded french fries, now black with dirt, oil and soot, our seeds probably constitute the only decent meal they can ever hope to get. And they certainly seem to appreciate it, materializing in huge numbers from out of nowhere the instant we broadcast the seed across the cobblestones.

And, of course, there’s nothing like a hot dog from one of those dog wagons, a fixture in the summertime, which is just the thing for the energy to bike home. Downtown, remember, is at river level, and the trip home is by definition all uphill.
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Linn Run #186
Added 29 April 2009

Another of our countless photographs of Linn Run, the tiny trout stream that winds its way down from the Laurel summit along one of our favorite bike runs. This photo was taken just inside the west entrance of Linn Run State Park, about 100 yards upstream from the Adam Falls picnic area.

There are a number of private camps along this part of the stream, and the traffic is always light. People don’t seem to want to spend their time in the state parks anymore. Everyone wants to be constantly occupied these days, and the idea of visiting a place in which all there is to do is to spend a couple of hours hiking or biking near a mountain stream seems to them like an awful waste of time. Which, as far as we’re concerned, is fine.

Linn Run, Westmoreland County, PA

It’s much more enjoyable for us the fewer people we have to deal with when we’re out in nature. There are fewer and fewer places in the world where we can escape idiots, and the longer Linn Run and places like it seem to be boring to the masses, the better we like it. Although we do worry about people who have lost touch with the quiet serenity of the forest, with its sounds and smells so different from the city. But we get over it pretty quickly.

This is one of the comparatively rare summer pictures we have of this stream. There comes a point at which the camera intrudes on our riding, and we seem much more sensitive to this in the summer months than we do in the fall. In the summertime, we just want to ride, man, but in the cool of the fall, with the leaves in full color and the sun low in the sky, we take an entirely different approach. Every once in a while, though, we feel like slowing down and recording the experience in the summertime, and this is from one of those sessions. This photo dates back to 1999.
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Pittsburgh #276
Added 14 April 2009

As many of our more loyal readers are acutely aware, OMT’s been out of commission since early February, but we’ve been feeling the old draw again.

Just today we were poking around the OMT offices to have a look at things. We’ve been thinking lately of rebooting the franchise, and one of the first things we noticed was that our banner photo, our front porch to the world, as it were, was hopelessly out of date. That picture of the observatory on top of the Laurel Ridge, overcast and snow-covered, was hardly the kind of message that OMT should be sending here in mid-April. We’ve had quite enough of the winter, and we’re sure that you have too, and as much as we liked that picture back in January when we posted it, today it just makes us want to take the gas pipe.

We’ve finally figured out that looking at that picture every time we came in to the OMT offices was having a profoundly negative impact on our overall productivity, and so we’ve decided to cast it out, to dispense with it …

OTFD, as we used to say …

So, as a first step toward putting OMT back on the air, we thought it would be a good idea to put a fresh face on things. It’s hard enough for us to crank out these screeds which you all have come to know and love under normal circumstances, and it’s damn near impossible when we have to look at snow in April.

After an exhaustive search through the OMT photographic archives, we’ve come up with this picture. We took this around 10 years ago in front of Phipps Conservatory in Schenley Park, long before the recent renovation.

Phipps Conservatory, Pittsburgh, PA

Of course, you can’t even see the building in this view, and the tulips were removed as part of the renovation, so Phipps no longer puts on such a colorful spring show as this.

But we thought that the change would be enough to shake up any visitors who might be checking in to see whether or not anything’s happening here at OMT, and that they just might check out the Gallery page for news.

Most of what we’ve been writing the past couple of months has been pure shit, but we think that we are starting to come out of whatever malady came along and kicked our mojo in the ass, and so we may very soon be back on the air again. Certainly there’s been no shortage of topics for OMT’s consideration.

But with OMT, as in life, there are no guarantees … we’ll just have to see how things shake out.

In the meantime, enjoy the tulips …

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Laurel Summit #100_1050
Added 28 January 2009

High atop the Laurel Ridge, straddling Westmoreland and Somerset Counties in southwestern Pennsylvania sits the University of Pittsburgh’s Laurel Summit Airglow Observatory. Built back in the 1960s, by the 1990s it was abandoned, and had fallen into serious disrepair. Then the vandals and the rodents moved in, and we were beginning to think that on one of our next bike trips up to the summit, we were going to find it had collapsed into a heap.

