Pointless Prize: 2023 Photo Scavenger Hunt

[Serdar]

Hi Freezing Saddlers,

This year, Janet and I will lead Daily Photo Scavenger Hunt. We are happy to announce the topics for the first week.

Rules:

Like in the previous, we have two competitions this year: the main competition and participation prizes! You can compete in both simultaneously or just one.

To compete for a participation prize, you must (1) upload one or more photos of the item to your Strava ride for that day. (2) title your Strava ride with the hashtag #scavhunt. Please only hashtag ONE ride per day with #scavhunt. This hashtag will ensure you automatically show up and get ranked on our scavhunt leaderboard (https://freezingsaddles.org/pointless/hashtag/scavhunt).
To compete in the main competition (with one or more points awarded daily based on photo creativity, beauty, and/or the capricious whims of Serdar and Janet) your entries must be posted HERE on the Forum in this thread.

Detailed rules are below (with huge thanks to Rumi and Millie for spelling this all out last year and allowing us to mostly repeat their detailed instructions!):

1. Obvs, you should be a participant in Freezing Saddles ’23
2. It has to be on a bike ride on the day it was requested
3. For the main competition, it has to be posted in the Forum on the day for which it was requested, i.e., 12:01 AM EST to 11:59 PM EST for the day it was requested. Sorry, we won’t count the ones that aren’t posted for the day it was requested. That’s part of the challenge.
4. The reason we say “for the day it is requested” is because we will release a weekly list of scavenger hunt items ahead of time, with one item for each day — but don’t take and/or post the pic until that day comes.
5. We will update the Scavenger Hunt theme weekly on this thread and Strava. We will try to update it in advance of the week ahead so you have time to make plans!
6. Your Forum post must be titled with the date and the found object/theme. Example: IF the item for January 1st were “borscht,” you would title your Forum post: 1/1/2023 borscht
7. Description, short backstory, or location are optional (but nice). That said, if your pic is abstract or not relatable to my request, please explain (e.g., I ask for “happiness,” and you post a pic of a tennis ball you found on a ride, please explain how that tennis ball = happiness)
8. It has to be a picture you took. You don’t need to be in the photo, but if you are in it, it either has to be a selfie or done with a self-timer
9. Only one pic/day should be posted in the Forum. Please only pad by adding one pic/day. (You can include as many photos as possible on your Strava ride.)
10. It has to be a picture, not a video.
11. Let’s stick to things you find out there during your ride, not things you bring or make yourself (unless otherwise specified). Example 1: Don’t scratch it into the dirt if I say find “2023”. Example 2: if I say find a flower, don’t bring a flower with you on your ride and take a pic of that. This takes the fun out of looking for things, which is the whole point.
12. Unless specified otherwise, your bike does not have to be in the photo.
13. Found item needs to be clear and discernible (or legible if text) in the picture. If you are using Tapatalk and are having trouble posting pics that are large enough, let us know, and I/we can help you with it.
14. Filters are OK, but no obvious/blatant photoshopping… not that we would know anything about such things.

Scoring

Scoring will be similar to FS22, and there are two different prizes you are competing for simultaneously:

• Main Competition: To compete in this prize you must post in this thread complying with the rules above. Scoring will be arbitrary and capricious, and only one person per day is guaranteed to get the point each day. How will you be the lucky point winner for the day? Impress us with your creativity. Since we are publishing an entire week at a time, it should give you some time to come up with a creative idea. The rider with the most Main Competition points at the end of the competition is the… winner of the Main Competition.
• Participation Winner: There will also be one or more participation award(s) for the top daily participant(s). Tag one ride each day with #scavhunt, add your photo(s) of the item and watch this leaderboard https://freezingsaddles.org/pointless/hashtag/scavhunt . The leaderboard will score this automatically (one point per daily #scavhunt ride) and is honor-based. Please do not tag more than one ride per day with the hashtag. The top rider(s) (based on the number of rides, not mileage!!) will get a special prize at the end of Freezing Saddles!

Good Luck!
Janet and Serdar

Please, check the daily topics below. We will be editing/updating this post regularly.

