11km south on canal road – a bit of a trek, but I sloped out of work and headed down to see what he had in mind. The crematorium, and no doubt the familiar trails behind it. A modest crowd assembled, missing some regulars, but swelled by the visiting Cabbage Patch, the returning Head Hacker and soon to be named ‘Pee On Me’. Looking around, I suspected I would need to do some work finding the trail…
We set off and Pee On Me, Skiddy and I arrived at the first circle together. Setting the circle around the corner gave a big hint as to where the On In trail might be, and already my mind was racing ahead on trail. Sure enough, I picked the first check right, and then the 2nd took us along the fence at the side of the temple. Lovely running trails, and I jogged along enjoying it. We had to turn right sooner or later, it was just a case of picking the right trail. Nice, I nailed it, and a long, long stretch for me to open up the legs on. Calls faded behind me – could I keep up my luck?
Finally a circle check on a main ish trail, so I took a moment or two to double check my bearings… It gets very disorienting along those trails at times, so once I knew where I was, I opted for the small trail that isn’t completely obvious – after 100m, I called “On On” into the silence behind me. How long would my luck hold out? A few more checks and I found my self looped back around to the right, climbing through shiggy. From away to the right, a faint call, I called back, but it was fruitless, the rest of the pack were the wrong side of a gully, heading on the loop I’d just done.
Rare do you nail every check in a hash, and sure enough, finally the hare got me at a cross check. It seemed like time to head back, so I picked straight on – check back. From there I could arc up through the shiggy to the other trail, and again, check back. Back to the check leaving one option, so I neatly kicked the check out for the rest of the pack, and headed on. One more circle check had me a bit muddled, but with silence behind, I found trail and headed towards the OnIn.
There was one final F*ck You from the hare, with a dummy false trail off to the left. I picked up the paper and reset it before heading back for a beer. Nice one Chuckie, but I had you pegged! Good circle – I hadn’t planned on staying for it, but hey, hopefully I’ll get on top of things tomorrow…
(No, I didn’t short cut!)