But one fine summer day several years ago, as we were riding along Laurel Summit road in the vicinity of the observatory, we could hear someone pounding a hammer. As we got closer, it got louder, and when we turned into the very road that you see in the picture (absent the snow, of course,

Laurel Summit Airglow Observatory, Forbes State Forest, Somerset County, PA

and with considerably more leaves than the just rhododendrons you see here) was Alec Stewart, a young assistant professor from Pitt who had taken it upon himself to restore the observatory. We stopped to have a chat with him, and he told us that he was a student of the professor who originally built the observatory, and that he had the professor’s enthusiastic approval for restoring it.

We learned that the observatory never housed a telescope; it was used primarily for the study of upper atmospheric gasses (hence the “airglow” business), but that Stewart was planning to put a small telescope in it as part of the renovation.

As you can see from the picture, he did a fine job, and it’s now used from time to time by Pitt’s astronomy department. According to the web site of Christopher Chirdon, who helped Stewart with the renovation, the observatory has been transformed into “a clean and operational location for weekend student retreats, amateur astronomy excursions, and a base of operations with first-class 1.5 KW 2-30 MHz shortwave radio installation with DSP capabilities“.

Well, those “DSP capabilities” are just gravy as far as we’re concerned … we’re just happy to see this structure preserved as one of the unique features of one of our favorite places to bike.

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Linn Run Road #100_0806
Added 27 December 2008

As anyone who has been keeping up with our Gallery already knows, Linn Run road is the jumping off point of our Laurel Highlands bike runs. This is the actual Linn Run creek in Linn Run State Park.

Linn Run creek, Linn Run State Park, Westmoreland County, PA

We don’t think that there’s any time of year in which this little stream isn’t beautiful, but it’s especially so in the winter time.

It gets pretty treacherous up here this time of year, because in the winter Linn Run Road is open to both regular traffic and snowmobiles. This essentially turns the road into a shiny, treacherous, sheet of ice, which requires studded tires to navigate. We learned this the hard way once when we got hopelessly stuck, and had to wait for a group of snowmobilers to get us out.

Lesson learned.

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Pontius #100_2935
Added 19 December 2008

Come January 7th, it will be three years since we got our cat, Pontius. We’d always had dogs when we were growing up, and we’d developed that special kind of mistrust for cats that real dog people seem to possess – it never occurred to us that we’d even own a cat, let alone get so attached to one.

When we got him, we were going to name him Meldrick, after Meldrick Lewis, the character on the TV show Homicide – Life on the Street, but in the end, we settled on Pontius, as in Pontius Pilate. Even as a kid, we always thought Pontius Pilate got a bad rap in the gospels, because he was just a bureaucrat trying to do his job in an impossible situation.

Pontius - Christmas 2008

We can just hear Caesar saying, “heckuva job, Ponchie”, when things in Judea started to implode. It wasn’t Pilate’s fault that he was thrust into the center of some cataclysmic theological maelstrom, any more than it was Judas’ fault for betraying Jesus, since the old man was pulling all the strings, anyway. If we were in Pilate’s sandals, we would have done just what he did when the rabble came to him – “You wanna crucify him, knock yourselves out … Lavabo, baby … The wife and I have tickets to the chariot races tonight”, and left them to work god’s will.

Again, as is our wont, we digress …

We hadn’t had the big Christmas tree up ever since Pontius moved in. The first Christmas, we tried having one of those table-top trees, but it wasn’t long before he had it on the floor, which shards of glass everywhere from the smashed ornaments. We love our cat, but we really missed having a Christmas tree, so this year we hit on the idea of putting up the big tree, but decorating it only with lights and tinsel garland – something he wouldn’t be able to destroy, even though he wouldn’t be able to keep away from it.

And it’s worked out fine … he only bothered it for the first night or two, and now pretty much accepts it as being part of the territory. But the “snow” blanket that we have under the tree is made from some kind of synthetic material that is very warm to the touch, and it has become a magnet for him … He snuggles up under the tree and .. well, the picture says it all.

