Setting the Course

Mr. Sulu...

This Friday I begin a series of slow bicycle rides around Fremont and surrounding neighborhoods, traversing the Burke-Gilman and Ship Canal Trails, climbing and descending hills, peering at front porches, front yards, and little bits of art.  It's not an exercise program, I'm scouting out checkpoints for the Fremont Oktoberfest Street Scramble.

For the mythical newbie to this blog, a Street Scramble is an event where you're given a map of the area with around 30 circled checkpoints.  You mission is to walk (or, in some case, not this one) bike from checkpoint to checkpoint, visiting as many as possible within a time limit (in this case, 90 minutes), scoring as many points as possible by answering a simple question at the checkpoint.  Sounds like fun?  Of course it is!  But someone has to find those checkpoints in the first place.  That's where I come in.

I missed a spot.  [map data copyright 2012 Google]

Preparation

For these trips, I come equipped with some USGS maps (courtesy of Meridian Geographics, the company that puts on Street Scrambles), and a red pen, which I use to mark checkpoint locations on the maps.  Later, they will turn my marked up map into professional looking maps for the event.  I also use a notebook to write down checkpoint questions.  My first bit of real work you can see above:  I print out a Google map of the area and divide it roughly into zones.  Zone 1 (north of the Fremont Bridge) is near the start; my goal is to assign a number of checkpoints (4, say) to this zone, so that even teams with toddlers can find some checkpoints.  Surrounding zones might get 2 checkpoints, while the rest will get 1 or 0.  I usually aim to find 35 checkpoints, but won't use them all.  The extras are for backup, in case someone moves their pinball machine to the backyard between the time I saw it and the time of the Street Scramble.

Last year, on a whim, I deviated from my plan:  I found a series of good checkpoints at a set of 5 staircases west of Fremont Avenue near B.F. Day School, and decided to keep all of them even though they were so close together.   That many checkpoints so close together really drew people to that area (not surprisingly), and I think I'll do something similar this year in a different area (ooh, spoilers).

Last year's sadistic theme

Theme

I could probably find a few hundred good checkpoints in Fremont; everywhere you turn there's a piece of art on someone's porch or a touchtone phone attached to an electric pole.  The neighborhood exudes quirk. It has at least 6 iconic symbols (Bridge, Troll, Rocket, Sign, Lenin, Interurban...).  To make my job and the Scramble a little more interesting, I try to come up with a theme for the checkpoints.

Last year's theme was up and down - lots of stairs and ramps, as well as the Rocket.  Two years ago, in a tribute to the Troll, all the checkpoints were on a bridge, under something, or (best of all) under a bridge.  That one had the lovely side effect of making people think about the many levels of things in Fremont.  You could go to the checkpoint on the Aurora Bridge and pass directly over four other checkpoints on the way.  And did you know you can walk below the main intersection of 34th and Fremont?  Take the Burke-Gilman to the Fremont Bridge, then walk north through the parking lots, where you will eventually hit the former (real) bed of the railroad that was turned into the Burke-Gilman Trail.  Too bad there's nothing really interesting there anymore; I had to use a utility box as a checkpoint just to lure people to visit.

So what will it be this year?  Transportation?  Beer?  I have another idea, and you'll have to show up to find out.

Dude gets around

Scouting it out

With theme and maps in hand, it becomes a matter of just looking.  Finding good checkpoints in the area is not hard (except on the north face of Queen Anne, area 15 on the map above; the people who live there don't seem to have much imagination).  But you can't just rely on wind chimes made of beer bottles and Henry murals, you have to mix it up.  Plus, part of the mission of Street Scramble is to introduce people to the neighborhood, and there's more to Fremont than garden tools converted into fenceposts.   I look especially to find checkpoints in public areas that can be overlooked:  P-Patches, new staircases, school playgrounds, and, yes, forgotten railbeds under busy intersections.

Once you find a checkpoint, you have to make up a question about it.  Sometimes this is as simple as saying "What is here?"  The difficulty with this type of question is usually coming up with the two wrong choices (every checkpoint has a multiple-choice question with 3 answers).  Presumably the object is interesting if you made it a checkpoint, so it can't be something mundane like a tree or a mailbox (plus there probably is a tree or mailbox nearby, and you don't want to have 2 correct choices).  On the other hand, if you make it too outlandish, no one will believe your fake answers.

You don't want to make your answer Googleable, either, or something that might be common knowledge. Business names usually make bad answers, since they're often on a smartphone's map.  And if you ask a question about a famous piece of art (Q: What is in the Troll's hand?), a number of people are going to know the answer without going there (A:  A VW Beetle).  Minor details like dates or names often make the best answers.

When I first started setting courses, I was warned to avoid color questions.  Even people who aren't color blind argue about whether something is green or blue, or red or orange.  For purposes of a Street Scramble, there are 3 colors:  dark, white and red.  You also want to avoid trick questions (it's not a trivia quiz or a math test) and fancy wording.  Finally, I added a rule of my own:  No questions of the type, "What does [abstract shape] look like?"  Different people see different things; that tree stump that clearly looks like an elephant to you may look like a mushroom to someone else.  Sorry, Rorschach, you have to find another checkpoint.

