October is the month for Puzzle Hunts

I don't know why, may be it's the persistence of the good summer weather, but October is shaping up to be a month of Puzzle Hunt Contests in Seattle.

Dude wants his horse back.

Hunt for Odin's Horse

First up is the Hunt for Odin's Horse, October 13th and 14th in Ballard, in conjunction with the premiere of Mirror Stage's play, Odin's Horse. It's billed as the 'first green puzzle hunt':  all clues are released and all solutions submitted via the Internet, and you're supposed to get there and get around via foot, public transit or (they don't mention it, but this is what I'm going to use) bike.  Lone Shark Games, a company that has done other local puzzle/scavenger hunts such as the Renton Duck Hunt, is in charge of the puzzles.  Apart from the 'green' aspect, the format is a little odd, in that the first day's clues (on the 13th) are optional and you don't even have to be there.  If you do solve them, they just get you bonus points on the 14th, when the real running around commences.

The prize if you finish is a seat at the Valhalla banquet the night of the 14th, featuring Odin beers (tasty!) and scenes from the play.  Top-scoring teams will get other, unspecified prizes (here are a couple of guesses:  Odin beer.  Tickets to the play).  Still, they had me at free banquet.

One important point:  to play on the 14th, you must register by October 7th at the website.  That's next week.  Teams of 3-4 are recommended, and a smartphone is required.  I'm putting my team together as I write.

Bike to Kent for more points

Art Dash 4 Ca$h

The next weekend is the Art Dash 4 Ca$h, in conjunction with the City Arts Fest.  Once again, the arts community comes through with a puzzle hunt.  This one combines two of my favorite pastimes:  Puzzle Hunts and biking.  Details are sparse, but it seems like you'll be biking around King County, taking your picture at various pieces of public art.  But they also promise various bike-related shenanigans like short races and footdown competitions (basically:  everyone is on a bike in a circle, last one to put a foot down wins.  Anything goes, but keep in mind that if you hit someone, you're probably going to fall down as well).  

Minimum team size is 2.  Note that if you're supposed to stick together on a bike race, the smaller your team is, the better (unless you're Lance Armstrong or something, in which case, stop slumming).  On the other hand, if you can split up, larger teams have the advantage.  I'll need to know the exact rules before I know whether to add more people to my team but for now, I'm sticking with two or three.  Hours of the hunt are 10am-10pm, so bring plenty of energy bars.

Costumes and bikes.  Two great tastes that go great together.

Messmann's Messquerade

After a year off, the legendary Halloween bike/costume/scavenger hunt race Messmanns Messquerade is back on October 27.  Messman put on this race/event/party for 10 years straight, then skipped last year.  As I hear it, a group of friends thought it was too good an idea to let it die, so they brought it back.  Requirements:  team size of at least 2, costumes.  This being an actual scavenger hunt, the more people you have, the more stuff you can find, so the only reason to keep your team small is because you can't scrounge up enough costumes.

Hey, it's Halloween!  For costume ideas, try searching for Messquerade on Google, or let me do it for you.  It's an election year, so might I suggest "Rejected Republican Presidential Candidates."  Scary.

Hunting by the light of the moon

Upcoming

(italics = new since last time)

• Three15er Rogaine - September 29-30, Naches. 4 hours, 9 hours, or 24 hours in the forests of the Cascades.  Note that the 24-hour race is the actual, honest to goodness North American Rogaining Championships.  Probably won't show up on Wide World of Sports, though.
• Puzzle Hunt 2012 - September 29, online or (I suppose) San Jose.   I'm a little late on the notification here, but you can register for this charity puzzle hunt and play online.  Or you could fly down to San Jose, if you're that kind of crazy.
• First Thursday Adventure Run - October 4, Green Lake.  Last time, I actually won something!  But the $1 beers would probably keep me coming anyway.
• Lake Sammamish Orienteering - October 7, Lake Sammamish State Park.  No, you don't actually go running in the lake, silly.
• The Hunt for Odin's Horse - October 13 and 14, online and Ballard, free.  See above.   You must register by October 7 to compete in the live event on the 14th.
• Sunset Hill Hood Hunt - October 13.  Just call it Ballard if you like.  Start at 10:15, end at 11:30, find checkpoints in a 1 square mile area.  Free, {but/because there are} no prizes and you have to print your own map.
• Choose Your Corn Maze Adventure - October 14, Bob's Corn Maze, Snohomish.  Orienteering in a corn maze.  This should be interesting.  Starts early, before the maze opens to the general public, who would probably be confused by strangely-attired folks running through the maze.  I don't know, though, maybe next time they should just issue the orienteers Halloween costumes and have them scare the other folks.  Haunted Corn Maze!
• Art Dash for Ca$h - October 20.  12 hour (10am-10pm) Bike Scavenger Hunt for public art.  Teams of two or more required.  Cash prizes of some sort.  I am definitely intrigued.
• Messmann's Messquerade - October 27, 7pm, Belltown, $30/person.  Bike Scavenger Hunt, with costumed teams and a huge party afterwards.  A Halloween tradition, back after a year on hiatus.
• Choose Your Vampire Adventure - October 27, 6pm, Lynndale Park.  Orienteering with a twist.  A few orienteers are 'vampires' who can steal your punch card at any time.  And it's in the dark.  Spooky.