We’re a bit concerned about what he’s going to do after the holidays when his new warm nest disappears. But like anything else when it comes to our buddy-boy, we’ll deal with it when it comes to pass.
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Forbes #560
Added 26 November 2008

This is one of our favorite pictures, taken on one particularly frigid winter morning, once again at the summit of the Laurel Ridge. This fence is at the entrance to Laurel Summit State Park, which in reality is little more than a tiny picnic area with tables and a small pavilion, and not much else.

But it’s a great place to park the car for a hike in the woods. It’s right near the Spruce Flats Bog, the remnant of an ancient mountain top lake, which was completely taken over by forest until clearcutting at the beginning of the 20th century resulted in the water table rising back to the surface, since there were no more trees to drink it up.

Laurel Summit State Park, straddling Westmoreland and Somerset Counties, PA

Also nearby is the vista from Beam Rocks, which look from the ridge to the east as the rolling hills of Somerset county unfold before you. And then there’s just the woods themselves, recovering nicely now, some 90 years after the lumber men came through and did their damage.

We often stop here for a break when we’re biking up in this part of the woods.

We can remember one time many years ago, when we were having a particularly bad day at work, we just walked out of the office, got in the car, and drove an hour to this spot, sat on a picnic table and just chilled for a while. Then we got into the car and drove back to the office, now better able to cope with the stresses of the day.

No one dared ask where we’d been for three hours.

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Forbes #504
Added 19 November 2008

Another picture taken in the woods at the summit of the Laurel Ridge in the Forbes State Forest. This is Weaver Road, which snakes through the woods providing maintenance access to a couple of microwave relay towers that are on the summit.

In the direction in which we’re facing, Weaver Road is eventually gated, preventing unauthorized vehicle access. From that point on, it becomes a trail until it finally peters out deep in the forest. It used to go all the way back down the mountainside into Rector, but the line on the map eventually becomes dotted, and then ultimately disappears from the map. This is borne out in reality. After reaching a fork about 3 miles from this spot, the road slowly merges with the forest. And that’s true of both forks in the road.

After passing the microwave towers, and before encountering the gate, there is a huge blackberry thicket along the road which becomes full of blackberries in August.

Weaver Road, from the intersection with Hickory Flats Road on the Laurel Summit, Forbes State Forest, Westmoreland County, PA

We haven’t seen such an abundance of blackberries since we were kids and used to pick berries along the railroad tracks near our home.

And further down, past the blackberries, there are tons of huckleberries in the ditches along the sides of the road that ripen in September. These are nothing like the blueberries that you find in stores, or even like the berries that we grow on the cultivated bush that we have in our garden.

No, these are tiny huckleberries, bitter-sweet, and bursting with that unmistakable, earthy flavor that the cultivated varieties can only dream of.

Weaver Road is a late summer berry lover’s dream.

Of course, by the time this picture was taken, the dream itself was a dream.

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Great Allegheny Passage #2668
Added 05 November 2008

The Great Allegheny Passage is the bike/hiking rails-to-trail that currently runs unbroken from McKeesport to Washington, DC. Recently, a major victory in closing the missing link to Pittsburgh was achieved when the owners of the Sandcastle water park, that citadel of trailer-park-trash entertainment, agreed in principle to allow the trail to traverse their property.

We get to the trail by bike by taking a long, circuitous route that takes us through Braddock, North Versailles, and finally McKeesport. Sometimes, we just bag that difficult, traffic-choked bike trip and rack up the bike and drive to the tiny community of Boston, Pa, a couple of miles south of McKeesport, where there is a trailhead.

The Passage is the cream of the crop of all of the local trails. All of the towns along the trail, big and small, have various facilities for trail users, from stores and restaurants, to restrooms and camping. Most of the trail from Boston follows the course of the Yougiougheny river, and affords some breathtaking vistas of this quiet, mirror-like stream.

Well, maybe we’re engaging in a bit of hyperbole when we say, “breathtaking”, but the views are nice, and if you bike the way we do, working up a good spin so that you can get a nice speed going, you can be panting when you see them.

