Some Gainesville bikers are getting cranky about Thanksgiving, but it’s OK — it’s for charity.
For the first time, local bike enthusiasts can participate Sunday in Cranksgiving, a Thanksgiving rendition of an alleycat scavenger hunt designed to help stock local food banks with Thanksgiving dinners.
Alleycats are scavenger hunts that were started by bike messengers as a competition to see who could navigate a city the best.
Registration begins at 2 p.m., one hour before the start of the event, at The Kickstand, 1123 SE Fourth St. At 3 p.m. Sunday, bicyclists will receive a list of checkpoint locations. To finish the scavenger hunt, participants must complete a task at each checkpoint, wrote Eva Suárez, an event organizer, in an email interview.
The required tasks at each location are secret, but Suárez said bikers should plan to ride about 10 to 15 miles. She suggested participants also wear helmets and bring backpacks and $10 to buy groceries to donate to St. Francis House.
“We’ve got an incredible bike scene and supportive community here — the ingredients for a well-attended, fun, lightheartedly competitive race,” Suárez said.
Geoffrey Grooms, a 20-year-old Gainesville resident who will be riding in Cranksgiving, said this type of scavenger hunt is rewarding.
“It’s really challenging because you are not given the locations of the checkpoints, and you are not given the cleanest route,” he said.
A version of this story ran on page 3 on 11/22/2013 under the headline "Holiday bike scavenger hunt launches in Gainesville"
