Pittsburgh - Step Trek 2018

Step Trek is an annual urban hike through Pittsburgh's South Side Slopes. Much of the route is over streets that are just steps. We took a leisurely three hours to walk the "Gold" route that meandered up and down the western part of the Slopes.

Both the Gold and Black routes start and end at the end of 21st Street under the Mission Street Bridge. In addition to ticket sales and free water and fruit, there were six food trucks serving everything from donuts to Indian take-out.

The 15th Street pedestrian bridge over the Norfolk & Western railway tracks.

Lauer Way steps are an example of a typical Pittsburgh "step" street.

Great views of the city were frequent. The Birmingham Bridge is in the middle of this photo, and the tall dark building on the horizon is the Cathedral of Learning (University of Pittsburgh) in Oakland.

To the left was downtown Pittsburgh. Those billowing clouds portended rain to come.

At the top of the Germantown Square steps (265 of them!) was a bell to ring to mark the longest step climb of Step Trek. Amos climbed ALL of these steps himself.

One part of the climb was on the Knoxville Incline Greenway Trail.

We were getting close to the end when those threatening clouds burst forth into a short downpour.

As we ate lunch at the food trucks, the clouds parted -- temporarily. We still got soaked by a second downpour on our way back to David & Maria's house.