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Bill in Houston from Houston on 10/26/2020 6:24:30 PM:
McKeesport was interesting, in that you don't pass through town, or kind of close to town, but rather through a series of back alleys and former industrial stuff, like they are trying to hide the town from you.

Which, I guess, is neither here nor there.

Just know that if you want to see some sort of flavor of the town, you need to plot your own route through town rather than staying on the trail.

During the season, the waterfront might be more lively, though, and that might change the feel.
 
Rivnuts from Homestead, PA on 10/26/2020 8:08:56 PM:
As a resident of Homestead and virtually daily rider of the GAP trail, I'm impressed how much of the trail, its sites and businesses you found and visited. I'm curious how many days you took to make the trip?

As for McKeesport, you were only a block away from what, arguably, is the main street of McKeesport. Lysle Boulevard. That said, you didn't miss much. Like many of the steel mill towns around Pittsburgh where the mills were shut down years ago, McKeesport lost the basis of its economy. What may not of been obvious is that you rode through the majority of that former mill site that was a major producer of steel pipe, aka tube.
 
Bill in Houston from Houston on 10/27/2020 9:55:54 AM:
We couldn't have done it without you, Rivnuts. We appreciated the input from you and all of the other users of this site.

We did one day of riding around in Cumberland (and on the C&O), and then 6 days on the GAP Trail. We really wanted to take our time and take lots of pictures and see everything.

I wish I had thought more about McKeesport and had made that jump up to Lysle. Even if towns aren't what they used to be, it's great to see old buildings and the remnants of the old economy.

The old mill structures were massive, and we noticed that one still had the tubular name on it. I can't imagine what that town (and the whole area) would have been like in better times.

I took a few hundred pics over the 7 or 8 days we were in the area and posted them daily on Facebook. Would people be interested in those?
 
Rivnuts from Homestead, PA on 10/28/2020 4:49:57 PM:
Certainly, pictures from your trip would be interesting. I'm curious what a rider new to the trail and not from the area finds worthy of pictures. No doubt you will have found items that we locals ride by each day and don't see or appreciate.
 
Cathy from Pittsburgh on 10/28/2020 9:41:39 PM:
I would love to see your photos. I used to ive in Missouri and biked the Katy Trail a lot. I loved the rural and rustic flavor of the Katy Trail. But I am intriqued by the urban areas the GAP goes by and the old and usually abandoned mills and factories and coal mines. The ones at McKeesport were my earliest favorites.
 
Bill in Houston from Houston on 10/30/2020 9:25:01 AM:
OK, I will make a separate thread for photos. :)
 
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