Now imagine one of those things loaded with $14,000 worth of loot from the likes of Niner Bikes, SPOT, Burton, Jackson Kayaks, Yakima, Kelty, Ground Industries and WNC Outdoors. Now keep your eyes closed and imagine all of it being yours. That’s a lot of booty, with which you can have an awesomely adventurous time.

But day dreaming about it as you sit in your cubicle isn’t going to make you the owner of all that stuff. Instead, SylvanSport is making it interesting and challenging for you by making you enter the Cache Me… If You Can contest. SylvanSport has hidden this Transformer-like treasure chest of goodies somewhere in the world, and the person who finds it will claim it as their own.

Once you register for the contest, you’ll be privy to weekly video clues, which will contain geo-caching coordinates and a verbal clue pointing you in the direction of where the X marks the spot. You’re going to have to use your skills, creativity and sense of adventure…and likely some friends…if you want to win.

But that’s not all! In addition to the materialistic windfall this contest will bring to someone, SylvanSport will be throwing a lot of support to LiveStrong/The Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Remember: you can’t win if you don’t…enter.

Got a story about adventure? Let’s hear about it in the comments below!

We have some fantastic news coming out of the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC this morning. The League of American Bicyclists is reporting that Google Maps has finally added a “bike there” option to the choices of directions between to locations.

According to the press release from the League of American Bicyclists:

“This new feature includes: step-by-step bicycling directions; bike trails outlined directly on the map; and a new “Bicycling” layer that indicates bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly roads. The directions feature provides step-by-step, bike-specific routing suggestions – similar to the directions provided by our driving, walking, or public transit modes. Simply enter a start point and destination and select “Bicycling” from the drop-down menu. You will receive a route that is optimized for cycling, taking advantage of bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly streets and avoiding hilly terrain whenever possible.”

If you’re reading this article, chances are you’re as excited about this as we are. Not only is this a great tool for planning rides and commutes, but it also gives yet another example of the visibility, impact and importance of cycling. Like Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists says, “It is a game-changer…”

You can see all of this in action, along with a cool little video and some instructions here.

Are you excited about this? How will this impact your riding and/or commuting? Let us know your thoughts by adding a comment below.

If you haven’t seen them, check out Friday’s and Saturday’s photos, too.

Yes, the green trike is a pedal-powered lawn mower, courtesy of Ted Wojick.

[Ed notes: Since this original post, Justin's added a day two gallery and day three gallery.]

I’m pretty stoked about this bike for a couple of reasons; 4-6″ of travel that adapts to your needs automatically, the 69º headtube should be about right for the application, and the sub 30 lb weight could round this bike out to make a hell of a package.

So, how does it ride? Good question. As I’m sure you’re well aware, we’re in a bit of a holding pattern until our 20″+ of snow melts. We’re actually planning a Dirt Rag spring break trip to the deep south simply to do some bike testing.

For now though, I’ll just have to show you some pictures and specs.