Ridgemont – Run All The Streets

As I sit at my desk, the Saturday before Easter, the weather is certainly reminiscent of early November. So, here are three runs in early November 2021. I do expect, though, as the days get longer and warmer, I won’t be able to find late November or December runs mirroring May weather!

This little run was exclusively to find and traverse Parody Street. Turns out Parody Street is a two-block set of steps from Beechview Avenue to Rutherford Avenue. At 6:27 PM on an early November evening, the sun was fading fast as I parked above Vanucci Park in Beechview. I slogged up and down on Sebring until I made a left onto Beechview. I knew I wasn’t supposed to go as far as Hampshire, but it kept getting closer and closer. Finally, just beyond a building on the right a little driveway gave egress to steps. Can’t park here, though.

The steps cut a path to Methyl Street and continued steeply to Rutherford.

By the time I got to Rutherford, the night was full on. I had a momentary thought of finding the end of Canton, but it was too dark. So, I returned to Vanucci and drove away.

In contrast to RATS Run #00471, this run was in the bright full sun of a Saturday afternoon. However, much like running Parody Way, I was focused on completing obscure alleyways; Michigan Way, Partridge Way, Voix Way and Elite Way.

Michigan Way, in Knoxville, was an easy one – just run up Knox Avenue until you get to Michigan and turn left. Knox Avenue exudes inner city dirty ghetto charm, without cool graffiti, but the perfect, cool, sunny running weather made up for it. I came back on Brownsville Road, looking for Alice Street.

Near the end of Alice Street, Partridge Way juts off to the left. Partridge Way has two sections, interrupted by a small hill, overgrown bushes and a barrier. You definitely can’t drive all the way through. I had done the upper section and wanted to see if the lower one somehow connected. No dice, after passing garages and a woman doing yard work, the alley came to an end; no apparent way through. This area was much more typical Pittsburgh; garages off the alley, large four-square houses closely packed up and down the hill.

Now, a funny thing happened on my way to Bon Air. For those who don’t know, Alice Street continues into Bon Air, changing names at Tarragonna Street to Bon Air Avenue. As I was ascending the little hill past Tarragonna, I noticed some strange leaves in the street. They were clumped together and rather green. The wind started to blow them around as a pick-up truck stopped just past me. Two young dudes hopped out, leaving their car doors open. The green leaves were twenties.

I asked them if this was their money and just got, “Not mine, but there’s enough here for all of us!” Not known for letting a loose twenty lie, I picked up a couple and continued up the hill. Crossing into Bon Air, which has a different, more suburban feel than Knoxville, another truck slowed down. An older guy shouted out “Hey, did you drop something? There’s money on the street back there!” I just waved him off and continued running. I made the right on Conniston Ave, pleasantly surprised at suddenly having extra pizza money when a small gray SUV slowly approached. A young muscular man inside rolled down his window.

“Hey man!”

“Yeah?

“Did you pick up my money back there?

“I picked up some, how much did you lose?

“$400 “

“Wow! I didn’t pick up THAT much! Only $40. Do you want it back?”

He gave me a long hard stare, then said “Nah, man. You’re so honest. Just keep it” and drove off.

Argh, I was a bit nervous at this but continued on my route to find Voix Way. It was a short alley between Conniston and Fordyce. Then I was onto finding Elite Way, off of Roseton Avenue. Elite Way isn’t on Google Maps but made it to the Pittsburgh Blue Street Sign List. It’s not very Elite either, just ending in a ivy covered hillside.

Now, as I trekked out of Bon Air, I took an alternate route to the moneyed hillside and returned to my car. That was a lot of excitement for just a three mile run. On the way home, I got some Mineo’s.

The following Saturday I got out for a longer RATS run, this one in Banksville and Ridgemont, crossing through Greentree a bit. Again, I was mainly targeting obscure alleys such as Henwood Way, Roseberry Lane and the misnamed Lampe “Avenue”. I also got the deserted office park vibe by running around Mall Drive (Parkway Center Mall, that is). What a wasteland.

But let’s start with Lampe Avenue. It is a small spur of a road off of Greentree Road. Most of the time, a chain blocks off the drive, but today it was open. It seems it is used by a construction company to store vehicles. It goes through stands of Japanese Knotweed until disappearing into piles of dirt and debris.

From here, I trekked back up Greentree Road to McKinney Lane. From this high hill, I could see the tops of buildings downtown. McKinney Lane shoots past large office park buildings and empty parking lots. Perhaps they would be more full on a weekday? However, this whole Parkway Center Mall development seems empty and outdated. I continued on McKinney past the offices until I found a small path down to the Giant Eagle, the last tenant.

