Click here for pre-ride info about the Mini Ride
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Thanks for all of you who rode with us today and those of you who were with us in spirit! It was a fun little ride. While we didn't make it naked all the way to the beach we still had a good ride and we learned a lot about several things by talking with the police and meeting together at the beach. We do have some new contacts and projects coming up to work with. That last hill coming up from the beach was quite a workout!
This marked the fourth naked Seattle bike ride in 2005! This year the number of naked bike rides doubled in Seattle!
The Mini Ride passes along The Elliot Bay Trail in the Interbay District on its way to Magnolia District. Above images courtesy Ty Metsker.
Time of departure was ~2 PM after meeting around 1:30PM at Mrytle Edwards Park, just behind the Seattle PI building. We had nine total cycling with us (Seven initially meet up at Myrtle Edwards and did a small photo shoot with the PI building in the back, two joined us on the trail (one of whom had just cycled furiously all the way from Mercer Island), one left near the end of the trail part, one left when police stopped us, so seven made it to beach). We had one non-riding photographer, and one cycling photographer. Shannon was bodypainted. There were eight men and one woman.
The Mini Ride passes along Magnolia Boulevard where the Seattle Police asked us to put on our clothes for the remainder of the ride. Above images courtesy Ty Metsker.
We deviated in our route by going up Thorndyke Ave to Magnolia Blvd., where we got stopped by five West Precinct police cars and five officers around W Bertona Street. Police took down our ID information, talked separately to Daniel. They were responding to about 2-3 calls. We are not sure, but this may be the first time the police have brought a naked bike ride in Seattle to an end.
A lot of us were very impressed with how nice they were to us and how direct and honest they were with us. Part of the problem was that they did not know about the event ahead of time. We were asked to dress and continued on our ride to the beach were we took a group photo and discussed beach campaign, progress, strategies with meeting with park and police officials.
Correction: there is a paved path most the way to the beach, despite what daniel earlier stated
Check out Shannon Kringen's LiveJournal blog entry on the event
clean slate shannon (shannonkringen) wrote,
@ 2005-09-24 19:08:00the bike ride was kind of a disaster! only 7 of us showed up...i was the only female- we rode for quite a while then the police pulled up with 3 cop cars- and told us to get dressed cuz people complained in the neighborhood! the men were all nude...i had on silver bodypaint, g-string, sparkly stickers covering my nipples-i was technically LEGAL but even that offends some people.
the police took all our names/addresses and phone numbers. silly! they were very easy going about it though. we are trying to get a legal nude beach in the seattle area. quite a challenge in this coversative town!
one person did ride by and took pics of us with the police and yelled out "goddess kring!!!"...that made me smile!!!
after the bike ride i showed up to my photo shoot with the bodypaint on! the photographer took pics of me before and after...washing it off in the hotel room shower...
glad i made some money tonight and got some good exercise on steep hills on my bike- it was nice seeing naked men!!!
i am tired now...i might be coming down with a cold...i can feel my body temp is higher than normal...and my immune system is fighting something off!
Next events locally (tentative):
Polar Bare Dip mid Jan 2006 BFC/SFBC
World Naked Gardening Day Year 2 - earlier date? BFC/SFBC
Solstice Parade ride! separate event
Body Pride Ride at Gay Pride? BPR group
WNBR Seattle 2006 (Ride 4) - Main Event -moving to July? Possibly a joint event TRP/WLP/BFC & ?
WNBR Seattle collaborative event - August (Ride 5)? Hint: today's mini ride may have something to do with this. TRP/WLP/BFC & ?
Mermaid Swim 2006 Sept? BFC/FKKayakers
Thanks everybody for helping out!!!
Those of you who did not have a chance to make a donation today can make one through Body Freedom Collaborative at:
Every little bit helps! [The Work Less Party USA and The Rainbow Party do not yet have a bank account, incorporation is still pending]
-Daniel