Teriyaki Donut's route and report
27.7 miles, 890 points. 880 was announced at the awards ceremony, so perhaps I mismarked one.
This is apparently the farthest distance we have traveled in a Street Scramble, barely beating out Ballard 2007 (where we got 1000 points; I guess the courses are a little harder this year).
One of these days I'm going to have the guts to climb View Ridge, and save a lot of miles. Going out and back on Sand Point/the Burke Gilman is getting old. But with only the Bryant checkpoint on top of the ridge, there wasn't much to tempt me.
Also, Omar is good for a boost for about half a semi-steep block of pedaling now on the Trail-A-Bike, but I'm out of shape, so we probably couldn't have made it, anyway. I had to have him get off for the short but steep climb from Sand Point to the Burke Gilman at 77th.
Anyhoo, this time I plotted out a course to hit everything, but wisely did not leave the northern section until last. Instead, I left the U-District sweep, with 10s and 20s (and one 30 pointer), plus the Bryant climb, until the end. We ended up skipping Bryant, the herb garden, what I gather was the back of Hardwick's, and 13 --- oh so close on that one, but the traffic lights were not co-operating. We made it in with 20 seconds to spare.
A few random notes: the key to 34 was to find the big tree first.
Meridian Park has lousy access (if I were in a wheelchair I'd sue) --- please mark the access points next time for this one.
At 25 (Sakuma Viewpoint) we saw the Engers and the Crawfords after losing them shortly after the start. Just a coincidence, I guess.
At 55 (Rogers Playground) we spent a few minutes looking for a plaque over a bench in a courtyard before I noticed that was the wrong clue. Time to eat. Luckily, the climb up Interlaken was not as bad as I remembered.
That dumpster (57) sure did look familiar...
On the way to 47 (near the Arboretum), we saw the rest of our family (Loves Ketchup) heading away from 47. I told Omar we'd probably catch up with them, assuming they were going to 31 (Johnson's Antiques) next. We did, as they were waiting for the light to get back onto 24th Ave E. At 45 (Montlake Yacht Club) we left them behind as Emmett was whining for more junk food to eat.
I'm dubious that's the main entrance to Conibear Shellhouse (32). It was good someone else was puzzling over this clue while we were there, as I was afraid I had screwed up again just like at 55.
At 52 (Magnuson Park) we met the Engers again, eating a snack. They told us they had just come from Matthews Beach (51), where we headed next. I saw 51 was on the road, so I took Sand Point the whole way, and it was fast. I found out on the way back that this was because of a fairly strong south wind. By this point, I was very tired and there was about 35 minutes left, so I knew we would likely have to skip some checkpoints.
I planned all along to take 22nd Ave NE up University Ridge, and it worked out, leaving us 15 minutes or so to pick what we could in the UDistrict. After the real plaque above the bench (56 near Mercer Hall), I visited Grieg Garden (23), which Omar kept asking about during the ride ("Is this the one with the clearing in the forest?"). I knew Grieg Garden wasn't really in a forest (not since they cut down most of the remnants of the HUB lawn forest 20 years ago), but I thought it might be Grieg as soon as we read the clue after picking up our answer sheet.
From there we headed back to the start, with the choice of picking up either 12 (store hours) or 13 (16th and 47th). I headed for 12 in case we could get both, then was thoroughly confused by the clue, until I noticed the circle was pointing to a store in an alleyway, not a store on the Ave. I figured it was the church thrift store, and read the sign as we rode by. I headed up to 15th to try for checkpoint #13, but by the time we got to 47th, there was less than 2 minutes to go, so we scampered back to the finish and marked the last checkpoint answer there.