Motorcycle Scavenger Hunt Idea: Would You Ride for Little Lending Libraries?

Spring riding season is officially back, and nothing kicks it off better than layering up like the Michelin Man and throwing a leg over the bike at 39 degrees. That was my morning today, knowing full well it would hit 73 by the afternoon. Pennsylvania weather, you know how it goes. But somewhere between trying to feel nimble in four layers of gear and realizing my phone was buried deep in my jean pocket under all of it, a thought I had been putting off all winter finally bubbled back up. What if we ran our own motorcycle scavenger hunt through the WaltInPA Discord?

The Idea That Has Been Sitting on the Back Burner

I have been meaning to put this together since last fall. I told myself it would be ready for spring. Then winter came and went and here we are. So rather than let it keep collecting dust, I figured I would just talk through it and see if anyone out there thinks it has legs.

The inspiration came from watching Scott over at Scott’s Moto Adventures participate in a BMW scavenger hunt called the coddiwomple. The basic concept is straightforward. You get a numbered bib like you would wear in a road race, attach it to your bike, and then go out and photograph specific things that match the year’s theme. Cannons, roadside chickens, landmark spots, things like that. You collect points for what you find and submit photos to get credit.

It sounds like a good time on paper. The catch, at least from what Scott described, is that the competition has gotten pretty lopsided. Some of the participants are retired riders who are essentially full-time on the road. They rack up tens of thousands of points and weekend warriors do not stand a chance of catching them. That is not really anyone’s fault. That is just what happens when a game gets popular. But it does make you wonder whether there is a better way to structure something like this, especially for a smaller, more local community.

Why Little Lending Libraries Make Perfect Sense

Here is the idea I keep coming back to. Little lending libraries are everywhere. You have almost certainly passed a dozen of them without thinking twice. They are those small wooden boxes on a post in someone’s front yard where you can take a book, leave a book, and keep the cycle going. Some are handmade and quirky. Some look like miniature houses. Some are tucked into public parks or sitting outside a fire station or a local business.

For a motorcycle scavenger hunt, they are kind of perfect. They are spread out across neighborhoods, small towns, and back roads, which means you have a reason to explore areas you might not normally ride through. They are easy to spot and photograph. And because they are all over the country, not just Pennsylvania, riders in other states could potentially participate too.

The point system I have been kicking around would look something like this. A little lending library gets you one point. A full-size public library is worth more, maybe five points. Used bookstores could be worth extra because they are fewer and farther between compared to a Barnes and Noble. The whole thing would have a reading and books theme running through it, which ties the stops together in a way that feels intentional rather than random.

Keeping It Simple on the Admin Side

One of the things that makes me hesitate about actually launching this is the validation side of things. Scott’s game has someone reviewing every single photo submission to award points. I have zero interest in signing up for that job.

My thought is to run it on the honor system and use a Google Form for submissions. Riders submit their photo along with a location, a timestamp, and their Discord ID. The form feeds into a spreadsheet with a formula that tallies points automatically by user. No one has to manually review anything. It would not be airtight, but for a small community challenge it does not need to be. The point is to have fun and get people out riding, not to run the Olympic trials.

The Part I Am Not Sure About

Here is where I genuinely want to hear from you. Some little lending libraries are on private property. They sit in people’s front yards or on their porches. That creates a real question about whether it is appropriate to pull up on a motorcycle and take a photo in front of someone’s house, even if the library itself is meant to be public-facing. The safer play would be to limit eligible stops to libraries in public spaces, parks, business parking lots, and similar locations, and I think there are still more than enough of those to make a solid route.

The bigger question is whether anyone would actually participate. I could build the whole thing out and spend a weekend riding around taking photos of lending libraries by myself, declare myself the winner, and call it a day. But that is not really the goal here.

What Do You Think?

If this sounds like something you would actually go out and ride for, let me know down in the comments. If there are things about the format you would want to see changed or added, throw that in too. I am not attached to any one version of this. The whole thing only works if people want to ride.

The bones are there. A motorcycle scavenger hunt with a books and libraries theme, an honor system points tracker, no admin headaches, and a reason to go find roads you have never been down before. Whether that turns into something real or stays a half-baked idea I talk about on camera is pretty much up to you.