The San Diego Sun is adding an extra level of excitement to this year’s Bike The Bay event by adding a scavenger-hunt-style game.
This 19th annual fun ride (it’s not a race) circles the San Diego Bay primarily along the Bayshore Bikeway. A highlight of the trip is the only chance each year to pedal a bicycle over the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge.
Bike The Bay will take place on Sunday, August 23. Stages of riders will be released into the course starting at 6:30 a.m.
The new game is called “San Diego Sun Spotters.” One winner who deciphers clues and photographs specific landmarks along the 25-mile Bike The Bay route will win a pair of tickets to the San Diego Food & Wine Festival, downtown’s #1 culinary event.
“The Sun Spotters game turns Bike the Bay into more than just a ride,” said Chloé Lauer, Executive Director of the San Diego County Bike Coalition, which produces Bike The Bay. “It gives participants a reason to look up, slow down, and really take in the beauty of San Diego Bay and the communities along the route.”
Riders will pedal through downtown San Diego, Coronado, Imperial Beach, Chula Vista and National City.
The San Diego County Bike Coalition has also added new options to the course this year. For those who feel like 25 miles isn’t enough biking, there’s now a 50-mile option. Do the course twice and traverse the Coronado Bridge twice.
Is 25 miles out of your range? Sign up for the 5-mile course. Then pedal out of the Embarcadero Marina Park South start/finish area and over the bridge. A ferry will be there in Coronado to bring you back downtown.
The 25-mile Bayside Bikeway is where Sun Spotter players will look for landmarks based on clues. Here are some of the basics to the game:
- Participants must be signed up for the 25- or 50-mile Bike The Bay course.
- To be eligible to play, riders must register for The San Diego Sun’s free weekly newsletter (sign up here).
- The night before the ride (August 22) the Sun Spotter clues about landmarks will be published on thesandiegosun.com.
- The clues will range from easy to challenging. All landmarks will be visible from the Bike The Bay course.
- Players will need to stop and take pictures of the landmarks. No landmarks will be found in areas along the course where stopping would be challenging, such as the Silver Strand. (No stopping on the Coronado Bridge.)
- After the ride, players will bring the phone containing their photos to be verified at the San Diego Sun booth at the Bike The Bay After Party on Embarcadero Marina Park South.
- In the event of a tie, a random drawing will determine the winner.
- The winner will be announced at the After Party. You must be present to win.
Besides finding out if you’ve won the SDFWF tix in the Sun Spotters game, there’s a new incentive to stay for the Bike The Bay After Party.
A new, upgraded party will feature street tacos and a beer garden. There’ll also be all kinds of vendors, a guided yoga session and a cornhole tournament. Live entertainment will include a mini-concert by festival headliner and award-winning country crooner Elizabeth Bowersox.
For more information about the events and to register for the ride, go to: Bike The Bay. SDSun