Photo Credits

Odin: spratmackrel via photopin cc
Earthworks: Hollingsworth via photopin cc
Messquerade team: xaqe via photopin cc
Moon: Sky Noir via photopin cc

Challenging

So proud of my baby

But first a word from our sponsor...

This Sunday, September 23, is the Fremont Oktoberfest Street Scramble, with a course I designed.  It's the fourth Fremont Street Scramble I've designed, and, like the past two, it has a theme related to a famous Fremont landmark.  30+ checkpoints, from SPU up to the Zoo; find as many as you can in 90 minutes, on foot only.  Starts at 10:30am at Solstice Plaza, but you'll want to be there earlier to check-in or register and plan your route.  And afterward, of course, you can enjoy Oktoberfest.

Oh wait, that's the expurgated version.

The Executive Version

I used geocaching.com for a number of months before I signed up for a Premium Membership.  What changed my mind?  I had started training for a half marathon, and I don't really enjoy running all that much. [So why run?  I find it helps keep my legs in shape for other pursuits I enjoy much more, like ultimate frisbee.]

Anyhoo, training for a half marathon involves lots of runs of 3-5 miles (plus some longer ones), which I used to find tedious.  I don't like when people wear their iPods while running, but I certainly understand it, as running is usually as dull as toast (plus the tunes can help keep your mind off how tired you are or how your shoes seem too tight or whatever).  But that all changed when I decided to add a geocache or two to each run.  Jog a mile and a half to Green Lake, find a cache, jog back.  I found this much more enjoyable than my old routine, and it also caused me to vary the routes of my runs.  (And in case you're wondering, the official word is that it's not the speed that counts for most of these runs, just the fact that you covered the miles, so a 5 or 10 minute break in the middle to find a cache doesn't matter).  I decided this upgrade in my running routine was worth rewarding geocaching.com with $30 of my money.

The first thing I noticed (besides a fancier version of the map of nearby caches) was the number of  'premium member-only caches' that I now had access to.  Which was a good thing, since the number of normal caches jogging distance from my house was getting pretty small, and many of the remaining ones I'd already tried and failed to find at least once.  In addition, Premium Membership brought with it a page of new statistics, such as:  "You found the most caches in August, and usually on Wednesday." [Really, Wednesday?  I don't know why.]  But this week I discovered something else...

Are you asking for a challenge?

Challenge Caches

I actually discovered my first 'official' challenge cache soon after I started caching, as the Puzzler's Puzzle Challenge is near my house.  Puzzler's Puzzle, like all challenges, is a regular geocache (so, a container hidden somewhere in a public place that you have to find).  Like all puzzle caches, there is a puzzle you have to complete to discover the true coordinates --- all caches have published coordinates, but for puzzle caches these coordinates are bogus.  What makes Puzzler's Puzzle a challenge cache is that, in addition to finding the cache, you have to complete another task involving other caches before you can legitimately count it as a find.  In the case of Puzzler's Puzzle, for each year from 2001 to the present, you have to find a puzzle cache hidden in that year. (Geocaching started in 2000, but there are apparently no puzzle caches left from that year.  Btw, after recently finding Minimalism on Queen Anne Hill, I only need to find one from 2001 to qualify).

Puzzler's Puzzle is rare in that it is a challenge cache that is not a Premium Member-only cache.  Most challenges are Premium Member-only partly because they're meant for people who geocache more than casually, but also because of all the other perks that Premium Members get that make Challenge caches easier to administer and check.  For example, many of the challenges involve those extra statistics I mentioned before:  Find a cache every day for a month (or year).  Find every possible combination of Difficulty/Terrain ratings.  Etc.

