[drevil]

I don’t usually use a phone mount, but when I do, I use a Quad Lock. They’re sleeker and more smartly designed (IMO) compared to other brands, yet they hold phones tenaciously.

[drevil]

@consularrider 211060 wrote:

So, what do we do between the closing of Fridays at the Fountain and the start of Midnight Saddles? it doesn’t take that long to get from Crystal City to the Washington Monument.

The Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens is open late on Friday nights for a few weeks in the summer: https://www.nps.gov/keaq/planyourvisit/lotus-and-water-lily-festival.htm

[drevil]

Anyone going tonight, July 2? I signed up Jo and me.

[drevil]

@Judd 210906 wrote:

Third Thursday Happy Hour is back this Thursday. Location is the golf course at East Potomac Park starting around 5. See you there!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Never been there. Do we have to bring our own refreshments, or is there a bar/food place there?

[drevil]

I’m doing a city ride in the day with some other friends, but maybe I’ll stop by Philz before you leave to hang a little.

[drevil]

Here’s the Derwood loop I like to do on my gravel bike. https://www.strava.com/routes/2827935239510541870

It’s a mix of road, gravel and singletrack. I’m not sure of your tech skill, but there are a few singletrack sections that aren’t any more difficult than what I remember of Fort Dupont. There are also obstacles on the course that you can bypass, but why?

[drevil]

Phew, it’s been a few days since the end of Freezing Saddles, as well as the end of the Daily Photo Scavenger Hunt

Stats

• 2303 pictures submitted (that registered in the tally)
• 305 pages in the thread (when looking at the forum on a desktop, not Tapatalk)
• 3048 posts in the thread
• 66 participants posted at least one picture
• The lowest number of participants was Day 1 (1/1/21) with only 16 submissions where the clue was “2021”.
• The second lowest was Day 3 (1/3/21) with only 19 submissions for “Elf or Wizard”.
• The most number of participants was Day 13 (1/13/21) with 36 submissions for the “Liam Hemsworth” subanagram.
• The second highest day was Day 41 (2/10/21) with 35 submissions for “Star”.

Jo and I had a chance to finish up the scoring, and we ranked participants by the total of their points. Who three came out on top?

• Tied for First place: MTansill and Rumipumi with 93 points
• Third place: BigRedBoiler with 92.5 points

Here is the rest of the participants and their ranking. This also explains the prizes: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1txiMf8yvNRFeJIabv6U2dvJAWa5fjJ7syal2tsN4gQ0/edit?usp=sharing
Here is the tally of each individual day: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kgsAzaLIXN-IJMjscyNnQTNvWEp__VzgGBSkJDYrTfs/edit?usp=sharing

As for the prizes, I am still designing the patch and stickers. When I am done, it will still take a few weeks to have them made. Expect them mid-April at the earliest. I’ll post here when they’re ready.

Freezing Saddles ’21 Photo Scavenger Hunt Stats by bikecentric, on Flickr

I just want to express my thanks again for all that participated. Jo and I had a lot of fun organizing it!

All the best to you and yours,
-rickyd

[drevil]

Freezing Saddles 2021 – Hains Point Last Night Last Lappers by bikecentric, on Flickr

[drevil]

3/19/21 – “Freezing Saddles” 5-letter word (or longer) subanagram

On your ride tomorrow, the last day of Freezing Saddles , find a 5-letter word (or longer) using only the letters in “Freezing Saddles”, the word or the thing. If the latter, let us know what you found. Snap a pic, and post it here in the thread.

WOOOOHOOOO! Thank you all for playing. Even though there wasn’t a lot of group rides and meetups compared to years past, I still enjoyed suffering virtually with you all on the bike in the cold.

So who’s coming out to FSLNHPP? JoM and I will definitely try to make it, so say hi and intro yourself if we’ve never met before. Let’s just stay properly socially distanced

Happy hunting!

Freezing Saddles 2019 Last Lappers by bikecentric

[drevil]

3/18/21 – Blue US Postal Service Collection Box (or if not in the U.S., the equivalent) with your bike leaning against it

On March 18, 1766, the Stamp Act – a tax levied on the British colonies in America which required that many printed materials be produced on stamped paper produced in London – was repealed. It was enacted in 1765 to pay for British military troops stationed in the American colonies that were there to protect from a French invasion, but the colonists thought the tax was unfair (plus they weren’t really worried about a French invasion).

I know that the Stamp Act wasn’t about stamps in the way that we think of them now, but since the word “stamp” made me immediately think of the Postal Service, let’s go out and find one of those blue USPS collection boxes.

Fun fact: letter boxes started out as green in 1860, then red in the 1880s, silvery white from 1897-1905, then back to green. In 1955, they were Red, White, and Blue, and finally in 1970, they came to look like they do now: solid deep blue color with reflective decals featuring the Postal Service’s eagle seal.

Happy hunting!

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[drevil]

3/17/21 – Rainbow, Leprechaun, or 4-Leaf Clover

On St. Patrick’s Day, celebrated on March 17 every year, you have a mission to capture in a photo one of the below:

1. a Rainbow (which will lead you to a pot of gold), or
2. a Leprechaun (who owns that pot of gold), or
3. a 4-leaf clover (where each leaf stands for: faith, hope, love, and luck).

Fun fact I forgot about after leaving elementary school: you’re supposed to wear green on St Patrick’s day because leprechauns like to pinch people, but they can’t see green, so it makes you invisible to them.

