Graven and Brown Finger… again!! Are they the only hares in town? In Maejo… again!! What the hell – I’d had a great day at work, and managed to get out to the runsite in time for the run… When the songthaews arrived we had a huge pack – 3 songthaew’s full!!! Lots of visitors, so a thorough (ish) hare brief – to be honest I wasn’t listening… We were set off and Humps and I ran off at the front.
I am very familiar with this area, having set many, many runs from that runsite, and scouted the area to death – which perhaps gives me an unfair advantage? First check, and chances are it is going to be left, I went left, and there was powder “onon!”, until there was quickly a V check that pointed the wrong way… “Damn! – False Call! Check Back!”. They’d made the same mistake that Big Top made on 8th December 2013 – the trails there are too close together for that. Back to the check and people were completely confused – Follow me! and finally Gorf called on from the correct junction. Knowing about the V-check meant the next check was easy, and I was off nailing a few checks with Chuckie getting one wrong behind me.
Up the hill, and now I could rule out quite a few choices at the checks – there is just no way of getting back reasonably if you go another way. I got away at the front, and my “checking” calls were from the next check along. I got to the trail at the bottom of the hill… Going left takes you straight back towards the “A”… too soon, unless they add another loop. I turned right – and no trail (I guess 120m isn’t far enough?), I went back and tried left… 120m and nothing. The overgrown trail? nope, it’s still overgrown… By now everyone was caught up, so I cut across to the parallel trail, and partway there Adorable called from the right (where I’d checked first). A gamble, and with CW following we intercepted the trail moments ahead of Adorable.
A false trail off to the right, and I should have been splashed for racism, as I shot off back on the right trail. Another circle. When Big Top set the same run, it caused us problems – turning left takes you back too quickly, so the temptation was to go straight on down. CW and I did, and eventually I heard Piggy calling on from over to the left. DAMN! 2 choices, go back, or possibly do a long cut around… Another 50m and I was back on trail. It was the same run… I jogged back on trail until Gorf and Piggy came running towards me, then I turned around and rejoined them. So now Gorf was chasing my ass and geez that guy can run, even late into the hash he’s looking in great shape.
Fortunately at that point, the route back was pretty clear to me… It was nice being able to keep pace with Gorf, and call him back when he was going off trail. Through the quarry, back to the main road, and there was Graven, still laying trail… Turn left, back along the road. Gorf was distracted by a false trail, and I slipped past him! OnIn! Woohoo! It was a great trail the first time, and a great trail again today, but the credit really belongs with Big Top!