Blog of Josh Hall

As I said in the intro post, I had done from my townhouse in Pittsburgh’s Hill District to the Waterfront a long time ago. The Hot Metal Bridge had just been completed. It was a flat ride and interesting to see all the places I’ve only seen from the road. There’s been a lot of work to improve the trail, on all sides of the 3 rivers, and I’d only expect that to keep going in the coming years.

Trip 1: My house in Bethel Park is near the Montour trail, so I just needed to follow it to the GAP, right? well, sounds easy enough, but it’s not that simple and probably never will be. Amanda and I set out to cover the trail through Bethel Park, South Park, but the first frustration is having to get on a road by Sunset Golf, all because some storage unit has the land where the rail road used to be.

It’s definitely a bureaucratic problem that will likely never be simple. The next unfortunate spot is not being able to continue through Green Man’s Tunnel. That would have been sweet. Just a little stretch of nice open road and trail gets you sucked in enough to be surprised when it all goes away once you cross over Gill Hall Road. You’re not par of vehicular traffic without any pavement markings. Beware. Peters Creek Road is peaceful enough, but it’s still a road, and I hate riding a bike on roads. Helmet for sure.

Entering Large is the wildest irony. It’s like a bunch of houses and a bar got discarded into someone’s field. I don’t know why it’s called Large, because it’s not. Up an over a hill and you’re at route 51 and of course I recognize this from going to Century III as a kid. This is one of those times where it’s tough to have to turn around, but you have to be mindful of your distance and elevation to make sure you can make it back in a reasonable time.

Trip 2: Picked up from the park and ride. This lot is unreasonably LARGE. It’s probably as big as Large, honestly. nice little path into the woods on the way to McKeesport. Past a nice park, but then get your wits about you for a steep hill on 837. Traffic will pass you. Lots of big trucks with surrounding industry. It’s not for kids. Cross the Glassport Bridge, and barrel down into town. Steep hill coming up to Mansfield Bridge. I ignore all stop signs and red lights. I don’t even know the rules, I just want out. Over the 5th avenue Bridge and loop around the the left and there we go. We’ve reached the GAP at McKeesport.

A few weeks prior, I had taken my bike to connect the Sandcastle to McKeesport section that I had missed a decade earlier. It’s totally smooth and I really like coming over that big bridge and ride down into McKeesport. It’s a weird thing again that the GAP goes under the bridge and along the river but then dead ends, even with the destination in site. Seems stupid they’d even maintain that.

One of the cool things about the trails is that you can use google street view or revisit, forecast, or live vicariously.

Click through for the rest of the journey:

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