Pointless Prize: Golden Spike award

[arlcxrider]

To encourage more bikes on trains, and maybe something “fun” in the mix if the weather’s nasty, I’m offering the Golden Spike Award pointless prize.

THE RULES

1. Ride your bike to an active station where passengers board and alight. Location must have regularly scheduled passenger service. For example, the Vienna depot on the W&OD doesn’t count, neither does the old B&O station in Silver Spring. What constitutes “riding” to the station is on the honor system.
2. Intercity (Amtrak or equivalent), commuter rail (MARC, VRE, etc), heavy rail (WMATA, etc.) and light rail transit (DC Streetcar, Baltimore light rail) all count. Must be steel wheel on steel rail. (I will make an exception for Montreal.) Trolley buses (i.e., there is no fixed guideway) don’t count. Airport people movers don’t count.
3. Submissions to the forum must include a picture of the bike with a station sign.
4. Each station sign submission is worth one point and must be unique (no repeats.)
5. One submission per day of Freezing Saddles.
6. BONUS POINTS: board the train or light rail vehicle with your bike from one station and alight at another station. In that case you will claim three points. Must post a picture of your bike with the start station sign, end station sign, and your bike aboard the train to claim the three points.
7. BONUS POINT trips must be unique, but you could, for instance, board the Red Line at Silver Spring and ride to Union Station (three points) and the next day ride from Silver Spring to Rhode Island Ave and claim another three points.
8. Tie-breaking method will be at the sole discretion of the prize sponsor.
9. Useful, but not required, use hashtag #goldenspike on Strava.

Topic

[DCAKen]

2/3/24 Shaw-Howard University metro station to Congress Heights metro station

[consularrider]

#goldenspike – 02/03/2024 – Unplanned Metro trip, Waterfront Station (Green Line) to East Falls Church (Silver Line), changed at L’Enfant Plaza.  I was riding on M St, SE when I felt an uneven ride on my rear tire.  Turned out there was a very bad wear spot, just hadn’t gone through the belt.

 

 

[bikesnick]

2/3/2024 – McLean to Takoma

[Sophie CW]

2/3/14 – Ride from Fort Totten to Glenmont

[Joan]

2/5/24 Potomac yard/VT metro station

 

[consularrider]

#goldenspike – 2/5/2024 – Courthouse Metro Station, Silver and Orange Lines on Wilson Blvd

[Nadine]

2/5/24 goldendpike

Potomac Yard Metro station. With Joan. (Note both of our bikes in both pictures)

Do I get extra points for getting Joan in my pic? 😆😁🤷🏻

[arlcxrider]

As we near the half-way point of FS (day 39 on Thursday) here are a few notes.

 

1. First of all, thanks to all the participants and posts–keep it up.
2. I hope to post another round of preliminary results over the weekend.
3. Reminder — only posts to the Forum (here) count towards the Pointless Prize. The leaderboard based on the Strava hashtag #goldenspike is unofficial.
4. Reminder — photos must include a bike. Handlebars, saddle, etc., are fine–as long as I can tell it’s a bike.
5. Reminder — to claim a 3-point “trip,” your posting must have start point photo (with station sign), end point photo (with station sign) and a photo on-board. With a bike, or some bike parts, as above.
6. There is a #goldenspike “rural” group ride from the Ashburn Silver Line station on Sunday, Feb. 11. Details here–https://www.bikearlingtonforum.com/forums/topic/goldenspike-ashburn-group-ride-feb-11-gravelish/
7. Have fun!

[DCAKen]

2/6/24 Takoma metro station

[CaseyKane50]

2/7/2024 Metro Rosslyn

[consularrider]

#golden spike – 02/07/2024 – Rosslyn Metro Station, Silver, Orange, & Blue Lines.  No, I wasn’t riding with Casey

[DCAKen]

2/7/24 Eastern Market metro station

[DCAKen]

2/8/24 U Street metro station

[consularrider]

#goldenspike – 2/8/2024 – Spring Hill Metro Station, Silver Line, Tysons

[CaseyKane50]

2/8/2024 Metro Ballston-MU

[Author]

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