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

[bikingjenn]

1/25/23 Opposite Day #scavhunt Riding before 6AM instead of after 6AM

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rumipumi]

@Serdar 223195 wrote:

Time to announce the other winners of the main prize! And they are …

1/16/23: MLK Day – CBGanimal for a photo with biking friends with the great MLK in the background; drevil for the colorful photo of the MLK Memorial and crowds

1/17/23: Prohibition Begins – Mtansill for the funniest photo of the day

1/18/2023: Winnie the Pooh day – ALClayville for finding Pooh’s home in Annapolis; Kbikeva for the photo of a cute piglet that reminded Serdar of Charlotte’s Web, an American children’s story translated into the Turkmen language by the US Embassy Ashgabat and made available for free

1/19/23: Popcorn! – Kbikeva for going to the wet woods remembering the popcorn mushrooms seen there a year ago

1/20/23 Cheese – drevil for the photo of Joe taking a photo of Mtansill taking a photo of a person saying “Cheese”

1/21/23: waterfall – Mtansill for creative use of bottles and recycling them

1/22/23: Dc Music – RumiPumi for two-in-one submission: music and murals

1/23/23: World Cup 2022 – Boomer2U for an excellent caption and the beautiful skyline of Crystal City; Mtansill for the creative combination of a soccer ball and a bike

1/24/23: selfie with the maximum number of teammates – JoM for selfies with the maximum number of team members; LeftyLaura for photobombing Kbikeva’s selfie. Silliness pays back!

Congratulations to the leaders of the main prize!

I won dc music?!?! Im so excited!!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JoM]

1/25/2023 Opposite Day

Rough vs. Smooth

[karenbikes2@gmail.com]

1/25/2023 Opposite Day
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Traffic going in opposite directions on a highway.

[cvcalhoun]

1/25/2023 Opposite Day
Julii restaurant in Pike and Rose caters to the opposite approaches to COVID: a main dining room for the “We’re all going to catch it anyway, so why take precautions?” crowd. And igloos for the, “I refuse to be exposed to anyone besides the person who came with me, even outdoors” contingent.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[Catedrew]

1/25/23 – Opposite day

Green and Red are opposite values on the color wheel.

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[sszibler]

1/25/23 Opposite Day. Suddenly, today, he’s my favorite President of all time! I’m full of all the good feels and thoughts about him and Ayn Rand. Is the architecture at 1300 PA Ave reminiscent of the modernist style featured in The Fountainhead film? Doesn’t matter, it’s Opposite Day and Rand had to pretend the style was unpopular and frowned upon when in reality it was all the rage in the 40s. It’s Opposite Day!

[Mtansill]

1/26/23: End of the Vietnam War

At the Vietnam Memorial, looking towards the end representing 1970, at dawn.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

[drevil]

1/26/23 The end of the Vietnam war

Vietnamese pho started showing up in the United States in the latter half of 1970s, when the Viet refugees left Vietnam to escape Communist rule in the country, as well as the degrading economic conditions in Vietnam at the time. The United States was the country of choice for many Vietnamese to relocate to because, in part, of the special relationship Americans had with South Vietnamese before the Fall of Saigon in 1975.

[Kbikeva]

@Serdar 223195 wrote:

Time to announce the other winners of the main prize! And they are …

1/16/23: MLK Day – CBGanimal for a photo with biking friends with the great MLK in the background; drevil for the colorful photo of the MLK Memorial and crowds

1/17/23: Prohibition Begins – Mtansill for the funniest photo of the day

1/18/2023: Winnie the Pooh day – ALClayville for finding Pooh’s home in Annapolis; Kbikeva for the photo of a cute piglet that reminded Serdar of Charlotte’s Web, an American children’s story translated into the Turkmen language by the US Embassy Ashgabat and made available for free

1/19/23: Popcorn! – Kbikeva for going to the wet woods remembering the popcorn mushrooms seen there a year ago

1/20/23 Cheese – drevil for the photo of Joe taking a photo of Mtansill taking a photo of a person saying “Cheese”

1/21/23: waterfall – Mtansill for creative use of bottles and recycling them

1/22/23: Dc Music – RumiPumi for two-in-one submission: music and murals

1/23/23: World Cup 2022 – Boomer2U for an excellent caption and the beautiful skyline of Crystal City; Mtansill for the creative combination of a soccer ball and a bike

1/24/23: selfie with the maximum number of teammates – JoM for selfies with the maximum number of team members; LeftyLaura for photobombing Kbikeva’s selfie. Silliness pays back!

Congratulations to the leaders of the main prize!

I think MTansill‘s photo for prohibition might just be the BEST photo of all Freezing Saddles this year! I’ve continued to chuckle about it when I ride, trying to think up something funny!

[Boomer Cycles]

@Kbikeva 223179 wrote:

Boomer, what does the sign on the baby seat say? I enlarged the photo but couldn’t quite figure it out. I was hoping it said, “Baby has a video on you” but I don’t think so.

“Baby Up in This Bitch”

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Kbikeva]

1/26/23 End of the Viet Nam War

The SR-71 was a surveillance workhorse during the Vietnam conflict. This beautiful airplane is elegantly retired at Udvar-Hazy. Did you know that you can bike from the Reston area Metro stops? Hit me up if you want the route.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LeftyLaura]

1/26/2023 – Vietnam War Ends

This was a very sad day for me, roaming the countryside for serendipity with a backup of GreenDrop that donates to Vietnam Veterans–Wrong,it’s Purple Heart. So I give you Saigon 54.

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[AlanA]

1/26/2023 – Vietnam War

If it weren’t for the Vietnam War, this might not exist! Mary Hoff came up with this idea in 1971 (during the Vietnam War).

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[karenbikes2@gmail.com]

1/26/2023 – Vietnam War
The woman who owns Hair Nail Care (11130 South Lakes Dr G, in Reston), and has done an excellent job cutting my hair for many years, is Vietnamese. Her family emigrated from Vietnam to the US at the end of the Vietnam war.
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[Author]

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