Trail obstacles and rudeness

Recently, and for reasons unknown, a small section of temporary fencing along the Allegheny (my morning commute) had been moved to block part of the trail. One morning, I found it moved even further over to where I was almost completely blocking the trail.
Enough.

Before

I'll move this fence myself!

*Grunt*

After

More room!

With Fall comes tailgaters.
Drunken ones.
Drunk, oblivious tailgaters who will walk BACKWARDS into the paths of cyclists while holding giant tongs and a big plate of wieners.

A 2014 response to my 311 complaint tweet told me to call 911...

I REALLY don’t want to waste the time of the police for this nonsense, but after this run in with idiots who think setting up a buffet on the trail is perfectly fine…. and nearly sending someone to the ER, I *will* call 911.

The Color Run

I was stuck commuting to work one Saturday morning, September 19th, specifically. I was also stuck deciding how to make my way through the Color Run's route which went up the River Walk and then up onto North Shore Drive.
Do I ride counter flow of all the participants? Do I go with the flow of people on the River Walk?
I decided NOT to salmon and I rode slowly with all the Color Run participants. However, up ahead I saw a color-dusting area.


I was in work clothes and not interested in getting orange dyed cornstarch all over my clothes. I rolled behind the young men who were covering the participants in this orange dust and asked them not to dust me.
"Hi, I'm going to ride behind you, not interested in getting dusted, thanks."

This jagoff sprayed the bike with the orange dust anyway. I spent valuable time and water cleaning this crap off my bike.

I wrote to the company that put on this event and I got a canned reply from the National entity, but no follow-up from the local organizers.
So, with that, I'm outing this non-charity money making bullshit for the jerks they employ to annoy and screw with the people just trying to get to work. They AREN'T a charity, they make you spend 40-$45 to participate in their walk, does any of it go to a charity? Is the money used to help anyone in need? Research to find a cure for a disease? No. this is a money-making operation. What is that all about?
You'd think all walks are centered around non-profits, right? Nope.

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On my last visit to Thick Bikes, I purchased a bike accessory to free up some handlebar real estate. Having never removed my handlebars, I was slightly apprehensive about installing it, but I forged ahead and put it on.



After installing the bar, I thought it might be a good idea to see if the bars were straight. Thankfully, I checked before I needed to ride it, because they weren't very straight.
It would have been an interesting ride.

Doomer: crooked!

New toy!

 Here's a photo of traffic at a standstill backed up trying to get into Downtown one morning this week. I stopped on the trail to take a picture of it, and smile because I wasn't stuck in it.

Neener, neener!

Coffeeneuring 2015 begins in a 'grande' way in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh is getting serious about Coffeeneuring this year.

Vannevar's created posters to solicit the cycling community at local coffee shops. Here's a shot of Lili of Polish Hill's window: it too has a Coffeeneuring poster!



I'm sure this will bring Pittsburgh's numbers of Coffeeneuring participants up.

Emma and Q organized what was intended as a Coffee-Shop-Without-Walls trip, but the weather did not cooperate. Thick Bikes was kind enough to host and 7 of us met to have coffee and home-made donuts courtesy Emma and Q. We drank, ate, socialized and rode bikes in the rain.
What's not to love?

Wrong leg, Red.

A bike bell! Ding! Ding! Time for coffee!

 Afterwards, Marko, Buffalo² and I rode around a bit, bumped into Vannevar and checked out the awful detour along the South Side trail. Gravel and large rocks to ride though? No reflective warnings of a fence? Yeah, that's not dangerous.

We're getting used to cold weather and re-learning to dress in the appropriate number of layers. We stopped often to shed layers, put more on or to unzip and cool down.
Cold weather also makes me want to make lots of warming comfort foods: after our ride we indulged in spicy chili, cornbread and pumpkin pie with fresh whipped cream. Nom.


I've been seeing more Clohn Art around the city:

A droopy Clohn Art piece on the South Side trail

Found in the Strip District.

Counting, Goats! #crashnotaccident and PawPaws

I'd volunteered again to help with a ped/bike count for the city, I think I bit off more than I could chew, somehow I'd been given three assignments. I could have swore I volunteered for one assignment. Ugh, 6 hours of counting people and bikes going by at 3 different locations and times.
I managed to rearrange a bit of work time to leave early for the 4-6 PM count and arrive to work a little late for the 7-9 AM count.
The Saturday count, I had to bail 30 minutes into that one: I needed a bathroom ASAP. Perhaps a person who needs frequent bathroom trips shouldn't be volunteering for things where bathrooms aren't easily accessible?

