Come Solo: The West Asheville Field Guide — A Haywood Road Photo Challenge

Coming alone? Good — that is the ideal way to do this one. Nobody needs to bring a friend. You show up by yourself, we put you on a team of four, and you spend the afternoon with them.

You get a phone, a team of four, and 75 minutes on Haywood Road.

This is a photo challenge, not a walking tour. Each team gets a card with a dozen very specific, slightly ridiculous challenges scattered up and down Haywood Road in West Asheville — track down a certain pair of country-and-drag icons painted on the side of a salon, get a staff recommendation at a record store, talk your team into the strangest group photo you can manage. Points for each one. Bonus points for style.

Teams are drawn at the start, so you will be paired with people you have not met. That is the entire point. It is much easier to talk to strangers when the four of you are trying to find a mural. Most people here will not know anyone either — that is true of nearly every Transplants event.

Then we come back to Archetype West, score everything out loud, and hand out some entirely unserious prizes.

The Plan:

• 2:00 PM — Meet at Archetype Brewing West, 265 Haywood Rd. Grab a drink, get sorted into teams of four, pick up your challenge card.

• 2:30 PM — Teams head out on foot. The play zone runs along Haywood Road between Archetype and Firestorm Books — a little under a mile each way.

• 3:45 PM — Back at Archetype. Teams turn in their photos.

• 4:00 PM — Scoring, prizes, and food. Gan Shan West's kitchen opens at 4:00, so this is the eating part of the afternoon.

• 5:00 PM — Official wrap. Stay as long as you like.

What to Know:

• Solo is the default. Teams are assigned on arrival, so you will never be standing around trying to join a group. If you do bring a friend, we will usually split you onto different teams — you will both meet more people that way.

• If you are running late, just text or comment and we will slot you into a team when you get there.

• Free. No ticket, no buy-in. Food and drinks are pay-your-own, and nothing on the challenge card requires spending money.

• All you need is a phone with a working camera and shoes you can walk two miles in.

• Archetype has free on-site parking, which is a real gift on Haywood Road on a Sunday.

• Archetype does not have its own kitchen. You order from the neighbors around the shared courtyard — Gan Shan West opens at 4:00 PM, and Pizza Mind and OWL Bakery are right there too.

• There is a front patio, a back patio, and a rooftop, so we will have room to spread out. The brewery is dog-friendly, though a 75-minute walk in the middle of the afternoon is not ideal for every dog.

• Haywood Road is being resurfaced through November. Crews work overnight rather than Sunday afternoons, but you may hit a freshly paved stretch or a crosswalk under construction — watch your step at intersections.

• Rain plan: if it is genuinely pouring we will call it. A little drizzle and we go anyway.

Why This Event:

Most ways of meeting people involve standing in a room holding a drink and hoping. This one hands you a task and three teammates instead. You will finish the afternoon knowing a stretch of your own city better than you did at lunch, and you will have actually talked to people — because you had to, to find the mural.

New to Asheville or ten years in, knowing everyone or knowing nobody, come play.