The most fun I've had on a bike

Written by Administrator

Monday, 12 October 2009 02:21

In the last year and a half, I've had a lot of awesome experiences on a bike. But, Saturday's Alley Cat Scavenger hunt is by far the most fun I've ever had on two wheels.

Here is the flyer for the ride:

2009 Alley Cat Scavenger Hunt flyer

The ride is put on, and benefits, El Grupo, which is a youth cycling club for kids 12-20 years of age. This is how they describe themselves on their site: "Our mission is to encourage the use of the bicycle for physical fitness, fun, and camaraderie. We target young people (ages 12-20) who do not necessarily identify with or engage in traditional sports, but have the determination and willingness to push themselves physically and mentally in the sport of cycling."

Each team was given a sheet of paper with a map on one side and clues on the other side. Check them out:

Clues (Rob Wisner)

Each team had to ride to the intersection listed and figure out the clue to locate a box with a part in it. The list of clues was not the order you wanted to go in because it would make you zig-zag across Tucson. The trick is to figure out the most efficient route AND figure out the clues quickly.

I teamed up with my friend Rob and we made a few tactical blunders. First, we didn't bring a pen to mark where we had been and where we were going. I ended up buying a pencil for a dollar from someone else who was participating. We ended up dropping the pencil and breaking the lead, and then lost it all together. We managed to pick up a pen from my in-laws' house at one point.

The second and much more damaging blunder occurred when we didn't include two spots on the West side of our route. It required us to ride several extra miles and cost us a lot of time.

Ultimately, neither of us cared that we didn't win, but I think we were both relieved we didn't come in last. I had an absolute blast riding around Downtown and the UA all out and trying to figure out what the clues were.

The scavenger hunt ended at the Time Market, where we had to assemble our "bell" from the parts we had collected around town. One of the stops was at Ben's Bells and I think that was the tie-in with creating a bell at the end.

Here is our bell we made:

Here are a couple more pictures at the end of the ride:

I can't wait for the 2010 Alley Cat!

Comments (2)

|2009-10-14 00:39:30 Kathleen

Awesome blog! So glad you had a great time.
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|2009-10-14 05:02:13 Michael McKisson

Thanks Kathleen. YOu were taking a lot of photos right? Will you post those somewhere, so that we can check them out?
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