Pointless Prize – ParkFinder

[camiller]

2021 Rules for #parkfinder

These instructions were posted to the tread for 2021 Pointless Prizes. I am just copying the rules so that they show up in the #ParkFinder thread for people that find the Point Prize from this thread. Good Luck and have fun exploring your communities.

PARKFINDER Pointless Prize

Back by popular demand, I will sponsor a ParkFinder Pointless Prize. There will be at least two categories:

– Person that visits the most parks
– Person with the most average miles per park

Per Dictionary.com a Park is defined as “an area of land, usually in a largely natural state, for the enjoyment of the public, having facilities for rest and recreation, often owned, set apart, and managed by a city, state, or nation”.

Therefore, it must be a public park. It can be a local, state or national park. The word Park must be in the sign (last year I came upon a few parks that did not have a sign) and it must be the kind of park used for recreation. (for example, no cemeteries, parking lots, businesses with park in their name, or neighborhood names unless it is a park in the neighborhood with the same name.) You all know the kind of park I am looking for for the game.

You can only get credit for one park per ride and you cannot repeat any park during the game. You must take a picture of your bike with the park sign and then post it in your Strava feed. Be sure tag your ride with #Parkfinder in the title so it can be counted the computer wizards.

Last year’s winners were Matt W, Kilgore T, and Alan A. Since we did not have an ending Happy Hour we still need to find each other so I can give you your prize. You can also send me a private message with your address and I can mail it to you.

Here is the link to 2021 ParkFinder standings: https://freezingsaddles.org/pointless/hashtag/parkfinder

Below are the rules for 2020. (No need to read any further for 2021)

It is always fun to find new destinations using your bike as your mode of transportation. Our area has a lot of parks, including national, state, regional, county and local community parks. Some parks are easy to find and some are truly hidden gems. For example, there is a park less than a mile from my house that we found by accident. We were out walking in a neighborhood and stumbled on Fairfax Villa Park. While I wouldn’t recommend someone drive for miles to use this park (there are better, more interesting parks nearby) we use this park’s trails when we want to go for a quick shady short walk.

Here are the rules:

1. The park must be a national, state, regional, county or local community park that is open to the public at all times during the hours the park is open.
2. The park must be referred to as a “park” and must have a sign designating it as a park.
3. You must arrive at the park by bike. For example, if you drive your car to a park as a launching point for a bike ride you can not use the launching point park as your park for the pointless prize.
4. While you can visit the park as frequently as you would like, you can only count the park one time for Freezing Saddles.
5. Take a picture of your bike with the park sign. (Sorry, no park sign, no park point.)
6. Include #FS2020ParkFinder and the name of the park in your Strava title and post a picture of the park sign in your Strava feed.
7. You will only receive credit for one park for each Strava ride. If you go to multiple parks within a day, each park must be accounted for on separate Strava rides.

I hope you can find a few new parks in your travels by bike. If there is something special that you would like to share about the park, especially the smaller, less known parks (has multiple walking trails, great picnic shelters, can rent boats) you can include it in the “description” section so the rest of us can learn more about the park and, perhaps, decide to make that park as destination.

Have fun finding new parks for recreation and relaxation!!

Topic

[Boomer Cycles]

@camiller 196991 wrote:

The intent of the ParkFinder pointless prize was to recognize and locate our public national, state, regional and local “parks”. In that manner, everyone is on the same playing field and the “green space” is not subject to interpretation.

… and, in the spirit of the game, I am only looking for things that are “parks”.

I just want this to be a fun game. I, for one, am enjoying discovering new parks around me. I have found several new (to me) places to have a picnic, read a book, take a hike or play on the swings. My game-my rules.

Fair enough, and thank you for clarifying your intent. Using your criteria above, I have deleted the #FS2020ParkFinder from 3 of my Strava posts, and correspondingly edited those entries [retracted] on this thread for the record.

Moving forward, I’ll focus on “parks” where one can have a picnic, read a book, take a hike or play on the swings (and hopefully ride a bike for bonus points;-)

#gofindyourpark

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[Steve O]

@Boomer2U 196978 wrote:

Google and Arlington County disagree with you…it’s dedicated open space maintained by the County, including a connector trail to public pathways, with full time public access. That is the epitome of “public open space” (aka “park”).

The sign you showed was not the park sign, though. It was a sign designating the neighborhood name.
@Boomer2U 196980 wrote:

I don’t know anyone who would call Ballston a “park”

Exactly. Your picture of a neighborhood sign is analogous to taking a picture of a sign saying “Ballston” and calling it a park.
Perhaps a better analogy would be taking a picture of your bike with a town sign saying “College Park” and claiming that’s a park.