Another feature Premium Members get is the ability to save lists of caches (called Bookmarks) on the site.  This makes checking easier for the cache owners for certain types of Challenges.  For example, there are challenges based on the titles of caches, e.g., Find 10 caches with colors in their title.  Instead of typing in the names of the caches when you find the challenge cache, you can create a bookmark list for the cache owner to check.

This brings up one of the main drawbacks I've found with the geocaching.com interface:  there is no easy way to search cache titles near a certain location.  So, for example, for the colors challenge, I have found caches with Red, Blue, Green, White and Gray, and have a line on Silver, but I'd like to look for nearby caches with Yellow or Black or Orange in the title, and I see no way to do so (you can look for nearby caches, and you can look for the words, but not the intersection of the two.  Please tell me if I'm wrong, because I'd love to know how to do this).  The best way to find these caches is (surprise), Bookmark lists from other people who are interested in the same challenge (which are usually listed on the Challenge cache's page).  So you can go through those lists looking for people who appear to live nearby and the caches they found or are thinking of finding.

Organization!

Lists of Lists

This all sounds very geeky and obsessive-compulsive, particularly when you look at some of the challenges (Find 500 caches in one day!).  Still, one has to be a bit geeky and obsessive-compulsive to geocache in the first place, so not surprisingly Challenge Caches are very popular.  Some of the most popular varieties include Blackout Caches (find all the caches in a city or region), DeLorme challenges (find a cache on every page in a state's DeLorme atlas), or the aforementioned challenge of finding every Difficulty/Terrain combination (known in Washington and other states as the Fizzy Challenge).  Incidentally, challenges are usually broken up by state/province, if only because it wouldn't be fair to have someone in Florida have to find the final container for your popular challenge cache in Enumclaw.

I, being geeky and obsessive-compulsive, have taken up a few of these challenges.  Some, like the Cache by Numbers challenge I already completed without knowing it (well, completed it except for getting the cache in Lynnwood).  Others, like the Puzzler's Puzzle Challenge or Washington State Top 10 Cache Challenge, I'm partly through and happy to complete (the latter means a trip to Orcas Island!).  Others are on my radar but far from completion (like the Fizzy Challenge) or I doubt I will ever complete (Washington State History Challenge, consisting of the oldest active caches in the state, many of which are high in the mountains).  At the very least, though, this allows a geocacher to focus on something other than finding the next magnetic key holder under a bench.

Lamoracke maintains a good Bookmark list of Washington State challenge caches.

Mmmm.  Corn Maze.

Upcoming

(italics = new since last time)

• San Juan Island Quest - September 22.  12 or 24 hour adventure race.  Mountain biking, foot and (quelle surprise!) kayaking will be involved.
• Choose Your Own Adventure Alleycat - September 22.  Bike racing as a fundraiser for more bike racing!  I can get behind that.
• Fremont Oktoberfest Street Scramble - September 23.  Course design by yours truly. It's awesome.
• Three15er Rogaine - September 29-30, Naches. 4 hours, 9 hours, or 24 hours in the forests of the Cascades.  Note that the 24-hour race is the actual, honest to goodness North American Rogaining Championships.  Probably won't show up on Wide World of Sports, though.
• First Thursday Adventure Run - October 4, Green Lake.  Last time, I actually won something!  But the $1 beers would probably keep me coming anyway.
• Lake Sammamish Orienteering - October 7, Lake Sammamish State Park.  No, you don't actually go running in the lake, silly.
• Sunset Hill Hood Hunt - October 13.  Just call it Ballard if you like.  Start at 10:15, end at 11:30, find checkpoints in a 1 square mile area.  Free, {but/because there are} no prizes and you have to print your own map.
• Choose Your Corn Maze Adventure - October 14, Bob's Corn Maze, Snohomish.  Orienteering in a corn maze.  This should be interesting.  Starts early, before the maze opens to the general public, who would probably be confused by strangely-attired folks running through the maze.  I don't know, though, maybe next time they should just issue the orienteers Halloween costumes and have them scare the other folks.  Haunted Corn Maze!
• Art Dash for Ca$h - October 20.  12 hour (10am-10pm) Bike Scavenger Hunt for public art.  Teams of two or more required.  Cash prizes of some sort.  I am definitely intrigued.

