Anal Vice teamed up with BrownFinger for my 100th run! Yay! Wings in the bag! I arrived with moments to spare and set off with Chuckie towards the first check. An excellent circle to start with – so many options, and my choice was the not so obvious little path that cuts over a weir and up a small cliff. Sure enough, I was right, and broke into a bit of a trot. Not far later there was another circle, and although I was wrong to begin with (heading to the left) I spied paper off up the hill to the right. Crossing back across the dried up canal, I ducked in front of Stiff & Chuckie as we all headed that way.
CW & I pushed on up the hill, with Stiff keeping in touch behind – no sign of the rest of the pack. We drifted off trail for a moment and Stiff caught up at a V check. CW had managed to pass me when we lost paper, so he got the choice. Damnit! He took the tempting trail heading up the hill, leaving me with an ugly descent into a canyon. I was just clambering out the other side when I heard the “Check Back” call from CW. I pressed on listening to the conversation behind me. The next few checks I got right, including the check where we had to go back to the trail that cut off to the left before the circle.
Things were going well, so I pushed on. Finally a V check, and I picked left, regretting it immediately, but regretting it more when I saw the check back. Damnit – back up the hill, and CW ducked ahead of me – nobody else around… I pushed on and caught CW – but another couple of circles I just followed CW as there didn’t seem to be another option. Finally we got to a False Trail. It was a very strange check. I predicted the false trail, and had found some back checks before CW found the FT. Very odd. What were the bars for? First I cut up the hill to the right and then I ran over to a trail to the left that we’ve used before, but no sign of paper. I ran back to the main trail and explored up the hill to the right again – still no sign of anyone else.
Down to a circle check, and the obvious trail was right, while left would take us back to the false trail check backs. A hidden trail straight on was my choice and I set off. I was right and pushed on. Where was the rest of the pack? Another circle – tempting to go to the right, but I was starting to 2nd guess (or 3rd guess) these hares. I was deep into FRB psychology & picked the way to the left, back towards our other trail – nailed it! I’ve got these hares in my pocket – I could run it blind! A V-check – yeah right! I hardly even noticed it as I swept by to the right (to go left would only meet up with the check I got wrong). This was it, this was the dream! The perfect hash! Nailing all the checks! I was the hash god!
I ran along, and when the paper turned left, but the main trail went right, my confidence was exploding. Of course it would be a false trail – I set off down, but no sign of paper… 60m down, damnit, back up, and 30m past the corner was a circle. Arrrrgh! Not a false trail, it’s a circle check, and I only got to 90m! Back down the hill again, 100m, 110m, 120m… Damnit! I had to go back up and the pack would surely be on my ass any moment? Paper heading up again – “ONON” – silence from behind. OK, I’m still good! 😉
Emerged onto a larger trail at a corner. I was 50/50 – left or right. Right went down hill, left was a little up… I picked left, but after 120m or so, knew I was wrong. Ugh! I trudged back to the junction, and still no response when I called OnOn. Dipped down, and back up to the road – a brief stretch with no paper, and then another circle at the “road”. Again, left was up, and right was down. This time I went with right and jogged down only to find no paper, and have to climb back up again. Sure enough there was the paper up over the hill – and still nothing behind – WTF had everyone done???? From here the rest was pretty clear – we’d go back in on the out trail, so I jogged on in, and congratulated the hares on a fantastic job – it really was a great trail! I grabbed a soft drink and started debriefing the trail. 5 minutes… 10 minutes…. 15 minutes…. we started wondering were everyone was… Finally the pack came in grumbling about the lack of trail… At least Suckit seemed to find it as well – but he was running solo as well.
You have got to love this hashing shit!