[JoM]

@Steve O 197014 wrote:

Perhaps a better analogy would be taking a picture of your bike with a town sign saying “College Park” and claiming that’s a park.

Ha, there are lots of signs with College Park.
Thanks camiller for posting this PP. I just started last week and having a destination park to visit makes the exploring fun. Boomer and Josh set the bar high!

[Boomer Cycles]

@Steve O 197014 wrote:

Perhaps a better analogy would be taking a picture of your bike with a town sign saying “College Park” and claiming that’s a park.

That is another surprious argument which doesn’t work either.

The particular patch of ground that I photographed is designated as public open, green access and is protected by Arlington County covenants (see bike/pedestrian trail in background behind the sign).

Here are the specific references from Arlington County for that neighborhood re public, green, access:

“The County also has four stretches of right-of-way used by the community for open space or pedestrian and bicycle paths:
• Path along the sound barrier of I-66.
• Path at 14th Street, between Ohio and Powhatan Streets. [my photo]
• Open space and bike path along the “Greenway” on Ohio Street/John Marshall between 22nd Street and Washington Boulevard.
• Grassy median on Potomac Street at 21st Street.”

Your generic references to “Ballston” and “College Park” aren’t relevant to this specific subsection of “Highland Park”

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[Steve O]

@Boomer2U 197058 wrote:

That is another surprious argument which doesn’t work either.

The particular patch of ground that I photographed is designated as public open, green access and is protected by Arlington County covenants (see bike/pedestrian trail in background behind the sign).

Sorry if the word “analogy” has you confused.
If I took a picture of a sign that said “College Park” or “University Park” that happened to be on a parcel of public land, would that count?

I think part of your confusion is you are not from Arlington. That sign is part of the Neighborhood Conservation Program. Neighborhoods place them around their periphery (or wherever they like) to identify themselves. That neighborhood is called Highland Park – Overlee Knolls. Here’s another sign that says the same thing about 1/2 mile away from your sign, also on public land. There are probably a couple more of them, but I didn’t have time to take Streetview down all the streets.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]20849[/ATTACH]

Your sign is not designating a park; it’s designating a neighborhood that happens to have the word “Park” in its name.

[Boomer Cycles]

I guess you ignored my previous post @steveO. I took a picture of a bike path in a greenway that’s has a public right of way to the Custis and W&OD trail, that happened to have said sign on it. I’m familiar enough with Arlington County to know that the parcel I photographed is covered my the master plan and legally required to grant public access as a connector trail. So I was documenting a particular parcel giving public access that leads to a Park, which is relevant to this PP. It is not just a random sign anyway that has the name “park” in it.

Your picture is not the sign that I documented, nor does it have a bike path that leads to a Park. My pic does.

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[Boomer Cycles]

[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200119/0ce8f31def423fe831a8267ce9a3320e.plist[/IMG][IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200119/9b678fb6a42a95969b4c4f9d323e4993.plist[/IMG][IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200119/ae66be2f161f6e6ea4092f1e5769a3dc.plist[/IMG] This was a really hard Park to access; no street access, signage nor visibility, as it’s surrounded by a housing development and school.

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[AlanA]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]20871[/ATTACH]

[camiller]

@JoM 197055 wrote:

Thanks camiller for posting this PP. I just started last week and having a destination park to visit makes the exploring fun.

JoM, I’m glad you like the PP. I agree with you. Some days I don’t have any ideas of where to ride and I get tired of doing the same old loops. Selecting a park is helping me to explore and find new places to ride my bike.

[Steve O]

@Boomer2U 197156 wrote:

I guess you ignored my previous post @steveO. I took a picture of a bike path in a greenway that has a public right of way to the Custis and W&OD trail, that happened to have said sign on it. I’m familiar enough with Arlington County to know that the parcel I photographed is covered my the master plan and legally required to grant public access as a connector trail. So I was documenting a particular parcel giving public access that leads to a Park, which is relevant to this PP. It is not just a random sign anyway that has the name “park” in it.

Your picture is not the sign that I documented, nor does it have a bike path that leads to a Park. My pic does.

The rules say this:
@camiller 196249 wrote:

The park must be referred to as a “park” and must have a sign designating it as a park.