On my way to the AM count, I had to get this sunrise shot.

Count location 1

Count location 2

Count location 3

On my way to work one morning, I noticed Dan Y of Bike PGH counting bikes in the Strip. I got counted! I'm one of those elusive 'female cyclists'; I counted only 2 in my own 4.5 hours of counting.

Morning, Dan!

I decided the Brooks saddle on Doomer needed a lock and since it *simply must* coordinate with the pink other items on the bike, I felt it necessary to yarn-bomb my red lock with reflective pink yarn.

Marko and I were riding through the Strip and around 18th street, I saw a petting zoo set up in the street. I yelled "GOATS!" at Marko to let him know I simply MUST stop to check out the menagerie of barnyard animals in the middle of the city. Why it was set up there, I'll never know. The ass didn't look very happy to be penned up.

Look out! There are llamas!

We also ran across a colony of recumbent cyclists at the Point.

This species sports a colorful tailfeather which is definitely NOT used in mating rituals.

We took a trip out to Squirrel Hill to visit a few of the rare PawPaw trees in the city. 2 are planted at a fellow cyclist's house, the others are in Schenley park. None of them had fruit we could reach. We did find some apples to snack on however.

#forageneuring

I've taken to pestering the local news stations via Twitter whenever they use "accident" to report on traffic conditions.

#droptheaword

Marko's often told me: "The hills don't get any easier, you just go up them faster." I can attest to this truth: 5 of my trips up the hill to my apartment this week were under 5:01. I'm getting faster.

I still dislike my hill.

50 Miles - fuel = bonk.

On Saturday, Marko invited me to tour the sewage plant that services Allegheny County.
You heard me right. I love learning about stuff like this and so are many other folks: they had full tours all day long, many demonstrations and exhibits pertaining to the rivers' ecosystems and such.
Did you know the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority has a mascot? Yeah. They do.

Marko, using bike power to pump water.

Treated water being discharged into the Ohio

Sunday started out as a "We'll just ride around" day. The weather was gorgeous and no higher than 70 degrees. I put off errands and decided that spending the day out on the bike would be time much better spent.

Somehow, well into the day, I realized that I'd neglected to eat breakfast. This is not like me, I'm not the sort of girl that skips meals. I didn't bring snacks either. What the hell? I'd totally failed myself. I sensed I might have a bad time and Marko helped me find food. We had stuffed peppers and fried zucchini and I worked voraciously on the basket of bread they brought out before our food arrived hoping it would be enough carbs to sustain me.


You know where this is going, don't you?

Before I get to the bonking, I'll bore you with some photos:


We met near REI. I noticed they're selling a line of bikes made by Fox called "Ghost"
Um,  really? "Ghost"?
Yuck.

My opinion: tacky.

Steel Art welding at the Pump House

Ron V.'s memorial bench

One of many bridges crossed

In Boston, we happened upon Tricia and Jonathan returning from DC as they were seeking out ice cream.

Look closely: Tricia and Jonathan can be seen in this gazing ball with Marko and me.

Glassport!

Could this be any more glorious?

Marko toured me around the Boston Loop and then over to Glassport to get our lungs full of the coke plant's wonderful smells.


On our way back through McKeesport and Kennywood, I started getting sleepy and then near the Waterfont, I need to get off the bike, walk around and splash some water on my face to try and wake up.
Then, in Schenley Park, 49 miles into the ride and slogging along at 4MP, Marko said "You're bonking! Eat something!" He offered me an energy bar and his soda (to his credit, he'd been offering me food earlier and I kept refusing it thinking I'd be fine). I took the energy bar collapsed in the grass, chewed my energy-bar-cud and I stared up into the sky... because that was about all I could do.  My deprived brain looked for shapes in the clouds and noticed a satellite racing across the sky.

I saw a cloud like this: looked like a heart to me.

You know I'm exhausted when I risk getting bugs in my hair.
I was even having trouble finding words... my brain wasn't functioning at full capacity: diverting resources to essential bodily functions, I suppose.

After about 15 minutes of resting and waiting for the carbs to kick in, I started feeling better and we were moving again.

So, the moral of the story is: eat a proper breakfast and bring snacks when you ride with Marko and let him talk you into extensive riding.


Despite my close call, I thoroughly enjoyed riding to new places.
New places on a bike + good friend = much goodness