
Again, I headed to the hills of Beechview on a warm Sunday morning. Again, I parked at the little playground on Westfield Street. This time, I followed Andick Way as it changed from a modest street to a set of stairs. They were broad and shallow stairs, several feet of flat concrete before rising to the next step. Hitting Rockland Avenue, I took a right and ran past Beechwood Elementary School. At the end of the parking area, presumably where vans, buses and cars drop off hundreds of kids in the morning, there was a large swale surrounded by ten foot chain link fences. It was dry this morning and a brown rabbit with the signature cotton tail happily bounced across this protected area. This is one of the highest points around and I was surprised to see such a massive drainage installation there.
At any rate, Rockland drop precipitously from the school, going all the way to a T-stop. My run plan originally had me doing this last, but I did it first. It meant that I had to run back up Rockland, ugh. Getting back to Andick, it morphed again into a street and then back to a sidewalk. Finally I broke out onto Dagmar, near the top.
Top of Dagmar looking toward Downtown where you can see Trimont Top of Dagmar looking down at the T overpass On Dagmar under the T overpass
From this vantage point, if you look toward Downtown, you can see the Trimont Building on Mount Washington. Looking down the other way, Dagmar flows down the hill like a roller-coaster. You might be able to pick out a bridge carrying the T far below.
At this point, I just crossed Dagmar and followed Bayonne to the end. The area was pretty nice. People were out mowing lawns, tending flowers and walking dogs. Bayonne is relatively flat, but starts to descend quickly near its dead-end. The cross street, Alverado Ave has some houses off of it nearly a block further downhill, accessible only by a long driveway. At any rate, I wandered up to Crane, then up another section of Dagmar until it, too, ended in a driveway. Then it was the long roller coaster down Dagmar. Nearly under the overpass, I veered off onto Cape May, hit the steep Milo Street Stairs and plodded up Alton, eventually reaching my car just as a rain shower broke.