Your sign is not a sign designating the park, it is designating the neighborhood, which happens to have the word “Park” in its name. True it is not a “random” sign (what sign is?), but it was not placed there to designate the park. The reason I posted the other sign is to show that your sign is not a “park” sign. The other sign also happens to be along another trail that is set aside for public use, just like yours. Are both of those different park-like places called “Highland Park – Overlee Knolls?” No. That’s the name of the neighborhood.

Here’s a similar example elsewhere in Arlington, in the Lyon Park neighborhood.
Here’s a neighborhood sign, designating the neighborhood. There are several of these around the perimeter, which may or may not happen to be placed in public spaces.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]20872[/ATTACH]

Here’s the sign that designates the Lyon Park park itself:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]20873[/ATTACH]

Your sign is an example of the first type. That it coincidentally happens to be in a park-like setting, does not transform it into a park sign. It’s a neighborhood sign. You took a picture of your bike with a neighborhood sign, not a park sign. Doesn’t count.

[Boomer Cycles]

@Steve O 197177 wrote:

The rules say this:

Your sign is not a sign designating the park, it is designating the neighborhood, which happens to have the word “Park” in its name. True it is not a “random” sign (what sign is?), but it was not placed there to designate the park. The reason I posted the other sign is to show that your sign is not a “park” sign. The other sign also happens to be along another trail that is set aside for public use, just like yours. Are both of those different park-like places called “Highland Park – Overlee Knolls?” No. That’s the name of the neighborhood.

Here’s a similar example elsewhere in Arlington, in the Lyon Park neighborhood.
Here’s a neighborhood sign, designating the neighborhood. There are several of these around the perimeter, which may or may not happen to be placed in public spaces.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]20872[/ATTACH]

Here’s the sign that designates the Lyon Park park itself:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]20873[/ATTACH]

Your sign is an example of the first type. That it coincidentally happens to be in a park-like setting, does not transform it into a park sign. It’s a neighborhood sign. You took a picture of your bike with a neighborhood sign, not a park sign. Doesn’t count.

Maybe you overlooked that I had retracted this particular park entry on Jan 17th (see my edited post above) after it was called out by the #FA2020ParkFinder sponsor? Not sure why you need to double down on that point
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic?share_fid=27249&share_tid=15839&share_pid=197001&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ewashingtonareabikeforum%2Ecom%2Fshowpost%2Ephp%3Fp%3D197001&share_type=t&link_source=app

Your pic of a sign with a bike and a sidewalk is not a relevant example of what I posted: I posted a designated greenway by Arlington County with a public access bike path in a connecting to the Custis and W&OD trails (and parks). Your cited pic doesn’t depict either a public greenway or a bike path.

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[Boomer Cycles]

This is a subsection w/in Pine Springs Park which would be cool to revisit when the rhododendrons are in bloom
[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200120/d0bc7a79858f278e07b91a7a49f7388c.plist[/IMG][IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200120/380c2c6188221982cfcabb77d1ee047c.plist[/IMG]
[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200120/2eede6fb74a9858cb9a5dd163fa50c74.plist[/IMG]

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[Boomer Cycles]

These are all from National Memorial Park, which has an ornamental garden subsection that is open to the public. There is also an adjacent, undeveloped, and large wooded track, designated on maps by Fairfax County as “Hollywood Park” but doesn’t have a sign anywhere (so I did not include it in my tally)
[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200120/58acb32b89b33b69bb38c1b02a9058f0.plist[/IMG][IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200120/d62c792a5e570dceee105bfcdd5615cc.plist[/IMG][IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200120/838ec606d178561a1ba7e81bd34458a2.plist[/IMG]

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[Boomer Cycles]

[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200120/f44f71a0d1670ed05959b2af786782b3.plist[/IMG][IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200120/8451b4e62fee17054768b2a0885b4028.plist[/IMG]
(Above) James Lee School Site Park seems to still being developed and Fairfax County has yet to erect a proper Park sign, so I parked my bike next to the playground sign
[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200120/238555d57e4c1eaa8416dd0951d8694b.plist[/IMG]

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[Boomer Cycles]

Pics from Howard E Herman Park…
[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200120/6de7082ecf999811d90624ba5cc9dc47.plist[/IMG][IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200120/5201b75d8bca84af8b12715d072f50d2.plist[/IMG][IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200120/482d8f0cf1abfea9a5343ca4781d834d.plist[/IMG]
Falls Church City Council renamed what is commonly referred to as the Hamlet- Rees tract as the Howard E. Herman Stream Valley Park, in honor of retired 40-year employee Howard Herman

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[Author]

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