Photo Credits

Stinkoman by HomestarRunner.com

Lists by Amy T Schubert via photo pin cc
Corn maze by Art Institute of Portland via photo pin cc

Catching Features

It's a secret checkpoint.  Yay!  From a week ago.  Boo.

This Saturday is National Orienteering Day, so let's talk about an orienteering strategy that you probably use already even though you don't know it.

A catching feature is something obvious that is past the point where you want to go.  If you see your catching feature, you know you've gone too far.  Consider the picture above (click on the link for more detail), from last Thursday's Green Lake Adventure Run.  You want to find the checkpoint at the traffic circle, which is clearly a block or so up from Green Lake Way.  But how do you know when to turn?  If you examine the map closely (and assuming you are coming from the east), you can see there is a building (depicted as a black rectangle) to the south of Green Lake Way a block past the street you want to turn up.  And it's the first building on the south side of the street for a number of blocks, so it's easy to spot.  This is your catching feature.  If you see the building, you know that's a street too far.

You've certainly used catching features in real life yourself.  For example, if I'm explaining to you how to get to Camp Seymour (on the Key Peninsula west of Gig Harbor), I will say something like this.  From Purdy, travel about 5 miles west on Highway 302, then turn left on 134th Ave KP N.  If you see the Shell station, you've gone too far.  The Shell station is your catching feature.  

Catching features should be hard to miss, and ideally easy to recover from.  That is, if you see the Shell station, you can just pull into the station and go back to the last intersection.  If you see the building at Green Lake, just turn around and go back to the previous street.  A billboard on an Interstate highway when the next exit is 10 miles down the road?  Probably not such a good catching feature.

Catching features are obviously useful as a sort of 'sanity check' to keep you on course.  They have other uses as well.

• If you have a catching feature, you can usually go faster to the next checkpoint, since you don't have to pay as much attention to where you are as you go along.  Catching features are thus particularly useful in long legs of an orienteering course, since you can concentrate on running the long distance as fast as you can, secure in the knowledge that you can slow down once you see the fence, or trail, or big lake, or whatever.
• If you're unsure about how long it will take to get to the next checkpoint, a catching feature is very helpful.  In a checkpoint race with a map, you can usually get a feel for how long it will take to get to the next checkpoint after you've done a few checkpoints and are used to the map scale.  But for the first few checkpoints when you're not quite sure how far it is to the checkpoint, a catching feature can help you know when to stop.
  
  Similarly, if a particular checkpoint is easier or harder to reach than others, a catching feature helps make up for the fact that you may not be able to easily judge how far you've gone.  So if all the checkpoints have been on flat ground, but this one is uphill, a catching feature gives you something to look for as you labor up the hill. Or when riding a bike, if all the checkpoints have been downtown so far (where the going is slow due to stoplights and traffic), and the next one is a couple of miles away down a bike trail, you'll probably want to create a catching feature so you don't blow right by it.

The Cascade Orienteering Club has a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' meet at Woodland Park this Saturday morning, September 15.  You'll get a map with a bunch of checkpoints, and you get to choose the order to visit them.  If you find them all, you head back and get a second map.  It starts at 11:15 and ends at 12:30.  If you show up early, there will be people on hand to teach you about orienteering, including, say, catching features.

So many chances to get lost in Seattle this Saturday

Upcoming

(italics = new since last time)

• 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.
• Redonkulous Scavenger Hunt - September 15, Seattle Center.  Sounds like an honest-to-goodness scavenger hunt.  First prize is a longboard (that's a type of skateboard, grandpa), but you don't actually have to know how to skateboard to compete.
• Keen Urban Playground Scavenger Hunt - September 15, Olympia.  This, on the other hand, sounds like one of those Amazing Race kind of things, rather than a scavenger hunt.  Papa needs a new pair of sandals!
• Urban Goose Chase - September 15.  Apparently September 15 is national scavenger hunt/urban adventure race day and nobody told me.
• Scavenger Dash - September 15.  See above.  Unless I'm missing something, this is 4 of these on the same day.
• San Juan Island Quest - September 22.  12 or 24 hour adventure race.  Mountain biking, foot and (quelle surprise!) kayaking will be involved.
• Choose Your Own Adventure Alleycat - September 22.  Bike racing as a fundraiser for more bike racing!  I can get behind that.
• Fremont Oktoberfest Street Scramble - September 23.  Course design by yours truly. It's awesome.
• Three15er Rogaine - September 29-30, Naches. 4 hours, 9 hours, or 24 hours in the forests of the Cascades.  Note that the 24-hour race is the actual, honest to goodness North American Rogaining Championships.  Probably won't show up on Wide World of Sports, though.
• First Thursday Adventure Run - October 4, Green Lake.  Last time, I actually won something!  But the $1 beers would probably keep me coming anyway.
• Sunset Hill Hood Hunt - October 13.  Just call it Ballard if you like.  Start at 10:15, end at 11:30, find checkpoints in a 1 square mile area.  Free, but no prizes and you have to print your own map(s).