From here, I crossed over the Parkway West on Greentree Road and made my way back toward Banksville. Arbor Drive is just a little dead-end. From there I took Winchester Drive and Carnahan Drive towards Henwood Way. Carnahan is a bit tricky for running, as it loses sidewalks early on.

Now, one reason I had missed Henwood previously was it looked like a driveway off of Roseberry Street. I should have known better. It turned out to be beary welcoming street, after all. Further up the hill, past the drive into a trailer park, Roseberry Lane tops out in the parking lot of The Log Church, whose buildings ramble along the top of this hill.

I returned along Carnahan Road to Banksville Park and that was it, a relatively unadventurous run.

Three of my runs in January completed 99% of the streets in Westwood and Ridgemont. These two western neighborhoods perch atop hillsides on either side of Greentree Road. I’ve run extensively in Westwood, but Ridgemont was a whole new area.

https://www.strava.com/activities/4649360974 — RATS #00358 Westwood

Run #00358 in Westwood was a “just get out there and do it” run. My intention was to complete Rydal Street and a couple of neighboring streets. In the darkness, I missed Sedley Way, but was otherwise successful. Nothing beats snowy steps at night!

https://www.strava.com/activities/4702189987 — RATS #00362 – Ridgemont

Continuing with the evening running, my next run took me behind the Giant Eagle in the former Parkway Center Mall. Merely minutes outside the Fort Pitt Tunnels, Parkway Center Mall is torn down. Shadowy parking lots with feeble fences lead toward the bright Giant Eagle. The ubiquitous asphalt undulates, as if the land itself is trying to throw off the abomination of acres of paving.

I took a quick shaky selfie and headed on down Greentree Road and up Hamburg Street. The blue ice filter captured the temps appropriately. This, I must say, is the first the skull-decorated, smoking-moon outhouse I’ve found. I stayed on the hilltops, where the sun’s light lingered until the dazzling city lights came out.

It was a short, exploratory run in a new neighborhood.

https://www.strava.com/activities/4707540599 — RATS #00363 – Ridgemont and Westwood

RATS #00363, a daytime run, pretty much completed the last two runs. I finished up lower sections of Ridgemont and in the end, even covered Sedley Way in Westwood.

With the knowledge from the previous run, I started right into Ridgemont along Springfield Street. This time, though, I made my way down New York Street to the dead-ends of Junius and Journal Streets. On the map they look like fork tines sticking into the hillside.

In real life, Junius and Journal are narrow streets clinging to the steep hill. A set of derelict steps gave me access to Journal without backtracking too much. On the farther side of Journal, the steps, now truly overgrown, fall off the hill. According to maps, they look like they go down to a railroad track. I’m not sure if they originally went further, for there’s a set of steps off of China Street below which look like they should meet. It’s all a rather moot point, though, because the steps are in bad shape and go nowhere. In the bottom picture, you can barely make out the steps and a few green rail posts still standing.

Just as a footnote, Junius continues on the map to Greentree Road. However, from the Ridgemont side, Junius ends in a veritable graveyard of cars in front of a narrow house. Journal Street, has a renovated house on the end, but also has ruins of houses along its course.

With Junius and Journal out of the way, I went to find the other side of Junius, off of Greentree Road. Junius does go up a bit, but Verna, a smaller road, is just blocked off from the street. While the bareness of winter allowed me to see everything, there’s not much to see. Steps, all twelve of them, took me from Ridgemont to Greentree. This rusty truck is hidden away at the end of an office park.

Now I explored the higher side of Westwood. Like Ridgemont, it has sweeping views. I daresay I can see the smokestacks from the Cheswick Power Plant! That’s about 14 miles away, as the indefatigable crow flies. I’m pretty sure that blue water tower on stilts is in the Upper Hill. That’s closer, only five miles away.

After such heights, I returned to lower Westwood; once again made my way up Milnor steps and finally ran Sedley Way.

Finally making my way back towards my car, I had to wait for a moment to cross Warriors Road. Looking down, I noticed gravestones at my feet. I think they must have originally been in Mt. Pisgah’s graveyard, across the street. Usually roads aren’t built across cemeteries. The picture below is a composite picture of two of the graves I saw.

With these three runs, I’ve covered most of Westwood and Ridgemont. I know there are a couple of alley’s I’ve missed, so one day I’ll be back.

Category: Ridgemont

Parody in the Dark, Green Leaves and Gray Lampe

Ridgemont and Westwood