Sex Pistol teamed up with Sheep Shagger, but he didn’t want anything to do with the run, denying any responsibility! The disco shelter stinks these days, the muddy entrance and surroundings becoming a trash dump, who knows what the mattress in the corner has been used for! At least we were protected if it rained, although rain earlier in the day had turned the approach into slush.
We set off and most of us had already seen the first circle, as we’d parked on the road and turned our cars right by it. CW and I discussed this, and neither of us had carried on along the road to look for paper. I wasn’t sure where he was going with that, because surely he could also see the paper dangling in the distance? Apparently not, as I was the only one who carried on along the road. I got the next check right as well – I suspect the wind and rain probably moved the discretely hidden paper and made it more visible. Straight along the road, how much further? Another check, just after the junction, so of course I went back and there was trail finally heading off the road towards the hills.
The checks were coming thick and fast, but I was still going well. A circle leading towards a false trail that I should have seen coming. I chased back to the front in time for the next circle. Possibilities to the right, but I pegged straight up to a strange V check. There was a natural V in the trails (hmmm… are trails really natural?) – but the V wasn’t there, instead it had one option going up a nice trail, and another option going straight up the side of a shiggy, shitty hill. I didn’t fancy that, but going straight I finally found a checkback stuck vertically on the back of a tree – wtf??? Back to haring school!
Instead of using the nice trail up the hill, we were forced into a shitty, shiggy scramble over steep, rocky, overgrown terrain. It wasn’t fun. The rains made it slippier, and ugh! We leveled off and then headed back down the otherside to the left – no trails, just a blind hack through. Back down the bottom, in a river bed there was another check, and a group decided to just stand and loiter while others started to scatter. I checked the wrong way twice before Chuckie called it from just up the gully. Again we went into another scramble climb – seriously the hares had done an impressive job of missing trails. These hills are crisscrossed all over with great running trails, but we were just hacking around and around, and up and up.
I walked, rapidly losing interest. Finally we hit trail for a short while and I could run for a bit, and caught up to the pack at a circle on the ridge line. There were a few calls of checking, but I was way behind Chuckie, surely he would have found it by now. There was no paper hanging at the circle, so where had it been laid? Nope, Tainted Turd was guarding the check and letting everyone else do the work. I started making my way towards where there is a concealed trail off to the left, and just as I got to hanging off the hill there was an ON call from right at the circle. FS! If you get to a circle, LEAVE THE PAPER THERE!!! Go and check, if you find the trail call ONON and someone else will lay the paper for you – that isn’t your job! You don’t have to find trail and lay the paper! It is a team game! Definitely don’t take the paper to go checking and then go back to the check when you find the trail, because then everyone else has to go even further checking in the wrong direction. Surely the hare brief doesn’t have to cover common sense?
Somehow I was back in the mix, with the pack back together. I ran out of the hill to another circle with TT right on my tail. I turned right, and within 30m wished I hadn’t. I knew where I was, and would hit the out trail, but I’d picked that option, so I had to run it out while TT did the other way. Except he didn’t. After going 120m or so the wrong way, I turned back to see him still just stood at the check, and heard him calling “ARE YOU?”. What the fuck was he waiting for? I lost it, to hell with this shitty trail and to hell with putting effort in. Next time maybe we all just sit and wait at the circle for someone else to solve it for us. I jogged back up to the circle, and saw the pack scrambling (again) up a steep back, and thought, screw this, I’m going back. Why do I do this again?