CMU, Westwood and Mount Washington

Here are three runs from December 29, 2021. I had taken off work and had the day free to run, so I covered streets in Oakland, Westwood and Mount Washington.


RATS #00489 in Oakland

I started on Frew Street in Oakland. I was hoping that the construction on Hamerschlag was open enough for me to slip by. Alas, it wasn’t to be. The area under a giant crane was well-blocked off.

Grudgingly, I moved on to Skibo Street. It is a small street and soon devolved into sidewalks between apartments.

Covering that little bit, I moved onto a rather new “street”, Staley Family Plaza. It was behind Central Catholic High School. Honestly, it shoudn’t have been listed as a street by City Strides since it just a small plaza behind a building on Central’s campus. That campus is really getting squeezed by new CMU construction. I wonder if footballs ever hit the windows of the new Tepper building? Oh look, a balcony! Seems like a kicking target to me.

I finished back at Frew, two streets done.


RATS #00490 in Westwood

My second run of the day took me further afield, to Westwood. Prior to doing this project, I wasn’t aware of Westwood. Westwood is tucked against another forgotten Pittsburgh neighborhood, Ridgemont and abuts Crafton Heights and Greentree. It’s a decent little area. There might be a hill or two, but it’s filled with well-kept houses and conveniently close to the Parkway West. AND, I saw Elmo, apparently waiting for the school bus while keeping an eye out for something. Eagles maybe? Giant squirrels? I didn’t ask.

Whatcha looking at, Elmo?

Moving on, I crossed Noblestown Road (carefully, looking in both directions) en route to Milnor Street. Milnor Street is one of those fractured Pittsburgh streets, a section here, a section there. The section I was trying to finish could be an alley, or maybe didn’t exist. I wasn’t sure.

It was an alley, some paved and some just a grassy path. I wonder who mows it? After documenting Milnor Way, I continued down Harris and up Mueller. That little section of Mueller was the steepest section of the run, with grades from 9% to 36%, but generally around 18%. For comparison, the Negley Hill Strava segment averages 15%.

From here, I went up Cumberland Avenue then scooted left on Steuban Street; a border between Pittsburgh and Crafton. The next left took me up Ridenour. Ridenour dead ends for cars but becomes a footpath which connects to steps and pops up on another segment of Ridenour. The wooden steps were passable, but not in great shape.

Finishing up Ridenour, I trekked back to my start. I don’t remember seeing Elmo, so maybe his bus came. Or he was carried away by an eagle.


RATS #00491 in Mount Washington, Beltzhoover and Duquense Heights

From Westwood, I went directly to Mount Washington. I intended to finish up Wyola and then catch a couple of streets at the bottom of Beltzhoover. I parked on Bigham and turned down Piermont. Piermont, like most of Mount Washington, flow up and down the hills like waves. I turned on Wyola and followed it past new townhouses to the encircling Emerald View Park.

I retraced my path back to Bigham, where I made a left and headed to Grandview Avenue. I made my way to Bailey Avenue and thence to Estella. The top of Estella is rather nice, but literally and figuratively heads downhill as it enters Beltzhoover. Beltzhoover is a large area and improves slightly as you get away from East Warrington Avenue and Beltzhoover Avenues. However, it never really blossoms.

Estella Street View

The two streets of my desire sat at the bottom of the Beltzhoover, near the T-lines. The first, Buffington Avenue, is a dead-end street at the end of an alley. It was blocked off for cars, but there were no “No Trespassing” signs, so I continued on the grassy street. At the end was a communication tower, bristling with antennas.

Emboldened with my success on Buffington, I went a couple blocks over and went down Schuck Street. It should have been called “Oh Schucks, My Garbage Blew Around and No One has Picked It Up Street”. But that would be silly, that’s way too long for a street sign.

From here, I climbed back to Mount Washington. Over six miles and my third run in a day!

Hey there, its been a while

Hi Folks! So, I’ve been neglecting this blog for a bit. My last post, back in September of 2022, brought you up-to-date on my 487th RATS run, which I ran on December 28, 2021. (Ouch, that was a long time ago!) Today is February 7, 2023.

What have I been up to? I did a flurry of streets in the last week of 2021 but really changed focus in 2022. Instead of concentrating on streets, I concentrated on marathon training runs with City of Bridges Run Club. I ended up running four marathons in 2022. I also had the opportunity to do a 50 mile hike on the North Country Trail in Allegheny Forest and the popular 36 mile Rachel Carson Challenge.

I did finish about ten streets in 2022 and there are only a handful more that I’ll complete. Without more ado, I’ll catch you up on my streets runs, starting with RATS #00488.


RATS #00488 in Chartiers, Corliss and Sheraden

December. Pittsburgh. The best I could hope for was misty streets and mild temps. That’s what I got on another journey into Sheraden. I parked down in Sheraden Park, down in the hollow. There’s a city pool here, long closed. I don’t think it was open in summer, either. The playground looked cool, though.

From the low park, I made a foray up into Sheraden on the left. I tried to reach a street by bushwhacking, but it didn’t seem promising so I went back to the pavement. I took Ashlyn around to Motor and Menges. Strava has two Menges’ streets, while Google calls them Menges and Slope. Only the blue signs know for sure, so we’ll see.

And the winner is…. Slope! Claps all around for Google! Good job labeling streets with the right names. So, in the above pic with the cinderblock; that’s the end of Slope, regardless of how far into the woods City Strides thinks the street goes.

This area is such a crazy quilt of hills and streets; and streets falling off the hills. In this picture, my cell-phone camera was actually level.

Top of Stadium Street

Moving on, I finished up Krewson Way, did the little knob of “West” Paudling Avenue and decided to run to the end of Sacramento. In previous runs, I had stopped short on Sacramento, thinking that it was just a driveway.

Much to my delight, Sacramento Street continued along the lip of the hill, past a mossy shed and around to the far end of Stadium Street. I had been to this end of Stadium Street before, but in the summer couldn’t get through the thick vegetation.

Looking Down the Ohio to Downtown Pittsburgh
Esplen Below with McKees Rocks Bridge on Right

Now I found my way back to Chartiers Avenue, en route to finishing alleys like Alora Way, Cream Way and Condor “Road”.

Not a bad run, just a little over seven miles.