Pointless Prize – #parks

[arlcxrider]

I’m sponsoring a #parks prize this year.

The rules are pretty simple. Ride a bike to a park, post the ride to Strava with #parks in the title. Each park is one point. No daily limit, but you’ll have to break your ride into multiple Strava rides with #parks in the title to tabulate correctly. Must be a unique park to qualify in the scoring–no repeats.

So what’s a “park”? (Subject of much spirited discussion in past years.) Fortunately, the ham radio community has got this covered. For this pointless prize only parks listed in Parks on the Air (http://www.parksontheair.com) will qualify.

Here’s the list of parks. https://pota.app/#/parklist There are 32 in DC proper, 186 in Maryland, and 244 in Virginia–more than enough to fill out your FS dance card. POTA properties are federal parks and state parks. City, county, local parks authority properties, etc., do not qualify.

There is also a map version. https://pota.app/#/map

Each park has a unique identifier.  Highly recommended, but not required, is to put the park identifier in the ride description. The Washington Monument is US-0794 for example.

POTA is a global phenomenon, so you can participate from anywhere.

Happy hunting! And if you should happen to see a ham radio operator “activating” any of these locations, say “hi!”

73, KI4PW (Paul)

Topic

[sszibler]

2/9/2025 Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

Another National Park that isn’t on POTA for whatever reason. Beautiful place to visit year round, but especially when the Lilly pads are blooming and the frogs are chirping.

[consularrider]

#parks 2/22 – Wolftrap National Park for the Performing Arts

[sszibler]

Where can I find a list of the parks I’ve already found so I don’t repeat a bunch? Not sure how accurate my own list is or if I can find it.

[sszibler]

US-0784 LBJ Memorial Grove On The Potomac National Memorial

[arlcxrider]

Greetings, with 15 days to go, you all have been finding lots of #parks and navigating the occasionally arcane “rules” of Parks on the Air.  😀

Please make sure you have #parks in your rides on Strava, or it messes up the leaderboard. #parkfinder is obsolete relic of yesteryear, and your ride won’t be counted on the leaderboard if you use #parkfinder.

I will go by the leaderboard when awarding the fabulous prize to the top finisher. That’s mostly on the honor system, but the crack accounting firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe reserves the right to do spot audits. 😉

Ride on!

[sszibler]

@arlcxrider

There are a few of my finds that may be doubled, especially now. I thought I did them because they said ”national park”, but couldn’t find them on the map or on my list (maybe I didn’t write them down because I wasn’t sure at the time). Like I thought I’d done Roosevelt Island and the one in Anacostia, so I’m doing them again and getting the right number associated on my ride title. Sorry to make you check!

I see where  Freezing Saddles forum or whatever is counting my finds and I’d check for doubles myself, but I can’t figure out how you’re doing that. Sorry – all I see is the total count and no way to expand the count to check.

[Heidi Rausch]

Hey there! Just to be clear, every ride we use #parks on should be with a unique POTA number, correct? Aka, once we use a specific pota # we can’t use it again? I have been keeping track of the pota #s I’ve used in a spreadsheet 🤣, happy to provide that at the end of FS!

[Heidi Rausch]

I know theres still time but my #parks journey is over! As promised heres the link to my tracking spreadsheet, should be viewable by anyone with the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HvDn0fUn-ZW_Y5OV_cpSrr5kgn5Jmx9rH06rHN6eP0I/edit?usp=drivesdk

 

Date/pota # should match a strava post with a ride to/in the park and pic of my bike at the park. Fun pointless, thanks for sponsoring!!

[arlcxrider]

Thanks, Heidi. That’s very thorough.  😀

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