BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Wow, the possibilties are almost endless.

Do an intro mountain bike ride (Friday eves) with PORC at Frick park?

Check out the schedule of Venture Outdoors activities. Try XC skiing, snowshoeing or ???

Take a hike in Allegheny Cemetery. They have a pamphlet that provides all you need for a great tour.

Look up the routing of some of the notable events from the past, and recreate one or part of one. Dirty Dozen? Fineview or South Side Step Treks?

Check out some of the local parks. They can be awesome in the winter. I like Deer Lakes (check the Amateur Astronomers of Pittsburgh schedule of star parties to coordinate a hike or a bike with an observatory stop) or Harrison Hills for the great view over the Allegheny River. Other parks offer other advantages.

Those are just thoughts of things I was thinking of doing this weekend.

"Events for February?"

Drive to Punxy and freeze your arse off watching some stupid groundhog!

"Drive" to Punxy? it's only 80-ish miles via bike.

Ride the incline.

Do the 12 Bridges ride (a la Team Decaf Weekend).

In march there's the st patty's day parade, but that's probably a bit late.

HHH run on Sundays all year ( http://pgh-h3.com/wp/ ). They usually get to places you don't often see in the area (well, that I don't often see), and then everybody goes to someone's house nearby for a giant party.

Another running group in town runs on Tuesdays, People Who Run Downtown, http://www.pittsburghrunning.org/ they are really welcoming and their routes offer an interesting way to see the city. Their runs end in a nice dinner at a nearby restaurant that's been warned - they have long, medium, and short routes and you can always find a running buddy.

There's a monster truck rally here near Valentine's day every year that my husband won't take me to. I don't know why I think I want to go, but I do. For some reason, it's the only event I can think of that's February specific here.

Ohiopyle is awesome in the winter. Just as pretty, but without the mobs of people.

OOooo... you could do the Ghost Town Trail ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Town_Trail ) if you can get out there, I bet that would be cool in the snow.

The Pitt Nationality Rooms are no longer decorated for Christmas, but they're a uniquely pittsburgh thing you can go see. ( http://www.pitt.edu/~natrooms/pages/holiday_info.html )

The Teeny Harris Exhibit is still at the Carnegie, it's very pittsburgh and very very cool. Well worth the admission, you could kill a whole day just looking through the photographs and reading the stories.

""Drive" to Punxy? it's only 80-ish miles via bike. "

3L of Vodka in my CamelBak and it might just be doable at this time of year!

Speaking of vodka, doesn't Pgh have a homegrown distiller now? Do they do tours? Tours are my favorite thing to do when visiting a new city. Also, just finding a nice spot on Mount Washington to view the skyline is always a hit!

I vote no on the Ghost Town Trail, it's a bit far and unless you cross country ski... Besides, it will probably be buried under three feet of snow in another week or two.

+1 on a HHH run though, you can't go wrong there!

Molly's Trolleys does a brew tour that sometimes stops at distilleries. The hubby and I were going to go in December, but my ankle had other plans.

The staff there are really friendly, so I bet you could call and ask about February tours. I think they usually do one per month, on a Friday night.

http://www.mollystrolleyspittsburgh.com/specialty_beertour.shtml

The Mattress Factory museum has interesting installation art. Mostly indoors, but you could bike there. The Toonseum is fun too (and near the Space Gallery and Wood Street Galleries and others). I think these are a bit farther off the tourist trails than, say, the Carnegie, and can be pretty entertaining (depending on your visitors).

Outdoor destinations are cool and all, but perhaps in February a little too cool.

Whatever you do, don't drive out to Bear Run Nature Reserve in the Laurel Highlands. Don't park in the parking lot by the barn, walk across the paved road and through the locked gate (but permitted for hikers) and down the gravel/dirt road beyond it. And please don't make a left when the dirt road ends and you get to the meadow that spreads to the right and up to the top of the hill.

Then you most certainly do not want to cross the small employee parking lot you can see through the trees and follow the road down thirty or forty yards to the house at Fallingwater. Don't do it. It's a bad idea. Especially when you're surprising an unsuspecting friend from out of town or want to see the look on a date's face when one of the world's great buildings, blanketed in snow and bathed in that weird thin winter light, slowly comes into view as you approach.

And finally, don't go on a day when there are no tours being offered so you end up having the place all to yourself. Like I said, it's a bad idea. Don't do it.

@dooftram, thanks for the warning. I will be sure to not make a note of it.

Holy cow, that sounds like something I'd never do!!!, especially since the boy wants to go to 7 springs Sunday.

