 |
|
|
| |
Bike Scavengers: Riding the L.A. Treasure Hunt
|
6130 Reads
|
|
|
|
| |
 Just finished riding the L.A. Treasure Hunt - a twisting 25-mile bike cruise through Echo Park, Los Feliz, Griffith Park, Silver Lake, downtown, MacArthur Park, more downtown and Chinatown.
Kicked off with free tamales at Echo Park Lake and framed as a scavenger hunt to collect food and toiletries benefitting the Union Rescue Mission, the ride was everything a good, intimate 2-wheeled journey through this city should be: colorful, smelly, joyous, dangerous, painful, grimy and rewarding.
We had crystal-blue skies and cool destinations and nobody in our crew got doored ...
|
|
The 80 to 100 riders could have been harnessed more for the United Rescue Mission's benefit: I would like to have seen us assigned to gather a bit more food (we were all carrying big, empty bags, but the ride organizers only assigned each team to get only five bags of pasta, three lipsticks, a box of tampons and three pair of tube socks).
But hey, we did have a good time - although fixie-riding Dave is still recovering from the ride's steep hill content - and his haircut. His nicely detailed account is here.
More about the haircut below:
| The cyclists' Jolly Roger. |  | | Scurvy 'cycle pirates. Arrrrghhh. |  | | In scavenging, as in war, the first casualty is pants. I won't say whose. |  | | Task 1 - 5 bags of pasta - bagged. On to the "abandoned zoo" to feed the bear. |  | | The abandoned concrete enclosures of the L.A. Zoo were a real treat - I'd never visited before. Will and Eric fed the bear (delivered the pasta, anyway) and we got our next task: Every team member would have to find and kiss a stranger (on the lips) or one of us would have to suffer a "special" haircut. |  | | Climbing back up the steps from Riverside Drive to the Hyperion Bridge. Good for the quads. |  | | Ladies and gentlemen, for the record, Aaron David eecue Bullock is a mensch, a stand-up guy and a team player. |  | | No word yet on how specifically his fiancee murdered him upon seeing this after the ride, seeing as she had just given him a perfectly nice haircut earlier this week. But he saved us all from what surely would have been a painful case of cooties. |  | | Next a trip to buy some lipstick from the 99 Cent Store on Sunset, courier it over to 7th and Westlake for the next clue, which commanded us to buy tampons, visit Disney Hall and then head for the foot of the First Street Bridge. |  | | Massive police presence blocked the 110 NB for a few minutes as we rode down the 3rd Street overpass. Seconds before I took this shot, they had a stolen-car suspect proned out in the middle of the northbound 3rd-Street offramp, with two choppers overhead. The suspect's ride is the little black import near the left edge of the photo. They hustled him into the car for a fast ride to booking. |  | | Eric gets tight with Eazy-E for a portrait - for reasons known only to the people who made up the hunt tasks. What was that about, anyway? |  | | A view of the LAPD helipad, made famous in "Blue Thunder," among others. |  | | Will rocks the karaoke machine with a little "Whip It." |  | | End of the line - the foot of Fargo Street. A few of us were just dumb energetic enough to try climbing it. I made it to the top, but only after nearly falling off the bike three times. |  |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Posted by: Mack_Reed on Sunday, April 02, 2006 - 11:55 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