The Fremont Oktoberfest Street Scramble is Sunday, September 23.  Come on out and see how I did.

The Geocaching hordes descend on Fremont this Saturday

Upcoming

(italics = new since last time)

• Lauren Jackson Bobblehead Hunt -  through August 18.  Like the Sue Bird hunt before. Clues released via Twitter and Facebook.  Prize is tickets to a Storm game (plus a bobblehead).  At least on the first day, they also gave prizes to the first 50 people to show up where the bobblehead was.  All the Sue Bird prizes were found at businesses affiliated with the Storm.  Just sayin'.
• Seattle Rep's Theatrical Scavenger Hunt - August 18, noon.   Win Seattle Rep tickets for life!  Instantly become Foursquare's Mayor of the Bagley Wright.
• Bainbridge Street Scramble - August 18.  I assume this will be kind of like the Chilly Hilly, except with more checkpoints, better weather, and fewer people who fall over at the bottom of the hill because their derailleurs rusted out over the winter.
• TRIOBA Sprint Adventure Race - August 18, Ellensburg.  20-30 miles of biking, 5-15 miles on foot, no paddling, 5-10 hours total.  If you're looking for the next step after BEAST races, this would be a good place to start.  Update:  The fire is on the other side of I-90.  Race is cancelled if the fire jumps I-90.  Expect heat and smoke if you go.
• 2012 Geocaching Block Party - August 18, Fremont.  It's International Geocaching Day, so break out your GPS devices and head on down to Fremont, headquarters of Groundspeak, which runs geocaching.com.  Various urban geocaching activities ensue.  Other events take place during the week, including one the next day at Snoqualmie Pass...
• Going APE at the Tunnel of Light - August 19, Hyak.  At the east end of the Snoqualmie Tunnel, on the John Wayne/Iron Horse Trail.  For those who like their geocaching more rural.  Or for those who like going into a 50-degree tunnel on a potentially hot day.  Bring a flashlight.
• Scavenger Hunt - August 21, 3pm, Northeast Branch Library.  Ages 12-18 only.  Heads will roll if they don't visit Top Pot.
• Premium Rush The Alleycat - August 24, downtown.  The opposite of a bum rush?  No, I think this is a poorly punctuated alleycat race related to a new bike messenger movie.  Damn you, Hollywood, was Kevin Bacon not good enough for you?
• Amazing Ring Race - August 25.   Free entry.  Prizes:  a local jeweler puts up a ring purportedly worth $15,000.  If this is anything like past years, 2nd prize is also nothing to sneeze at.  You run around a small area downtown solving clues using a mobile phone application called SCVNGR. 
• Choose Your Own Adventure #3 - August 25, North SeaTac Park.  Orienteering where you find as many checkpoints as you can in 75 minutes.  If you ever lose your bearings just wait for the next plane to come by and remember the airport is due south.
• First Thursday Adventure Run - September 6, Green Lake. 
• Rebel Without a Cog/Vagina Monocogs - September 7-8.  Alleycat + Time Trial + Lap race for single speed bikes only.  Unicycles count.  I totally want to see a unicyclist win this thing.
• Orienteering Course Design Class - September 8, Lynndale Park.  Speaking of course design, here's a class on designing orienteering courses, put on by Cascade Orienteering Club.  If you design a course, you will definitely get a free entry or two (or three).  So have at it, cheapskate orienteering fanatics.  The fact that it's being held at a park makes it likely there will be some hands-on work assigned.
• Hood Hunt Phinney Ridge - September 12.  The Hood Hunt is turning two!  But it is not terrible!  Like a Street Scramble, but absolutely free.  Print out your own map (that's one way they keep it free).
• Choose Your Own Adventure #4 - September 15, Woodland Park.  It's National Orienteering Day, so get out there.  If you've never orienteered before, this is the event for you.  It's Woodland Park, so there are woods (duh), but you can't really get lost in them (just follow the traffic noise to Aurora or the sporty yelling to the ballfields).  Also, off-leash dogs, lawn bowling, and maybe a few bunnies.  Mass start at 11:15am.
• Oyster Urban Adventure Race - September 15.  They also put on an outdoor adventure race in Bend, Oregon.

Still going on

• Book Scavenger hunt - Seattle Public Library's Teen Summer Reading Program.
• Letterboxing on Mercer Island - They make it sound like a summer-only program.  Does this mean all the letterboxes go away when school starts?

Puzzle cache of the week:  Peace Sign Series #18 - Anagrams, Yea Or Nay. Actually a nice little word puzzle.  Part of a series of 43 puzzles, but you can just ignore that if you want.

Photo Credits

Captain's wheels: davew.wilson via photo pin cc
Stairs: John H Wright Photo via photo pin cc
Henry mural: bochalla via photo pin cc
Geocacher: [martin] via photo pin cc