WOW! Thanks for all the ideas, I really appreciate this, definitely a fine arsenal to have for any visitor. @dooftram, that is a horrible idea that I will most certainly never try.

+1 Nationality Rooms. (tallest building in the world when it was built) and while you're there, check the outfield wall from Forbes Field about a block away.

Ride Station Square incline, walk to the observation deck, take obligatory photos.

Bike-wise, get on the trails at SouthSideWorks or Swinburne St. and ride to Millvale. Strawberry Crepes at Pamelas. Return.

Repeat.

P&G diner in the Lincoln Pharmacy in millvale also a great.rideable breakfast destination. Was once affiliated with panels's chain, may still be....

Hike or ride in the slag piles up above duck hollow.

But you might not want to try to get into the Carrie Furnace site and see the giant deer head sculpture.

@headloss - Boyd & Blair distills premium potato vodka at the old Glenshaw glass factory on Rt8

It was recently featured in GQ magazine and in 2011 international competition it was the highest rated vodka in the world and 22nd top spirit overall!

http://www.boydandblair.com/GQ%20Boyd%20&%20Blair%20LR.pdf

Wait, Glenshaw glass factory is no longer Glenshaw glass factory?

man. that was a sentimental piece of my childhood for some strange convoluted reasons. I'll have to pick up some of their vodka...

you sure they're in Glenshaw Glass Factory? http://kelmanbottles.com/gg_article_9.html

Glenshaw Glass filed bankruptcy a few years ago. They owned property/buildings on both sides of Rt 8. Some of the buildings were sold to pay creditors. Boyd & Blair distils vodka and gin in one of the buildings that was sold. I think the one directly across the street from the old glass furnaces.

I'm a vodka fan, regularly imbibing, and jeez, the Boyd & Blair potato vodka doesn't deserve the high rating at all.

It's kinda awful, really. It has a very distinct flavor and it's not a good flavor. It's also way too expensive to taste like that!

And PS, I live in Glenshaw and the fact that it's local doesn't go far to mask the taste.

hmm... have you tried putting it through a brita filter? I've heard that levels the playing field between different price points of alcohol, but it may also remove what is signature about it.

Is alcohol like wine - you like what you like and price is only what people are willing to pay for it? or is it more like pasta - there's good (fresh, hand made, usually), bad (sugary jar sauces, overcooked, usually), and ugly (canned, always)?

Isn't theirs unique in that it is potato vodka? Whereas most other vodkas are distilled from grains?

OK, TDW, please point us to the good stuff then: what do you recommend?

This reminds me I need to make a visit to Wigle Whiskey.

Glenshaw Glass went under during some huge flooding 5-7 years ago. Not Katrina, the one that hit us super hard and flooded out Etna and Millvale. If memory serves right the ovens or something at the Glenshaw Glass facility were severely damaged and it wasn't worth fixing/replacing them to bring it back online.

I remember just a few years ago you could buy Iron City Beer in 16 oz glass bottles with the Glenshaw Glass "G" stamped in the bottom. Local beer, local glass. Things that aren't there anymore.

*GG was going to go under regardless of the weather...

Swalfoort: I was under the impression that all Vodka is distilled from potatoes - which is what makes it vodka (if it were distilled from grain mash, it'd be whisky, if it were from agave, it'd be tequila, etc). I may be wrong when it comes to cheaper liquors though - it may be common practice to use a cheaper ingredient to make alcohol from....well, now I'm just thinking out loud. Sorry.

@ Psuedacris - My favorite vodka is "Platinum." It comes in a blue triangular bottle - 1.5 Liter for about $20. It's basically a Skyy rip-off at a cheaper price. Seven times distilled. Best served with Club Soda, no limes or other unnecessary fluff. Lots, lots of ice though.

Hmmm, I'm thinking a visit to the State Store is in order right now. Off I go.

Regarding the potato ingredient - I thought that was somewhat unique to B&B. I guess I never cared what vodka was made from - I assumed grains.

@ejwme - I haven't tried the filter technique. If I get another gift of B&B, before I start to groan, I'll give it a try. Personally, I'm unwilling to pay more than $20-25 for any 1.5 L. bottle. Grey Goose - ha, you can have it - it's just not worth the price.

Courtesy of the Google machine: "Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits and/or Sugar."

look at that, we were all right! ^5

I'm not a big vodka fan but the other day someone fed me a shot of Pinnacle cake vodka. Was not bad! 

Vodka can be distilled from many different things. It is not specific to potatoes, and most comes from other sources.