As this is being written- it’s been just over 12 hours since the 1st Annual Summer Solstice Scavenger Hunt came to a close at Louisa Boren Park in Seattle. As small groups of riders rolled in around 5am, the breakfast buffet was being set up, bringing the all night ride to a close. Hot coffee and orange juice greeted the 50+ finishing riders as they rolled in- zombie eyed and smiling. Having completed a night of riding through the city streets, the crowd was hungry, tired, and a little delirious.
The ride started atop Kite Hill at Gasworks Park, people gathering after the Fremont Fair and Solstice Parade. As we showed up to hand out spoke cards and ride books, we were pleasantly surprised by over 20 more people that wanted to take part in the ride. I, for one, was not expecting such an amazing turnout. With the threat of rain showers, combined with the idea of riding one’s bike ALL through the night, I was impressed and thankful for the 42 that pre registered. The addition of 25 more people was a surprising, but welcome occurrence.
The sunset took place at 9:11pm, and the riders started (mostly slowly) working on the collection of around 100 items on the list. In order to collect everything on the list, people would need to collect one item every four minutes. Nobody collected all the items. Lots of people looked through the book, asked questions regarding the stops, some being time sensitive, other not.
The time sensitive meetups were designed to keep everybody going throughout the night. There was a midnight meetup at Myrtle Edwards park, where some fairly large mortar based fireworks were launched, and a 3am meetup at Winchell’s donuts, where everyone got their fill of donuts and coffee. The parking lot was taken over by bikes, people wandering through the crowd, scarfing maple bars, kruellers (Ginger gave me my first, and I thank her for that,) and chocolate covered sprinkled donuts. The coffee flowed freely, and the stop gave everybody a much needed boost to get them through the final hours.
At the finish, individuals and teams counted their points, and the highest scores were recounted to be confirmed. TEAM FOUR LOKO came in first with 408 points, and took home the trophy. Others found some of the more obscure items, such as a pic of David Hasselhoff, american flags of multiple sizes. Another fantastic part of this event, is the fact that over 150 cans of food were collected, to be donated to the University Food Bank. A win-win situation, canned food counting as points in the hunt.
The interesting and easily overlooked part of this scavenger hunt, is that it took place from 9:11pm until 5:11am. This adds another element of difficulty, and relies on the resourcefulness of the participants. A honey packet may easily be found at four o’clock in the afternoon, but at 4 in the morning… a little more difficult.
I can’t thank Melissa and Amy F. enough for their work in preparing the food for the breakfast, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all, vegan and omnivore alike. Amy F. took care of the tofu scrambler and some of the potatoes, as well as heading up the meetup at Myrtle Edwards Park. Somehow, Melissa managed to prepare an incredible amount of food in our tiny kitchen, all on time, and tasting amazing. This is what came through our kitchen last night between 9pm and 4am, all but a little bit consumed Saturday:
- 30 pounds of potatoes
- 120 eggs
- 6 pounds sausage
- 5 bulbs of garlic
- 100 cups of coffee (in the industrial coffee maker that takes 100 minutes!)
- 2 1/2 pounds of sour cream
- 1/2 gallon salsa
- 1 pound of cheese
Thanks goes out to Lighthouse Roasters, for supplying coffee grounds for the breakfast.
There are some pics up HERE. If you have any other photos, please join the Go means go group, and post them there!
GO MEANS GO will continue to bring bike events to you, some competitive, like the upcoming Tour de Watertower
Some not so much, like this one. Also, Art Velo is coming up, and if you are interested in submitting art work, please do so by August 5th.
On a much sadder note, there was a death at Carkeek Park last night at around 9pm. A park-goer (not participating in this event) was hit by a train while walking on the tracks at the park. We unfortunately found this out as Carkeek was a stop, and was closed, becoming a police scene. My condolences to the family.
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