This particular photo was taken at milepost 25 (from downtown Pittsburgh), at a rest stop at an old cemetery, that has restrooms (which you can see in the pic), and camping facilities right along the river, complete with fire rings and level pads for pitching a tent. That’s our bike in the picture.

Great Allegheny Passage - Rest area at milepost 25, at the site of the Dravo cemetary.

You can see the main part of the trail to the extreme right in the photo. It’s a great spot, very quiet, very peaceful, with the high bluffs looming above. The fact that this is within direct biking distance of our home (it’s about 19 miles from Tofu Towers, and we’ve made this very trip in the past), makes it all the more special.

One of the reasons we love this trail is because of its transitions between long stretches deep in the woods, with the serene river at our side, punctuated by visits to former coal towns, whose company houses, recognizable underneath vinyl siding, new roofs, modern windows and other modifications, remind us of our own upbringing in the tiny coal-patch town of Yatesboro.

We have already started working out the logistics of making a bike trip from our home all the way to Washington, DC, which we hope to pull off in the next year or two. We’ve decided that we are going to do sections of the trail next summer as day trips, using the car of course, all the way to DC, so that we can familiarize ourselves with the trail and the facilities along the way. Once we’ve worked out the details, and have upgraded our camping equipment, we plan to take sufficient vacation time to make the trip.

We’ll be 57 in the spring of 2009, so there’s no time to lose.

This picture is the first one to be published on OMT less then 24 hours after it was taken. Not that there’s anything particularly special about that, but we thought you might be interested in knowing.

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Ligonier #0143
Added 30 October 2008

Darlington/Rector Road is not a road that we bike on, because it’s not a terribly interesting road for biking, per se, but it’s a beautiful stretch of road, and it’s on our way to the Linn Run corridor, which is one of our favorite biking places.

Ordinarily, we turn right off of PA 711 onto Darlington/Rector Road, and we park our car in the village of Rector, and bike from there. But this particular picture is on a stretch from which we turn left from 711.

Darlington/Rector Road, off PA 711, about three miles south of Ligonier, Westmoreland County, PA

The trees line both sides of the road, much as they do along PA 381 in the nearby Rolling Rock Farms, but this stretch has much more mature trees, and they turn a beautiful mix of colors in the fall. We have tons of pictures from along this stretch at various times of the year.

This one in particular was taken about eight years ago, well after peak color, when the leaves have already started to fall. Even so, its fall beauty is still evident. We were looking for a post-peak picture that represented the October/November transition, and this one fit the bill rather neatly.

We took this picture with our old camera, so the quality isn’t the best. But we stopped here on our way home from having a great day biking in the mountains, and so for us, the quality doesn’t matter so much, because we can still see with our mind’s eye all of the missing pieces. Still, we hope that you will be able to glean at least a suggestion of what we experienced that day. We remember it being colder that day than it looks in the picture, but there’s nothing like biking in the mountains on a cool fall day and then coming home and having a nice warm supper. We’re hoping that we can get up there some weekend in November and spend another day in the woods before the hunters come out.

Guys with guns in the mountains of southwestern Pennsylvania are not something that an Obama supporter like OMT is terribly interested in running in to in the middle of the woods.

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Linn Run Road #100_0806
Added 18 October 2008

Linn Run State Park, and the adjacent tract of the Forbes State Forest, an area that straddles Westmoreland and Somerset counties in the Laurel Highlands of southwestern Pennsylvania, is one of our favorite biking areas. Located just an hour away from Pittsburgh via the Pennsylvania Turnpike, we can get there quickly, bike in the woods all day, and at the end of the day when we’re tired and not in the mood for a long, difficult drive, we can be back at home in no time.

Linn Run Road, approaching the summit of the Laurel Ridge, Forbes State Forest, Westmoreland County PA

The contrast of this with Cook Forest is one of the reasons why up until this past week, it had been over three years since we’d biked along the Clarion River.

Linn Run Road starts at the bottom of the ridge in the village of Rector, PA, where we park our car. We then bike the entire length of the road, which is a little over 7 miles, but which has an increase in elevation over that course by about 1200 feet. The road follows Linn Run, a tiny but beautiful trout stream that starts up in the ridge, and eventually flows into the Loyalhanna Creek, near the famous Rolling Rock Farms.