1/1/23 Sunday — Fire
1/2/23 Monday — Ice
1/3/23 Tuesday — Lantern
1/4/23 Wednesday — Snow
1/5/23 Thursday — Lava
1/6/23 Friday — Ice Cream

1/7/23 Saturday ’90s
1/8/23 Sunday ’70s
1/9/23 Monday ’60s
1/10/23 Tuesday ’50s
1/11/23 Wednesday ’40s
1/12/23 Thursday ’30s
1/13/23 Friday ’20s

1/14/23 Saturday National Dress Up Your Pet Day
1/15/23 Sunday National Hat Day
1/16/23 Monday Martin Luther King Jr. Day
1/17/23 Tuesday Prohibition Begins, 1920-1933
1/18/23 Wednesday National Winnie the Pooh Day
1/19/23 Thursday National Popcorn Day
1/20/23 Friday National Cheese Lovers Day

1/21/23 Saturday – Waterfall
1/22/23 Sunday – DC Music
1/23/23 Monday – World Cup 2022
1/24/23 Tuesday – selfie with the maximum number of your FS teammates
1/25/23 Wednesday – Opposite Day
1/26/23 Thursday – Vietnam War ended
1/27/23 Friday – National Chocolate Cake Day

1/28/23 Saturday – Data Privacy Day
1/29/23 Sunday – National Puzzle Day
1/30/23 Monday – Franklin D. Roosevelt? He was born on this day.
1/31/23 Tuesday – National Backward Day
2/1/23 Wednesday – National Texas Day
2/2/23 Thursday – Groundhog Day
2/3/23 Friday – Feed the Birds Day

2/4/23 Saturday – Barbie Doll
2/5/23 Sunday – Apollo 14 mission
2/6/23 Monday – The Battle of Fort Henry
2/7/23 Tuesday – The Beatles
2/8/23 Wednesday – composer/conductor John Williams
2/9/23 Thursday – “The Simpsons”
2/10/23 Friday – Wild Card!

2/11/23 Saturday “Pointless” Kids
2/12/23 Sunday Superb Owl
2/13/23 Monday Architecture
2/14/23 Tuesday Errandeering
2/15/23 Wednesday Little Free Library
2/16/23 Thursday License Plates
2/17/23 Friday Calvinball

2/18/23 Saturday *Service Saturday*
2/19/23 Sunday *Sustainable Sunday*
2/20/23 Monday *Manic Monday*
2/21/23 Tuesday *Timeless Tuesday*
2/22/23 Wednesday *Wordplay Wednesday*
2/23/23 Thursday *Thankful Thursday*
2/24/23 Friday *Foodie Friday*

2/25/23 Saturday Wicked Witch
2/26/23 Sunday Silver or Ruby Slippers
2/27/23 Monday Yellow Brick Road
2/28/23 Tuesday Scarecrow
3/1/23 Wednesday Tin Man
3/2/23 Thursday Cowardly Lion
3/3/23 Friday “There is no place like home…”

3/4/23 Saturday Lines
3/5/23 Sunday Squares
3/6/23 Monday Donut
3/7/23 Tuesday Hole
3/8/23 Wednesday Sparrow
3/9/23 Thursday Rainbow
3/10/23 Friday Philosophy

Week 11 Scavenger Hunt: Reindeer Games! They call these Pointless Prizes “Reindeer Games,” so for this last full week of Freezing Saddles, play along and illustrate the name of these famous reindeer in a photo.

3/11/23 Saturday Dasher (No hyphens, please!)
3/12/23 Sunday Dancer & Prancer
3/13/23 Monday Vixen
3/14/23 Tuesday Comet
3/15/23 Wednesday Cupid
3/16/23 Thursday Donner &/or Blitzen
3/17/23 Friday Rudolph

3/18/23 Saturday Wild Card with action, emotion, and engagement
3/19/23 Sunday Action, emotion, and engagement, but with a bike in the photo see page 174

Topic

[Serdar]

@consularrider 221741 wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVHozwCteL4 Iceland, The Land of Fire and Ice!

This video is breathtaking!

[Serdar]

@LGRides 221812 wrote:

Is there a topic for tomorrow, Saturday 1/7?

So far the Photo Scavengers are on FIRE!
Now for Week 2 of the Photo Scavenger Hunt: Decades!
Take a photo each day to represent a decade, as follows:
1/7/23 Saturday ’90s
1/8/23 Sunday ’70s
1/9/23 Monday ’60s
1/10/23 Tuesday ’50s
1/11/23 Wednesday ’40s
1/12/23 Thursday ’30s
1/13/23 Friday ’20s
(Yes, we know ’80s is missing…)
Can you take an iconic shot, so that it’s clear to anyone who sees it which decade you’re targeting? That’s awesome! Do you need a little explanation? That’s okay, too.
Great start, everyone! Love seeing the creativity!

[Indiana]

#withkidsnowy is tickled that her suggested theme for the day led to people eating ice cream for breakfast!
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Cheers from Captain Cookie and the Milkman at Tastemakers in NE DC

[SusanG1693]

1/6/2023 Ice cream
31 flavors….but apparently not for breakfast!

