Evening run with the boys

Silas, Guthrie, and I went for a casual 5 mile run on the north side trail along the Allegheny River. Guthrie did some wading. The mother duck was very upset I let Guthrie into the river where she was paddling around with her two young ducklings. She quacked up a storm and put herself between him and the young ones. It was sweet, but I felt bad for causing her alarm. She didn't know Guthrie won't go any deeper than a half assed wade... We ran down past the stadiums (stadia?) and to the Science Center before turning around.


We had parked near the bridge to Washington's Landing (aka Herr's Island), so we jogged over to a nice vista point to look at the city. The sky was really nice and the city well lit.

Moraine State Park canoeing

We were all feeling sort of pent up, so we decided to spend the day at Moraine State Park. We attempted to get out in the boat for a while, but Silas was uncomfortable in his PFD when he tried to bend in the middle. So, he and Bethany went for a hike while Guthrie and I did a little paddling and then some trail running to catch up to them.




Guthrie really wants to be in the boat when it's leaving the shore, but then changes his mind and would rather be running on land instead. I think he also was sick of being in the sun with his black fur. There's nowhere to escape it in the canoe.


View of one of the spurs of Lake Arthur.

Hot dog dam

During our run at Frick Park, Guthrie and I stopped at 'Hot Dog Dam' for some wading. It's one of his favorite places. The second photo is looking down on the impounded area from the bridge on Forbes Ave.


Guthrie likes to blow bubbles...

Frick Park outing

I'm a little behind on this outing, but Guthrie and I enjoyed a good 4-mile run through Frick Park on Saturday. On one trail was a cat. When we jogged around the corner, it stopped in the middle of the trail and proceeded to swell to about twice its normal size. Once it saw Guthrie defer to it, its fur relaxed, and it came over to me to be pet.

When Guthrie was a puppy, we got a mature cat with claws from the Humane Society. Buck had lived with dogs before, so he was confident and calm with Guthrie. Of course, he set the limits quickly. Guthrie has an incredible respect for cats still.

Guthrie and the groundhog

Saturday, I stopped by the office with Guthrie to get some things with the car. There's an entrance ramp adjacent to the building for the busway with a meadowy hill that Guthrie loves to run around on. This day, there was a groundhog (aka woodchuck) at the top of the hill peering down at him. He/she is on the upside of the brown brush patch by the wall at the top. Guthrie, keen of eye and nose, never noticed...

While we were paddling...

Alongside the Youghiogheny River is the Great Allegheny Passage trail. The trail goes from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC. Maybe the latter part is called the C&O Towpath. Bethany, Silas, and Guthrie had a nice hike while Kevin and I were on the water.

Guthrie was actually pretty upset he wasn't in the canoe. Normally, he'd rather be out of the boat running on shore. This time, when he wasn't invited into the canoe, he wanted to be in it really badly. The first picture is at the put-in in Dawson. The second shot is of Guthrie sprinting back and forth on shore when we caught up to the three of them near the take-out.

Boys running video

Here is a brief video of how much Silas enjoyed running with me and Guthrie in Schenley Park yesterday. I can't believe he decides to try to put his foot in his mouth while he's bouncing down the trail in the jogger.

Running with Silas and Guthrie

Guthrie, Silas, and I went for an evening run in Schenley Park today. The weather and temperature were great. Bethany was teaching yoga, so the boys got to go outside and play. I'm still getting used to running with the jogger and dog leash. It was better than last time, in that I didn't get the leash wrapped up in the wheels and didn't almost topple the whole thing over.

Our route is shown below. The outer loop, all on trails, was 2.0 miles exactly, per my GPS watch. So we ran up the hill to do two loops of the running course around the track and tennis courts, as well as a couple of detours into other areas to bump it up to 3.8 miles. We're still building mileage, because of my poor old sore joints can't take much more yet. Plus, I can't keep myself from sprinting up the hill from work home, so my thighs are trashed. :)


There is a nice vista of the city, including a disc-golf course that Guthrie was eyeing.


The prenatal yoga class that Bethany teaches is longer than it takes to get to the park, run, and get back, so we hung out for a bit and played in the grass.



Silas found a dried tree seed pod, the name of which I can't remember right now. I looked up what I thought it was, but I was wrong. I'll add the name when/if it ocurrs to me.

