Here are three short runs from December 30, 2021. The first was in the New Homestead neighborhood. The second was a hop, skip, and a jump (by car) to get to the end of Churchview Avenue and the last was in Hays, tromping the trails known as Schoenberger “Road”. All of these runs covered “streets” which are difficult to get to and generally involved starting outside the city limits.

RATS run #00492 started in West Homestead (outside of Pittsburgh), continued into New Homestead (in Pittsburgh), then out again through Munhall (outside of Pittsburgh), then back into the city for another little section of New Homestead.
The streets I finished on this run aren’t well known. Armorhill runs roughly parallel to the Mon and overlooks Sandcastle. Once upon a time, some developer must have laid out Bronze Street to go straight from Armorhill to Bench Way. However, there’s a deep ravine between the two, so it would’ve been a very steep street. As it is, there’s a piece of Bronze Street on the hill at Armorhill and another small section in the subdivision below, two disjoint pieces.


The next small streets I needed were the end of Mapledale Drive and a little offshoot, Cooper Way, probably less than a quarter-mile for both. Unfortunately, to get there, I had to wind down the hills of Cascade Drive and Pinewood Drive in West Homestead and along terrifying West Run Road in Munhall. I took a shortcut along York Road, a much more peaceful street. Mapledale Drive was less than exciting, but hinted at New Homestead Trails beyond while Cooper Way was merely a brick driveway.


Returning along York, I saw this, a young runner high-tailing it from a ‘fierce’ dog. A little over five miles for the first run of the day.


RATS run #00493 was very straightforward. I just ran down Churchview Street to its end in Pittsburgh. It was a lot of effort for 50 yards of Pittsburgh.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t too bad. I found a convenient place to park in Baldwin’s Elm Leaf Park. It’s a large park and I only saw the top portion, with a baseball field and basketball courts. From there, I hopped onto Churchview and went to it’s Pittsburgh end, passing Churhview Farms along the way.



At it’s muddy end, Churchview hangs over Baldwin Road, far below. I briefly thought about seeing how far the trail would go, but thought better of it and turned around.


I did not actually get a view of any church, but did tack on another 2.6 miles (and a street).
My last run of the day, RATS #00494, was in Hays Woods. I parked at the end of Agnew Road and headed past the gate. My goal was to complete “Schoenberger Road”. “Schoenberger Road” is an artifact of an earlier time. Now it is just a path through woods with a bit of asphalt pavement showing through here and there. I had run here earlier and missed the right turnoff.


This time, I took the first right past the cell tower and I thought I had it. However, again I was wrong and had to backtrack. I could tell because the “road”disappeared. Going further along the top trail, I took the next right and found the remains of Shoenberger.


This led me all the way down to Glass Run Road. At GRR (which is my feeling about Glass Run Road), there’s a little turnoff. A rusting yellow gate marks the intersection of Glass Run and Schoenberger. While accessible on foot, its a scramble.


And that was it, another “street” done and another three miles completed, giving me over eleven miles for the day. Time to go inside and take a hot shower!