Sent from my SM-G975U1 using Tapatalk

[Nadine]

1/6/23 – ice cream

Beth found me an ice cream factory today!

The guy came to the door and let me take his picture for the game, with my [emoji2186] propped against the glass under this sign.

I can read the sign fine in my picture, but the resolution in tapatalk disappeared it, so here’s the close up of the sign on the door. The pic of the guy holding the door open with my [emoji2186] in front of the sign is posted to Strava – and I’m happy to swap the pix if you guys prefer.

[cvcalhoun]

1/6/2023 Ice cream
The time of night I ride, it wasn’t open. But then again, I’m not sure I would have wanted to eat ice cream in this weather.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[cvcalhoun]

1/7/2023 1990s
Poet Mattie J.T. Stepanek was born in in 1990. He died in 2004, so most of his life occurred in the 1990s. This is a statue of him in the Rockville park that bears his name.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[Mtansill]

1/7/2023: the 90s

This house was built in 1894, and it is one of the oldest houses in College Park. It is also the only one that I would label a Victorian.

My little friends and I visited it this morning.

… No one specified the century.

(Taken with a self-timer)
[emoji16]

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

[Indiana]

@consularrider 221708 wrote:

1/5/2023 – Lava

I made today’s metric century all about lava (but couldn’t find lava cake for WTFCC). First stop was Via Volcán Coffee Co on S West St in Old Town. The coffee is grown on the lava enriched hillsides of the Volcán Barú in Panamá.

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Then I rode to Etna Place in Silver Spring. According to the Global Volcanism Program (Smithsonian Natural History Museum , which I also rode by), Mt Etna in Sicily was producing lava flow from February to May, 2022.

I love the commitment to the theme!

[Indiana]

@Mtansill 221860 wrote:

1/7/2023: the 90s

This house was built in 1894, and it is one of the oldest houses in College Park. It is also the only one that I would label a Victorian.

My little friends and I visited it this morning.

… No one specified the century.

(Taken with a self-timer)
[emoji16]

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

Nice! Originally I had 1990s, 1980s, etc., but kidSnowy suggested it would be cooler to leave the century ambiguous. We were wondering who would notice first

[Nadine]

@cvcalhoun 221854 wrote:

1/7/2023 1990s
Poet Mattie J.T. Stepanek was born in in 1990. He died in 2004, so most of his life occurred in the 1990s. This is a statue of him in the Rockville park that bears his name.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

I’d never heard of him but just read his story. So sad about his & his mom & siblings’ disease & short life – and how incredible that he got so much DONE in his 13 years!

Thanks for sharing the statue!

[Serdar]

Hi everyone! It is time to announce the winners of the main prizes in the first six days of the competition.

1/1/23 Fire – DCAKen – DC firefighting history; Kbikeva – beautiful mural and fire symbolism; bikesnick – fire art and Portuguese name; lordofthemark – funny firing story

1/2/23 Ice – Jessica Hirschhorn – Dry Ice nice composition with bike in photo on icy looking road; Mtansill – fish on ice with bike!; bikesnick – ice sculptures

1/3/23 Lantern – Steve O – Japanese lantern history + monument background & bike; HokieBeth – jack-o-lantern!; Catedrew – beautiful lantern alit

1/4/23 Snow – CarolineAngelo – Snowflake on lantern, nice simple composition

1/5/23 Lava – consularrider – metric century with multiple lava stops; cvcalhoun – captured lava rocks, fire, lanterns, and icy-lit Christmas tree

1/6/23 Ice Cream – Jan Johnson – ice cream bike through!; #189 HokieBeth – cowch made me laugh, plus bike in photo

Click here to see the leaderboard for the main competition. Our leaders so far are bikesnick and HokieBeth. Congratulations!

Thank you to everyone for your great submissions! And, as our friend Boomer says, “Ride & Seek.”

[Boomer Cycles]

01/07/23 – the 90s

I met Matt on this morning’s Conte’s Old Town Roll and he was born in the 90s!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LGRides]

1/7/23 “90s”

Potomac Falls High School, Potomac Falls (Sterling), VA

Founded 1997

[Kbikeva]

1/7/23 The 90’s

My kids were born in the 90’s and one of the iconic toys from that period was a series called, ‘Rescue Heroes”. My son had quite a few of them but they were passed on to other kids as he got older. My mom still has one at her house for him to play with. (At age 26!)

Billy Blazes was the firefighter – and this photo represents he and all of his colleagues who are truly Rescue Heroes.

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[Author]

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