Team Teriyaki Donut in the Central District Street Scramble 2004

Introduction

Team Teriyaki Donut is Elizabeth Walkup and I, Greg Barnes. We have lived in Seattle continuously since 1998, and off and on for about 10 years before that. Although we don't live near most of the checkpoints for this Scramble, we were familiar with much of the terrain because southeast Seattle, particularly along Lake Washington, is a popular place for us to take a bike trip. For this scramble, we competed on a tandem bicycle. You can see a picture of us at the top of the results page.

We entered the bike division of the Central District Street Scramble and stayed out for 3 hours. The tandem bicycle was both helpful (it let us travel faster and communicate more easily) and a hindrance (it's awfully hard to maneuver in close quarters and dismounting is not simple).

We visited 28 checkpoints and got 790 points. We visited all the points on the crest of First and Capitol Hills and the areas to the east save two. We did a lot of zigzagging to pick up checkpoints, but this was mostly north and south, where the elevation gain is slight. Our route basically picked up nearby checkpoints to the west and north so that we could pick up the Capitol Hill checkpoints before the Pride Day Parade started (we mostly succeeded in that, although we had to dodge a lot of people milling around the booths that were being set up in Volunteer Park). We then picked up checkpoints to the east down to the water (skipping Madison Beach), followed checkpoints south along Lake Washington to Franklin High, made our way up Rainier Valley, picking up most of the remaining checkpoints east of the Event Center. Our raw route:

44 [Post office], 10 [Terri's middle name], 36 [church years], 15 [portal to plaza], 25 [spools], 14 [pastors on marquee], 45 [shoe store], 13 [church urns], 33 [Capitol Hill Library], 42 [conservatory], 23 [apartment building steps], 22 [Miller Park], 34 [box near stairs], 24 [William Grose Pk], 37 [Verite Coffee], 31 [Lakeview Park], 40 [bridge intersection], 53 [diamond building], 46 [church near Frink Park], 20 [staircase], 43 [Colman Park sign], 52 [Franklin High], 30 [Colman Playfield], 32 [Judkins Park], 54 [Spruce St. Mini Park], 26 [church with red steps], 12 [Powell Barnett Park], 21 [Gerber Park]

We were first in our division, but since we were the only entrant, that wasn't surprising. We did do very well compared to the rest of the cyclists.

We biked almost 20 miles in 3 hours, which comes out to 6.7 miles/hour.

Notes:

• This Scramble featured the only serious error I have yet found in the official maps: William Grose Park is clearly shown as being between 29th Ave and 30th Ave, when it is in fact between 30th Ave and 31st Ave. This error was apparently on the base USGS map. [Note that the Seattle Parks park list has their own problem with this park, listing its address as 1814 30th Ave E, when it's actually 1814 30th Ave, but they repeat similar errors (unnecessary East directional designations on Central District Avenues) all through their list.]
• In the course of our route, we went down one of the steepest streets in Seattle, one of the streets east of 23rd Ave E near E Roy (to get between checkpoints 22 and 34). I can't remember which exact route we used, but I believe the block of E Roy just east of 25th is often listed as the steepest block in the city, and all of them nearby are scarily steep. Elizabeth got off the tandem and walked for safety. I used the brakes a lot.
• The shoe store (checkpoint 45) was closed when we visited, but luckily we could answer the question by peering through the windows.

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