Thanks to everyone who rode across the city in the finger-numbing cold, buying groceries for the Rainier Valley Food Bank Saturday. You made Seattle’s first Cranksgiving a wonderful success! Over 30 riders registered for the ride’s start at Cal Anderson, and most of them made it to Genesee Park in Columbia City without conking out!

Riders received a free set of bike lights when they registered, courtesy of Cascade Bicycle Club. It was interesting that quite a few people, when receiving the lights, said, “Oh, I have a friend who is always riding without lights.” Encourage your friends to get lights! They would also make a great gift (and you don’t have to wait until some holiday to give it).

Riders came with all sorts of food-carrying rigs, including one cargo trailer (once the trailer rolled up, everyone knew their hopes of winning the “most-hauled” prize were doomed). Dave from Belltown Inn (one of the event sponsors) even brought his dog Stella along for the ride:

The super top secret route had riders going from Cap Hill to the Central District to the International District, up Beacon Hill and down to Columbia City.

In the end, Team Who-Haws won the top prize, a night’s stay at Belltown Inn. They finished in an hour and 20 minutes.

Who’s that chicken in the background of the photo? Why, it’s Sylvie Janecek! You might remember her from the Bicycle Music Festival this summer. She helped me with the planning and administrating of the event. It was a great time riding with a big chicken from the Central District to Columbia City. We got honked at a lot, as you might imagine.

Big thanks, again, to everyone who came out. Together, we delivered hundreds of food items to Rainier Valley Food Bank. Also, big thanks to all the sponsors. They stepped up on very short notice and enthusiastically helped make it happen.

Thanks to Dave at Belltown Inn for not only donating a prize, but also making copies of the poster to help with promotions. Thanks to Cascade for donating sets of lights to everyone who participated. Many people’s friends will be visible at night now. Thanks to CHS Capitol Hill Seattle for donating prizes for second place, biggest family rider haul and best costume (see CHS’s coverage here). Thanks to Central Co-op’s Madison Market for donating tote bags (though I may have forgotten to tell people to tell their cashier they were on the ride … oops). Thanks to my dearest Kelli at YogaForBikers for donating two free private yoga classes (she is teaching a class Thanksgiving morning to benefit Yoga Behind Bars).

Finally, thanks to Gene from Biking Bis for writing about Cranksgiving rides in other cities a few weeks ago and inspiring me to try to pull something like that off. He also came to the ride and wrote about his experience.

I had a great time, met a lot of great people and learned a lot about all the great little places selling food in this city. Until next year, Happy Cranksgiving, everyone!