"2016-04-26T00:00:00"^^ . "11"^^ . . "11"^^ . . "5"^^ . "A sign of spring and the dawn of summer is the activity on Flagstaff Hill. Crowds gather in April to watch the annual CMU buggy races for two days. Flagstaff is crowded with bystanders watching the cars coming out of the free roll to climb Frew street with the aid of sprinting pushers up to Margaret Morrison and the finish. \n\nAfter the revelry of carnival activity on the hill wanes, but as the weather warms small patches of sunbathers and picnickers nucleate on the hill. These patches soon grow joined by students with books and notes studying for exams. The activity dissipates a bit as finals wind down but then proud parents with children in caps and gowns will stroll to share memories of the hill.\n\nThen quiet, peaceful quiet, but only for a few days. The hill draws its highest population density when runners in shorts or sweatpants converge to register and collect for the Race for the Cure on Mother's Day. This quickly starts and finishes followed by crews set to clean up the debris of the huge race crowd. Then it is quiet again and begins to warm.\nJune brings summer students and Pittsburghers exploring Phipps, Schenley and other nearby venues. The hill fills with sunbathers, movie and concert goers ... It is an active place brimming with the previously dormant populace.\n\nLike all good things summer ends, but before it does it brings back new and returning students for the start of a new academic year. As the weather gets colder through the fall the hill crowds dwindle. It is then that it perhaps serves its fullest purpose as a quiet place to walk and reflect and escape the pressures of the mayhem of learning. A walk across to the Phipps allows witness of falling leaves and the death of summer and we wait again for Spring. Unless of course we have a sled."^^ . . "6"^^ .