Run 52: Mt. Adams

If John Adams hadn't shown up to Cincinnati with a big idea about an Observatory on top of Mt. Ida, then Mount Adams would be called Mt. Ida, and old Ida wouldn't be staring down from the side of a wall with her face in a tree.

How do I know all this, you ask: well that’s because on our Mt. Adams run we were accompanied by longtime Mount Adamsite/historian, Liz Gottmer, who hand-charted our course and then led us around for what would be one of our most informative runs of the entire project.

Here’s our whole crew:

But who’s that other guy? That’s our other guest-runner, Javan, King of the HIll, Lapp, who didn’t bring much Mt. Adams knowledge, but is well-known in his hometown of Asheville North Carolina for traversing the mountain side faster than anybody around. This was also Javan’s last run in Cincinnati for a while as he was returning to his native North Carolina to take the bar.

Liz’s course started at Immaculata Church which serves as the end of a daunting yearly pilgrimage for worshipers who trek up an intense set of stairs to express their faith.  

Immaculate is a good word to describe the rest of Mt. Adams as the quaint streets are lined with unique house after unique house. It really is unlike any other neighborhood that we have run.

Hilly is the other word I would use to describe Mt. Adams.  Looking through our pictures, it's hard to find one where we aren't either heading up or down an incline.  On an unrelated note, it’s also hard to find a picture where Kayla is actually running with the group.

I wasn’t kidding....

Mt. Adams also has some incredible views, and to make things even better, we were running on a beautiful day.

We spent a good amount of time winding around the Mt. Adams business district. Sunday afternoon was the perfect time for this, as, once the sun sets on the weekend, the party buses start flooding the brick streets, leaving little room for curious runners. Our favorite spot in Mt. Adams is the Blind Lemon where we like to finish the night with an Irish coffee and listen to the acoustic set. Kayla usually requests Kenny Loggins' Danny's Song, not to be confused with the Celtic classic Danny Boy, not to be confused with Chumbawamba's I Get Knocked Down. Crowley's (pictured below) is the oldest bar in the city dating back to the late 19th century.

Once we headed down the hill into Eden Park, Kayla got a little nervous as this is disputed territory and it is unclear where Mt. Adams ends and Walnut Hills begins (One neighborhood at a time, alphabetical order!). There is a Mt. Adams sign at the foot of the hill, suggesting that the neighborhood is staking its claim to the bucolic surroundings, which include an ornate aqueduct and Eden Park's iconic gazebo which was where Cincinnati gangster George Remus's mistress was murdered, which in turn inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald's depiction of Daisy's demise in the Great Gatsby, which later inspired the Great Gatsby soundtrack.

In the midst of all this beauty and history,there were a couple of strange moments. First, Javan found comfort in an abandoned garage on the hillside.

Then Kayla had a Brittany Spears moment at the swanky bus stop when she sat down on the floor for a photo-op. (Is it more sanitary if it's art deco?)

At the very end of our run, a terrier mix named Rosie rushed from Liz's house and right into Kayla's lap with the intention of getting to know this running woman who was hanging out in her driveway. It didn't take long for Kayla to make a new best friend--proof that, despite Kayla's wariness on many of our runs, not all unfamiliar dogs are to be avoided.

-Donnie