Also:  It's another armchair treasure hunt book!  The first in a projected series.  We shall see.  I don't know if any of these (beyond the first ones, such as Masquerade and Treasure: In Search of the Golden Horse) have made their money back, so the likelihood we'll see a second is doubtful.  Still, the $250,000 grand prize is probably real.

Geocache puzzle(s) of the week:  Totally Tubular, Totally Tubular II, Totally Tubular III.  Deservedly the most favorite series of caches in Seattle.  They aren't hard to find; the puzzle is what to do with them once you find them.  Hint:  don't stick your fingers or a stick or any other object inside.

Photo Credits

Map:  Cascade Orienteering Club.

Puzzle hunt logo:  Kristi Sundquist

The Finer Things

Instead of talking about how to win stuff, let's talk about the stuff itself.  I spent the Labor Day weekend enjoying prizes, rather than trying to earn more, so let's take a moment to bask in the glory of winning and what it affords the winner.

Ready Player One wrap up

Last week, Ernie Cline wrapped up his Ready Player One contest by giving away a DeLorean to Craig Queen on a webcast (see above).  Countering my fears, Craig was a legitimate Ready Player One fan who managed to break a video game record with little previous experience (although he did it on the Atari 2600 version; I still maintain breaking a record on an arcade console probably just wasn't going to happen).  But since this blog is about enjoying the finer things, take a look at Ernie's blog post with Craig enjoying his DeLorean in his home in Kentucky.  Clearly, Craig was never going to buy a DeLorean himself (nor, for that matter, would any rational person on a budget).  And he'll probably end up selling it eventually. But for a time, Craig gets to act out the role of 1980's 1%'er (hopefully minus the cocaine).  I love that.

The DNA is out of control

Theater for Life wrap up

Similarly, Seattle Rep gave away a lifetime pass to its plays to a random participant in its scavenger hunt a couple of weekends ago.  The winner, Joe Perez, probably would not be buying season tickets to the Rep for the next umpteen years, but now gets to hob nob with the theater subscribers from now until (one presumes) most of the rest of the 21st century.  Personally, this was one of the best, most fun events I've done this year, even though we didn't win a damn thing (unless you count a few soup mugs and some paper airplanes with Boeing Boeing printed on the sides).  The Seattle Center is a great location for a scavenger hunt:  big enough that it takes time to run around, and small enough that anyone can do it (plus you don't have to worry about crazed contestants jumping out into traffic).  If the Rep doesn't put on another one of these events, I hope one or some of the other Center residents does.  Imagine a hunt put on by Rat City Rollergirls + The Pacific Northwest Ballet.

[And I know I said I wasn't going to talk about how to win stuff, but here's one tip anyway:  the real deal at the Theater for Life Scavenger Hunt (as with many similar events) are the raffle prizes.  And the sooner you get there, the more chances your little tickets have to win prizes.  So show up early and stick around.  Most of the people who were there early seemed to win something; the Rep wisely had a food truck, free drinks, and activities (worth more raffle tickets) to keep people around, but even if they didn't, just bring a book.  I'm pretty sure those horseback riding lessons were worth an hour of waiting around.]

In the days before $55 tickets (also:  dig the banana seat!)

The Platinum Pass Experience

Courtesy of our Emerald City Search win, I had a pair of Bumbershoot Platinum Passes this year, as well as free parking (the prize pick of my wise wife).  I go to Bumbershoot every day of every year without fail, so I was going to attend anyway, but it was interesting to see what a Platinum Pass got you.  First of all, you get treated really well with the pass, particularly in the Gold/Platinum lounge (in the lobby of the Leo K theater in the Bagley Wright theater building).  The lounge has free food and snacks, air conditioning and good bathrooms, along with volunteers to explain everything to you.  And as I learned later in the festival, the snacks function as basically all the food you need.  On Sunday morning, my son and I had a whole brunch spread.  Later I enjoyed a Pig Iron barbecue meal, and a Vietnamese food buffet.  At other times you could get handmade ice cream or Trophy Cupcakes.  I spent a lot less on food at this Bumbershoot than before.

