Urban Hike

Join us this Saturday, May 25 at 11:00 a.m. as Urban Hike heads south to Bridgeville. Since the hike takes place during the long Memorial Day weekend, we’re keeping things pretty low key. We’ll start at a cosy neighborhood coffee spot, LaBella Bean Coffee, then cover about three miles walking up and down some hills in Bridgeville. (Another Pittsburgh neighborhood with a hilly terrain‽ Impossible!) We may even cross a bridge or two!

There’ll be a couple of other interesting stops along the way, including a visit to the lively local historical society.

We’ll be there, rain or shine. Hope you are too! : )

Recap
What: Urban Hike in Bridgeville
When: Saturday, May 25 at 11:00 a.m.
Where: Meet at La Bella Bean Coffee, 609 Washington Avenue, 15017.
There is metered parking in the lot right beside the coffee shop. Please park towards the back and bring your quarters.
Who: You, your family, your friends, their friends, and people who just might become new friends!

Thanks for coming out (in droves!) for our Garfield hike last weekend. Here’s the route we took and a little follow-up information about some of the points on the hike.

• We stopped at the Sprout Fund, and listened to an impassioned Garfield-Bloomfield Corporation speaker, but there were so many other groups that we just couldn’t get to in our limited time. Check out this document to get a sense of how many other community organizations and non-profits populate Penn Ave.
• Want to learn more about the water tower park proposal? Check out this link from cityLAB.
• And finally, a slideshow of pictures. (Or it didn’t happen, right?) : )

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Ready for the first hike of the year? In case you haven’t yet guessed our destination from the comic strip in the post below, Urban Hike is heading to Garfield! It’ll be a short, sweet, and steep hike — around three miles in total.

We’ll begin at Artisan Tattoo / Gallery at 5001 Penn Avenue at noon. From there we’ll walk up and down the hills of Garfield, and take in some lesser-known vantage points. Following the hike, we encourage you to join us for a buffet at People’s Indian Restaurant. We expect the hike to take around two hours, followed by an hour lunch or so.

As always, folks of all ages are welcome. There will be some step climbing and unpaved trail walking, so pushing a stroller for younger kids could get a bit difficult. If you have any other questions, post a note on our facebook page, or drop us a line at info@urbanhike.com.

We’ll see you this Saturday at 12:00 p.m. — rain or shine!

The first Urban Hike of 2013 will take place Saturday, April 27 at 12:00 p.m.!

Think you can guess the neighborhood where we’re headed…?

(Garfield. We’re headed to Garfield. Get it?)

The Urban Hike organizers are meeting this weekend to start planning hikes for 2013. But before we get next year underway, we need to wrap up some business from 2012. Namely, our scavenger hunt answer key and team action photos! Thanks again to all who participated not only in the hunt, but also in this year’s four neighborhood hikes. If you have ideas on how to make next year even better, drop us a line at info@urbanhike.com, or post a message on our Facebook page. See you soon!

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Thanks to all the scavenger hunters who came out and made Saturday a great day! The turnout and participant enthusiasm was really impressive.

We know you are patiently waiting for all the follow-up results. Posted below are the final team tallies, and we promise more information — like clue answers, pictures and the pdf map — will come as soon as possible.

The Regent Square Scavenger Hunt is less than 24 hours away! We hope you all are ready to have fun and be challenged. Here are some quick things to be aware of for tomorrow:

The hunt begins at 11:30 a.m., rain or shine. Cross your fingers for lots of sunshine!

Teams should have between 2-5 members. If you don’t have a team, come as you are and we’ll help you find folks to hunt with! Teams cannot pick up maps until all members are present. If you arrive late, you can get a map and clue sheet at the Forbes and Braddock picnic shelter on the far side of the Frick Park playground. Teams will have until 2:00 p.m. to search for clues.

All teams must be back at Ryan’s Pub & Grill (our ending location) by 2:00 p.m. Scoring and awarding of prizes should wrap up by about 3:30 p.m. At least one member of each winning team must be present to claim that team’s prize. And have you seen the prize donor list in the post below? So many Regent Square businesses have been exceedingly generous!

We’re also excited that the always hilarious Multitasking game show will be in attendance again this year! They’ll be running a clue challenge during the hunt and emceeing the after party at Ryan’s Pub & Grill.

Don’t forget your camera with blank memory card and cord for downloading pictures to a computer.

Unless you are one of the lucky few to get in the Frick Park Tennis Court lot, it’s street parking for everyone. Don’t worry. It’s the Pittsburgh way.

A note of warning on getting to or from Regent Square. PennDOT will be closing the westbound (inbound) Squirrel Hill Tunnel all weekend. If this is your route, anticipate some significant travel delays.

Good luck to all the teams tomorrow!

It’s here. The hunt.

Regent Square.

Mark your calendars for 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 20. Teams can be up to five people. If you don’t already have teammates picked out, come as you are and we’ll help you find folks to hunt with!

Urban Hike will provide you with a map, dozens of clues, and a time limit for wandering up and down the streets of Regent Square. You provide the answers. Some of the clues require taking pictures, so bring a camera with a blank memory card and a cable to download those pictures onto a computer. Bring a pen or pencil too.

The hunt will start in Frick Park at the corner of Forbes and Braddock. The hunt ends at a nearby restaurant where we will score the answers, announce winners, and hand out prizes from our *awesome* neighborhood donors including:

• Ambiance Boutique
• Clipps Salon
• D’s Six Pax & Dogz
• Dunning’s Grill
• Eyes on Regent Square
• Glenn Greene’s Stained Glass Studio
• Hepatica Florist
• Katerbean Coffee Shop
• LeMix Antiques
• McBroom’s Beer Distributor
• Paws-itively Pets
• Regent Square Civic Association
• Square Cafe
• Styles by Cardamone
• Thai Cottage
• The Salon
• Typhoon Lighting
• William Penn Jewelers and Watchmakers

If you have any questions in the meantime, as always, you can find us at info@urbanhike.com.

Be there or be, um, square.

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Our tour began at ALCOSAN then headed up and down the hills of Marshall-Shadeland. See our full hike here.

Urban Hike loves to explore new perspectives in Pittsburgh and our September 15 hike in Marshall-Shadeland is no different. Not only will we take in this city neighborhood’s streets and sights from above, we’ll look into what’s below too! Our hike starts early at the ALCOSAN (that’s short for Allegheny County Sanitary Authority) plant that provides wastewater treatment services to 83 communities including the City of Pittsburgh. You’ll never look at a drain the same again.

After the ALCOSAN bus tour concludes, we’ll get our exercise on by climbing some of Marshall-Shadeland’s hills. This hike will be a bit brisker than most, with fewer stops to outweigh the extra time we’ll spend on the tour at the beginning. But just in case you’re not convinced to come out, rain or shine, with us… we’ll sweeten the deal just a bit more. A pit stop at a neighborhood ice cream and coffee café. Yum.

If you are coming on the hike, we ask that you please RSVP to Emily at emilykeebler(at)yahoo.com by Thursday, September 13 so we can give ALCOSAN a headcount.

Here’s the recap:

What: Urban Hike’s Marshall-Shadeland hike
When: September 15 at 9:30 a.m.
Where: Meet in front of the red LED sign that marks the entrance to the ALCOSAN plant. It’s just past the intersection of New Beaver Street and Tracy St., 15233. Public parallel parking is available on the nearby side streets, so give yourself a few extra minutes to park and join us at the sign.
Why: Sewers and sweets?! What’s not to love?