It’s a beautiful ride at any time of the year, but especially in the fall. Most bikers drive their cars to the top before unloading their bikes to explore the trails up there, like Beam Run Road and the others, but we prefer making the entire trip ourselves, not just for the workout, but also because it really is one of the great underrated rides in the region.

Intersection of the PW&S Railroad Grade and Beam Run Road, on the Laurel Summit, Forbes State Forest, Somerset County, PA

Linn Run Road follows the course of the old Pittsburgh, Westmoreland and Somerset Railroad grade, long since gone, which about 100 years ago literally hauled the entire forest out for lumbering. The forest we enjoy is second growth, now about 90 years old. The entire region had been clearcut, and the Commonwealth took title to the devastated area around 1910, and turned the region into one of the main tracts of the Forbes State Forest, although at that time the idea of “forest” required a leap of the imagination.

James Thurber once called his home in Cornwall, Connecticut, “the great good place”. This area, with its quiet beauty, is ours.
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Beam Run Road #100_0922
Added 04 October 2008

Beam Run Road is a gated road that runs along the Laurel Ridge, meandering back and forth across the border between Westmoreland and Somerset counties. Closed to traffic, except for occasional vehicles accessing gas wells, and state forest maintenance vehicles, the approximately 12 miles of Beam Run road is primarily used as a biking and equestrian trail.

Beam Run Road, north of Rector-Edie Road, Forbes State Forest, Somerset County, PA

Its conditions range from the rather sublime, as in this photograph, to deeply rutted areas, and extremely steep grades. The little directional signs that you will find at intersections rate this as a “Mountan Bike Expert” class trail, and, while that is certainly true some sections, there are long stretches like this one that are less challenging. One of the unfortunate things about using photos in a blog header is that you have to crop them. In this particular case, we were quite disappointed with the final cropped version, because so much of the sky was lost. The sky was quite spectacular on the day we took this picture, a sense of which you can get from this full version of it.

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Stone House #19
Added 20 September 2008

This picture is an exception in that it wasn’t taken on a bike trip. It’s along State Route 85, between Kittanning and Yatesboro, in the village of Stone House. In fact, this is the very spot where the old Stone House Inn was located, the ruins of which I can remember.

Site of old stone inn, East of Kittanning, west of Yatesboro, Armstrong County, PA

The site was cleared away in the early 1960s, and now there is a rather unremarkable looking house on the location. But some of the features from the inn still remain. For example, the stone sluice from the old mill that was behind the inn is still there, and still ports water down to the creek below. There’s a sharp drop-off behind the tree where where the sluice is, which you can see in the second, “bonus” photograph. Although filled with leaves, there is still water flowing through it, which is piped under the road, before it eventually reaches the Cowanshannock Creek, behind us as we view this scene.

Site of old stone inn, showing sluice from the old grist mill, Armstrong County, PA

This tree was around when the inn was there, and apart from the sluice, is one of the last features on the site that dates from that time. Most years, the tree turns rather disappointingly drab in the fall, but every so often when conditions are right, it can be truly spectacular, as it is in this photograph. We drove up past the tree this fall, and it was unfortunately having one if its drab years, with its leaves a less-than-impressive yellowish-brown. It leaves one to wonder about the different conditions that can produce such different results.

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River Road #19
Added 01 September 2008

This photo was taken on River Road, along the Clarion River, between Millstone and Belltown in Elk County, about 100 miles north of Pittsburgh. About 10 years ago, they improved the old dirt road with tar and chips, which has made this run much more pleasant than it used to be.

River Road, approaching Belltown, Allegheny National Forest, Elk County, PA

In wet weather, especially in the spring, the road was susceptible to ruts, to say nothing of the mud, so the arrival of tar and chips has been a godsend, and has completely transformed this trip. Now, the complete 24-mile length of River Road is either asphalt or tar and chips all the way from the Cook Forest ranger station to its end about a mile past Hallton. It’s a beautiful ride, especially in the fall, and it’s not terribly challenging either. And, once you get outside of the state park, traffic is minimal. Some weekdays I’ve made the run and haven’t seen a car for over 20 miles.

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