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

[consularrider]

#goldenspike – 01/12/2024 – East Falls Church Metro, N Sycamore St

[Dachs6]

13/1/24 – #goldenspike trifecta: rode to Antwerp-Centraal, train to Vilvoorde, ride home from Vilvoorde. Antwerp-Centraal is one of the most beautiful stations in Europe. A classic Art Nouveau design from the early 1900s.

[CaseyKane50]

1/13/2024 Metro Foggy Bottom – GWU Station

[ltierstein]

I have an question re: the #GoldenSpike listing under the Pointless option in freezingsaddles.org.  It shows # rides and # miles, but IT DOESN’T SHOW points, eg, the bonus points that I should get via Rule #6:

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.

I think I have been posting my rides correctly and including the three required photos.  How/where can I see my points, and the points accrued by other people competing for this prize? I’m keeping a spreadsheet to track my stations and points, but that’s hardly official.

 

[consularrider]

#goldenspike – 01/13/2024 – Vienna-Fairfax-GMU Metro, end of the Orange line

[LeftyLaura]

I’m interested in an “end of the line” ride. The Traveling Wilburys Ride. It would be fun!

[DCAKen]

1/13/24 Cleveland Park metro station

[Sophie CW]

1/13/24 – Twinbrook Metro

[arlcxrider]

Hi,

 

Yes, I have to track the bonus points on a spreadsheet. The two bonus points won’t be reflected in the standings on the FS home page, which rely solely on the Strava hashtag. I hope to get preliminary standings posted later today for the first two weeks of Freezing Saddles. An additional factor is that some folks haven’t been using the #goldenspike hashtag in their Strava ride titles.

[Joan]

1/14/24 Ballston metro station

[DCAKen]

1/14/24 Foggy Bottom metro station to Benning Road metro station

[arlcxrider]

Preliminary standings as of Jan 14

DCAKen  — 17

CaseyKane50 — 12

consularrider — 10

Dachs6 — 10

bikesnick — 4

cvcalhoun — 4

sszibler — 4

RobbieRob — 3

Serdar — 3

shwong — 3

SophieCW — 3

Joan — 1

Laurie E. — 1

LeftyLaura — 1

SarahBee — 1

[CaseyKane50]

1/14/2024 Metro U Street Station

[CaseyKane50]

1/15/2024 Metro Eisenhower Avenue

[DCAKen]

1/15/24 McPherson Square metro station

[Author]

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