HRA jumps off the plane from his Spanish holiday and before he has the chance of a siesta, he is off laying trail! Ole!
It’s nice not having work commitments on a Thursday night anymore – nice to be able to join the happiness of the CH4! We started close to the football field at a newish shelter that HRA prefers – a few rumbles of thunder in the distance, but we didn’t need the shelter in the end, except for some shade. We were set off, but not towards the usual trail to the left, today we were heading towards the temple. A first check had me and Chuckie heading straight to the left and straight to the paper as it led up the trail towards the back of the temple. Another check and we had to separate, with CW taking my prefered choice up the right back. I was on the left bank, but the trail just seemed so overgrown that I could barely figure out where it was headed. After CW didn’t call, I pushed harder and eventually picked it up with Cartoon not far behind.
Another check and I turned sharply right up the hill. Of course I was correct and had a bit of a lead that took be to a false trail – typical, I should have seen it coming! Tasty slipped past as we headed along the ridge. Another check and most of us just follow Tasty – nobody wanted to head down the hill yet. So with a reasonable pack together at the front, we had HRA’s moment of genius. Straight past one junction had us expecting a false trail, but instead we got a circle at the next junction. I checked in several directions wrongly. ABB and Does Nothing caught up, it taking some time before Knockout called heading down into a gully along a “trail” that has long since been forgotten! It was overgrown, but it was a trail at one point – a long time since we’ve used it, and at the bottom was HRA with a nice smug grin handing out cups of beer.
We crossed straight over the road onto the football field side, and I caught up as people were trying to solve a false trail. A few were confused having solved it wrongly having found some old paper. I spotted something up another bank and sure enough I was back on, heading steeply uphill. I got another check or so right, always heading back up, up, up! I was starting to get hot, wanting to slow down a bit, but CW encouraged me up to the top, before passing me and getting first pick at the next circle. We were both wrong, and TMB sped through, charging back down the hill leaving us to chase her.
Good checks throughout the run, and the pack was running well together. At the bottom I detoured around the hill, rather than heading back into the forest, meeting Burritto Butt who was wandering around way off paper, but we managed to intercept the pack at the last circle. The ladies all aced it, and the first three back were all ladies – TMB, KO and Anywan – the guys were enjoying the view, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens again! Another great, well thought out run – good job HRA!