Family hike and run

I wanted to go for a run today, but also wanted to spend time with everyone. So, we all went over to Millvale across the Allegheny River to enjoy the nice snowy day. Well, at least those of use that like to go that far. Max (our cat) stayed at home. Guthrie and I took off and ran while Bethany and Silas strolled around and enjoyed the scenery at a slower pace.

The picture above is looking upstream at the 40th Street Bridge. Below is looking south across at Lawrenceville.


Guthrie was so happy to get out. The city looked pretty in the misty distance.


Yes, wet and muddy.

Guthrie got wet and cold, but much of the mud came off. Not a bad trade off, as we were heading to the car.

And, we eventually caught back up with Bethany and Silas on their way back from Mr. Small's Skate Park.

First run of the year

I made it out for my first run of the year yesterday. I had to take a month off because of the surgery and recovery, but I'm feeling good. I went out for a casual 2 miles on a nice, sunny Sunday afternoon. Bethany, Silas, and Guthrie strolled along the Eliza Furnace Trail while I ran and then we continued to stroll together for a bit. Guthrie was so happy to get out. Between me being cooped up, and Silas taking up so much of Bethany's time and energy, the poor dog spends much of his time on the couch either sleeping on licking one of his paws raw.

Below is a funded mural on the large retaining wall that supports the Parkway East and an entrance ramp up to the highway from Bates St. It cracks me up that the little description calls it public art, but they covered up all the other 'public art' in the area with gray paint. Evidently, the only art that can be public has to be officially consigned.

Below are some shots from and of the Hot Metal Bridge. It was an important bridge in the steelmaking heyday and the war effort in WWII. The bridge was a rail line between the blast furnaces and rolling mill of a steel plant.

Camp cooking

Some camp food porn. The first image is frypan bread (Cache Lake)

Breakfast on the griddle. Yes, it weighs like 50 pounds, but damn it, you can cook a whole meal for a family on it at one time. It was sort of sloped, so the eggs ran a little.

Bacon. Nothing better when camping. When I was a vegetarian (more or less), I always thought it would be the bacon that brought me back to the dark side. Turns out it was a cute girl and a basil-bleu burger, but that story has already been told.

Breakfast is served. Guthrie got his camp-kibble. Of course it's no different than what he eats at every other meal, but isn't all food eating when camping the best you've ever had?

Sunday ride to North Park

I got a good ride in on Sunday up to North Park and back to meet Bethany, Silas, and Guthrie (they drove). The ride up, around the 5-mile cycling loop, and back down to Pittsburgh was 34 1/2 miles of rolling hills. Some of it was pretty crappy strip mall and sprawly development, but there were some great wooded areas that felt great to ride through.

As you can tell, Guthrie had a great time. However, like me, he plays really hard and frequently pays for it. He broke a claw again running for the tennis ball. He's been limping around the house since then.

North Park on Sunday

I have meant to post about exploring North Park on Sunday as well. I'm too tired to really do it justice, but it's this or nothing I fear...

We'd hoped to get out into the forests further, but decided that hanging out somewhere was preferable to driving a long way just to spend ten minutes and turn back around to get home. We met up with Becky and Tim at the off-leash dog area for a little fun for the 4-leggers. Sasha and Guthrie ran around like mad, in their very different ways. Guthrie beat down a female husky who he thought was getting too close to his tennis ball. I think it happened within a minute of the picture above. Alas. It's not a great way to make friends at the dog park, but her owner was cool about it. He had assumed she started it. True to Guthrie's intense nature, he broke one of his claws at the base and was bleeding everywhere. He sprints to get the tennis ball and doesn't slow down before he gets there. So, when he misses it with his mouth, he digs in with all of his claws to stop and turn back for the ball. He's broken claws and sliced open his pads before. He loves it though. I think he feels like I do, that life is too short to not play hard and that sometimes you have to pay for it...

After Becky, Tim, and Sasha left, we explored the park some more and found a nice table next to a small channel to eat some brei cheese, apples, and crackers. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Banana Stand ice cream

I'm trying to catch up after not having posted for so long... Here are a few pics from our walk up to the Banana Stand ice cream shop with Maya and Ryder a week or two ago. I only had my cell phone with me, so the pictures aren't any good. I can blame poor composition on that, right? Ryder is the only one I ended up getting a picture of with ice cream.