Pointless Prize: KOT and QOT

[Judd]

Chasing King of the Mountain and Queen of the Mountain segments on Strava is so passe. All of the elite Freezing Saddles participants are now competing to be King of the Trail or Queen of the Trail. Being KoT or QoT is easy. All you have to do is volunteer to take care of the parks and trails that provide safe places and beautiful views while you’re on your bike. I’ll post opportunities to score points here and encourage others to do the same. Points are available for any activity involving improving a trail, a park or a waterway.

Points will be awarded for the following and are subject to arbitrary additions and awards of bonus points:
Reporting a problem about a trail – 1 point (Example would be a 311 report or contacting NPS when the shutdown is over)
Solo act of goodness – 2 points (Example would be stopping to clear glass from a trail, remove a branch or “Lumberjacking” an issue)
Attending a trail advocacy meeting – 4 points (Example would be new Long Bridge meetings or Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail meetings)
Taking out the trash at a National Park during the shutdown – 5 points (I hear Belle Haven Park could use some help right now)
Taking someone for a ride on a trail that they’ve never ridden before – 5 points
Volunteering for an event – 5 points (Example would be cleanups, invasive removal or maintenance events)
Organizing an event – 15 points (Example is Sarah Bee’s Anacostia River Trailcleanup this Saturday

To score points, post a description of the awesome thing you did along with a picture. Slam that stem on your carbon fiber trash grabber and get to work. The King of the Trail and the Queen of the Trail will win a super neat prize to be determined, which I promise is not a framed picture of Lord of the Mark.

The official leaderboard is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ehDM7UpJs2hVvBvXQ3NiUlqRaBmnyRFx9VHit09uni4/edit?usp=sharing

Topic

[Judd]

@Emm 186534 wrote:

I officially reported the sliding pipe on 4mrt…

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Erin gets 1 point for reporting an issue. One additional point has been awarded for practicing cyclocross to get around this. 2 points!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Judd]

Now that the vegetation is dormant in the W&OD, it’s easy to see that the hillside from Columbia Pike to South George Mason is about 50% garbage. This looks like a great opportunity for someone to earn points by organizing a cleanup event. I can lend trash grabbers. I’d highly recommend that said organizer also plan for an after event lunch at Cafe Sazon so I can eat some yummy huevos rancheros.

Far away pictures from today:

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cvcalhoun]

@Judd 186445 wrote:

Carol scores one point for reporting a trail problem to NPS and 1 point for reporting it to DDOT and 1 point for reporting it to Facebook and 1 point for reporting it to the forum. 4 points!

Since it appears this might not get removed by a government agency, there are some major KOT and QOT points on the table.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Some enterprising cyclists did in fact remove it. Unfortunately, I have been unable to learn their names.

[drevil]

Zephyr decided to blow some trees down at College Park Airport, which hung into and over the Northeast Branch trail. My Silky Pocketboy and I were having none of it though.

This saw isn’t as intimidating as a machete, but it worked much faster in this instance.

[LhasaCM]

Much less impressive than drevil’s feats of forestry: this sign got blown into the M Street NE cycletrack outside of REI, so I moved it to the curb space between the cycletrack and sidewalk.

Before:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]19238[/ATTACH]

After:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]19237[/ATTACH]

[DCAKen]

@drevil 186756 wrote:

Zephyr decided to blow some trees down at College Park Airport, which hung into and over the Northeast Branch trail. My Silky Pocketboy and I were having none of it though.

This saw isn’t as intimidating as a machete, but it worked much faster in this instance.

I thought you were warning us that Charlie Brown’s kite-eating tree has now acquired a taste for bikes.

[LhasaCM]

@LhasaCM 186763 wrote:

Much less impressive than drevil’s feats of forestry: this sign got blown into the M Street NE cycletrack outside of REI, so I moved it to the curb space between the cycletrack and sidewalk.

Before:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]19238[/ATTACH]

After:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]19237[/ATTACH]

M thinks “the wind” also blew the next sign into the cycletrack overnight, though miraculously keeping it upright, facing the right direction, and with added weight on the legs to keep it properly positioned. In any event, even though this is one of the stupider cycletrack sections around: I went ahead and moved it back to where it was yesterday.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]19242[/ATTACH]

[Judd]

@drevil 186756 wrote:

Zephyr decided to blow some trees down at College Park Airport, which hung into and over the Northeast Branch trail. My Silky Pocketboy and I were having none of it though.

This saw isn’t as intimidating as a machete, but it worked much faster in this instance.

Two points for a random act of goodness. Two bonus points for a random act that involves chopping trees. Two points for extreme bike Christmas ornament skills. 6 points!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Judd]

@LhasaCM 186763 wrote:

Much less impressive than drevil’s feats of forestry: this sign got blown into the M Street NE cycletrack outside of REI, so I moved it to the curb space between the cycletrack and sidewalk.

Before:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]19238[/ATTACH]

After:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]19237[/ATTACH]

Two points for a random act of goodness for moving the sign. One bonus point for continuing to use that cycletrack everyday even though it’s often obstructed. 3 points!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Judd]

@LhasaCM 186791 wrote:

M thinks “the wind” also blew the next sign into the cycletrack overnight, though miraculously keeping it upright, facing the right direction, and with added weight on the legs to keep it properly positioned. In any event, even though this is one of the stupider cycletrack sections around: I went ahead and moved it back to where it was yesterday.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]19242[/ATTACH]

Two points for Lumberjacking a problematic sign. Two points for maintaining M’s innocence about how some people suck and put stuff in bike lanes deliberately. 4 points!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Judd]

Looks like it’s going to be 40s and partly sunny for this Saturday’s Four Mike Run clean-up from 2-4:30.

I’m up for drinks and food afterwards.

Sign up for the event here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/clean-stream-extreme-land-based-clean-up-tickets-52965213379?aff=ebapi&ref=eios

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Steve O]

@Judd 186810 wrote:

Two points for Lumberjacking a problematic sign.

We talked about this. Unless used as a proper noun, lumberjacking is not capitalized. Minus 2 points.

[Judd]

@Steve O 186812 wrote:

We talked about this. Unless used as a proper noun, lumberjacking is not capitalized. Minus 2 points.

Lumberjacking is capitalized because it is derived from a proper noun much like we would write that “Kitty speaks Portuguese” and not “Kitty speaks portuguese.”

I suspect that over time as my legacy fades, people will tend to stop capitalizing it.

[Steve O]

But you already were using it correctly before. You seem to have self aggrandized it back:
@Judd 186248 wrote:

Ricky gets two points for a random act of trail goodness. An additional 5 points have been added for using an advanced lumberjacking method.

@Judd 186453 wrote:

Chris B gets two points for lumberjacking a trash can that was blocking a sidewalk. An additional point has been awarded for defeating Emm’s trashcan NIMBYism. 3 points!

I’m jonesing for proper non-capitalization of lumberjacking.

[Judd]

@Steve O 186834 wrote:

But you already were using it correctly before. You seem to have self aggrandized it back:

I’m jonesing for proper non-capitalization of lumberjacking.

Steve O gets negative 1 million points for devoting energy to grammar instead of trails. -1 million points!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Author]

Replies