The other main thing the Platinum Pass gets you is freedom from (most) lines.  You can waltz into the mainstage at Key Arena, the Exhibition Hall, SIFF Cinema and all comedy shows (to be safe, you should show up 15 minutes in advance for all these except Key Arena, but most of the time it isn't a problem even if you're just a few minutes before the start of the show).  Because you get into the comedy shows, you don't have to stand in line for comedy passes (the line was particularly terrible this year).  On Sunday, I handed a Pass to my 12-year old son and he just went from comedy show to comedy show all day (Free-Range parenting at its best) and had a great time.

Other perks include a free poster, $25 of merchandise, and 2 drink tickets per day.  The drink tickets were the biggest disappointment, as they had to be used at the Bumbershoot beer gardens, which feature the worst liquor choices known to man (Bud, Bud Light, Barefoot Wines, Stoli...).  The only good beverage I had at a beer garden was the local tonic water I had in a vodka and tonic; I only found this tonic water at one of the gardens.  The beer gardens can have long lines, which your Platinum Pass will not help you bypass.  You can bypass the lines by going to the 'exclusive' club in Key Arena, but you can't use your drink tickets there, and the beverage choices are the same execrable choices at the Bumbershoot beer gardens.

If you want to drink at Bumbershoot, you should get beer or wine at the Armory (the new/old name for the Center House), which has a spruced up food court with choices like Skillet Counter, MOD pizza, and Eltana bagels.  If you go to Quincy's, you can take your beer out on the porch and listen if not exactly see the band at the Fisher Green stage.  Bonus:  the Armory food is a bit overpriced normally, but at Bumbershoot it is a veritable bargain (especially MOD pizza), a fact that most people figured out by Monday, which caused the food court to be mobbed at dinner time.

Still, the real solution here is for Bumbershoot to step up its beer garden game, just like the (former) Center House has done.  Get rid of the Orange Julius (Bud) and bring in the Skillet Counter (insert your favorite local microbrewery), at least for a couple of the beer gardens.

Hmmm.  I seem to have gone off on a tangent.  Back to the theme:  A Bumbershoot Platinum Pass makes you feel like a member of the 1%, particularly in the lounge.  If you spend most of your time at comedy, mainstage, or film shows, it may be worth it.  But if you spend most of your time watching outdoor shows, it probably isn't.

Also, looking at what a Gold Pass gets you, it seems if you're willing to buy one of these, you might as well buy a Platinum Pass.  Unless you're really into the mainstage shows, I suppose.

Upcoming

(italics = new since last time)

• 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.  Here's a class on designing orienteering courses, put on by Cascade Orienteering Club.  If you end up designing 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.
• Eastside Photo Scavenger Hunt - September 9, Bellevue.  In a photo scavenger hunt, you take pictures of the items instead of hauling them around (which would be problematic if you had to get that statue of Kemper Freeman).
• 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.
• Redonkulous Scavenger Hunt - September 15, Seattle Center.  Sounds like an honest-to-goodness scavenger hunt.  First prize is a longboard (that's a type of skateboard, grandpa), but you don't actually have to know how to skateboard to compete.
• Keen Urban Playground Scavenger Hunt - September 15, Olympia.  This, on the other hand, sounds like one of those Amazing Race kind of things, rather than a scavenger hunt.  Papa needs a new pair of sandals!
• Urban Goose Chase - September 15.  Apparently September 15 is national scavenger hunt/urban adventure race day and nobody told me.
• San Juan Island Quest - September 22.  12 or 24 hour adventure race.  Mountain biking, foot and (quelle surprise!) kayaking will be involved.
• Choose Your Own Adventure Alleycat - September 22.  Bike racing as a fundraiser for more bike racing!  I can get behind that.
• Fremont Oktoberfest Street Scramble - September 23.  Course design by yours truly.  I'm halfway done, and it's already awesome.
• Three15er Rogaine - September 29-30, Naches. 4 hours, 9 hours, or 24 hours in the forests of the Cascades.  Note that the 24-hour race is the actual, honest to goodness North American Rogaining Championships.  Probably won't show up on Wide World of Sports, though.
• First Thursday Adventure Run - October 4, Green Lake.  Last time, I actually won something!  But the $1 beers would probably keep me coming anyway.

Photo Credits

Bumbershoot: Seattle Municipal Archives via photo pin cc