Fun fact I just learned: “It wasn’t until 1798, the year of the Irish Rebellion, that the color green became officially associated with the day, Casey says. Up until the rebellion, the color associated with St. Patrick was blue, as it was featured both in the royal court and on ancient Irish flags.” – https://time.com/4261456/st-patrick-day-2016-history-real-saint/

Happy hunting!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25198[/ATTACH]

[drevil]

3/16/21 – Panda or Danger Panda

On National Panda Day, this is going to be easy: find a panda (either the word or likeness). Fun fact: pandas are so slow because they have to be. Their diet of primarily bamboo has such little nutritive value that they spend most of their day just eating this tallest form of grass. Imagine how much more rad they’d be with a Red Bull

If you want 2 points instead of 1, submit a Danger Panda instead. What’s a Danger Panda? Check out this thread from a pointless prize I did back in ’17 that explains what qualifies:
http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?11593-Danger-Panda-Pointless-Prize&p=154858#post154858
(All those extra points in that thread don’t count here. If you pull off a Danger Panda successfully, it’ll get you 2 points total.)

BTW, RIP Pete Beers

If you’re still unsure what a Danger Panda is, it’s basically a selfie where:

1. You’re riding a bike, and it’s in motion
2. Both hands are off the bars
3. The bike is at least partially visible
4. You are looking into the camera
5. The angle is from overhead(ish)

More examples here: https://www.flickr.com/groups/1458163@N23/pool/

Happy hunting!
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[drevil]

Hi everyone! First off, I just want to say thanks so much to all of you that have been playing the photo scavenger hunt. I love, love, love the creativity and thought people have put into their photo captures. I learned a lot of things, including new destinations and options for eating.

It’s been fun coming up with things to hunt for; sometimes it was easy, but most times I put a bit of thought into it. A lot of my evenings since January 1st went something like this:

1. Plop into my office chair,
2. Open a folder with 17ish bookmarks then read through some of them,
3. Formulate ideas of what people could look for. I wanted to try to keep it related (even if it was a stretch) to something that happened that day in history.
4. After I came up with an idea, I’d go to maps and see if I could find the thing somewhere.
5. I’d usually go over to my wife and we’d discuss if she thought it was a good idea or not. I have about a 66% success rate with her.
6. I’d think about how easy or difficult it would be to find for people in different areas (which included Madrid and southern PG).
7. I’d spent time photoshopping a pic if there wasn’t a good bike related one out there that I liked.
8. Finally, I’d post it on the forum, then copy it over to Facebook.

I also want to thank my wife Jo M for doing almost all the scoring. After the first week, I began to realize what a bear it would be to regularly tally the scores. I was even telling her that I would stop scoring because it was too much work for me, but she volunteered to do it. After a week, she also realized it was a lot of work, but has been keeping it up so far. She’s awesome, so give her an air/no-contact high-5 if you ever see her out on your rides.

Scoring
So I said in my original post that I was going to add the points where each LIKE = 1 point. With 2700+ posts in the thread, I have decided that I will no longer do that. It’s too much work, and I’m not getting paid here . I have reached out to the WABA forum techies, but even if they have a secret way to export the results, I’m pretty sure it still won’t happen.

Thus, we’re just going to count the points that you have acquired through your pics. Sorry if you took the time you took to like others’ posts in hopes that it would boost their score, but I see now there is no reasonable way for me to do this.
If you got .25 for a post, it’s because it didn’t meet all the rules or wasn’t what we were looking for.

Corrections
If you think there was an error in your scoring of your pic (i.e., no points or not enough), then please send a private message ASAP on the forum to me (Drevil) and JoM with the following info:

1. The URL to your post (which you can get by clicking on the # on the top right of your post)
2. What the issue is
3. How many points you think you should get

I’ll ask a favor here. If we’re missing a point or two here or there, but you don’t think you’re in the top 3 (see next section below), then it’d be super cool if you just let it pass. As I said, it’s a lot of work and if we get hit up with a lot of point corrections that don’t matter in the whole scheme of things, then that’s less riding time. Thank you!

Prizes
It’s not about the prizes, is it? Well, I’m still working on the designs, but here’s what you’ll get if you played:

1. 1 point or more – a few custom stickers
2. 20 points or more – #1 and a custom patch
3. Top 3 scorers – #1 and 2, and a Buff/gaiter from my stash

I think the coolest part will be the patches, since I’ve never designed one before. When I’m finished and the items come in, I’ll post where and when you can meet me. I’ll try to go to coffee clubs around the area. I’ll also work with those that are understandably concerned about COVID for an alternate way of getting you the prizes.

Anyways, a few more days until Freezing Saddles ’21 is over. I’m sad to see it ending, but happy I got to be a part of it. Also, I’m really excited that I’ll get to go mountain biking again, which is my first love, but it doesn’t get you a lot of miles/points for FS :p

Happy hunting!

[drevil]

3/15/21 – Christmas Ornaments or Lights

On March 15, 270, Saint Nicholas was born. Historians aren’t totally sure about the exact date and details of his life because whatever may have been written about him would’ve been on papyrus or parchment (which isn’t as durable as modern paper), plus he lived in a turbulent time in Roman history. However, there are a lot of stories about him on his Wiki page, most notably that he was generous: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas

On your ride, find Christmas ornaments or lights. “This time of year???”, you say? Well, you know that neighbor that loves Christmas and never takes down their string lights, balls, or lawn reindeer? Look for them. They’re out there

Happy hunting!

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[drevil]

3/14/21 – Scientist (Name or Likeness)

I know it’s Pi day, but we already did pie. Besides, now that it’s ok to like scientists again, let’s join in Celebrate Scientists Day, which happens to be Albert Einstein’s birthday of March 14.

On your ride, find a scientist’s name or likeness out in the wild, and snap a pic of it. It’d also be cool if you could mention at least one scientific contribution they gave to the world.

Happy hunting!

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[Author]

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