You can find some zany things on the streets of San Francisco. Take, for example, this turkey. Not a live one. Not a cooked one. This gobbler can be found in the shape of a bike route.
As San Franciscans on Reddit explain, this route through the eastern part of the city is in the outline of a holiday bird.
Note the attention to detail: This turkey has feathers, a wattle, and even a pilgrim hat with buckle. Half a dozen streets make up the beak alone.
GPS doodling in the streets has been a common past time for years, but note that particularly committed cyclists have shown up to ride the turkey, beak and all, since 2013.
And you’ve got to be committed to take on this route: In addition to being disarmingly cute, the turkey is also one of the most grueling workouts. This bird covers over 50 miles of street, including the punishing hills of Pac Heights.
The turkey stretches from the crown of its hat in the Marina down to the tips of its claws in Visitacion Valley, from its tail feathers on Third Street all the way to its front at Mount Sutro.
The breast alone takes you through the Mount Sutro Reserve and Glen Canyon. Just look at this GIF of the route: Almost every single neighborhood east of Twin Peaks gets a piece of this bird.
And if you dare to put in the pedal work, this bird is likely to get a piece of you too. The cycling app Strava assigned Bret Lobree’s 2014 turkey ride a “suffer score” of 150.
Although we tend to think of turkeys as succulent feasts, in reality they’re famously tough birds. Why should this one be any different?