30 Before 30: Exploring Carrie Furnace

Last Wednesday, Carrie, Corey and I took a bike ride out to the Carrie Furnace with some other cyclist adventurers. The group ride was part of BikeFest, which there are still plenty of awesome rides to do before it ends on August 19! (Like the Underwear Ride, which is tomorrow and which I am still trying to work up the courage to do.) This post will mostly be a photo-dump of the ride and the tour of Carrie Furnace. This was a seriously awesome event, so thank you to the organizers for giving me a chance to cross off another of my 30 Before 30 goals!

The ride started out at the Pump House at the Waterfront.

Away we go!

The weather? Perfect. 

Once we got to the site, ZeroFossil, who is working to outfit the Carrie Furnace with solar panels for sustainable energy, had a bike set up to power the blender that made us some tasty margaritas. Here I am giving it a go, but the seat was just a bit too high for me.

Because the thing you want to do before you walk around a dangerous and unstable site like the Carrie Furnace is drink some alcohol. Cheers!

This place was more massive than I ever imagined.

There was so much good graffiti.

Guerilla artists built this deer head at the site using materials found on site. This thing reminds me of the Enchanted Highway sculptures in North Dakota.

After the tour, we biked back to the Waterfront and had beers and food at Blue Dust in Homestead. It was an awesome night of biking, adventuring, and meeting new people. BikeFest has been filled with opportunities to do awesome things and meet awesome people; go out and ride around before it's over!

Get Out There & Ride Your Bike

After the Bloomfield Halloween Parade (which we're getting closer to every day!), BikeFest is my favorite yearly Pittsburgh event. It's a celebration of biking in Pittsburgh, and there are so many awesome opportunities to get out there and ride around the city. This year, BikeFest kicks off with PedalPGH on Sunday, August 5. 

It's pretty much guaranteed to be the largest group ride of the year, which should help to bring awareness to biking throughout the city. I see more people biking every day, and the more people out there with us, the safer we will be. 


BikeFest then continues through August 19, and the list of scheduled events is extensive and there is definitely something for everyone.

Here are the events that I've highlighted on my calendar:

SUNDAY - August 5 - PedalPGH Ride

MONDAY NIGHT/TUESDAY AM - August 6/7 - Moonlight Ride

WEDNESDAY - August 8 - Carrie Furnace Ride

THURSDAY - August 9 - Northside Public Art Tour

FRIDAY - August 10 - BikeFest Party

SATURDAY - August 11 - The Hollows Ride

SUNDAY - August 12 - Yoga Ride

TUESDAY - August 14 - Roberto Clemente Ride

THURSDAY - August 16 - Underwear Ride

FRIDAY - August 17 - Flock of Cycles Ride

SATURDAY - August 18 - Light Up Ride

SUNDAY - August 19 - Golden Girls Scavenger Hunt

I'm looking forward to those rides as I continue to add miles to my Pedal for Pennies project. Whether you're a daily biker or just go out for a fun ride every now and then, try and get out there for PedalPGH and some BikeFest activities. It's a great way to show you care about biking in Pittsburgh, which in turn gives BikePGH more leverage when making the city a safer place to be on two wheels.