I set off excitedly looking forward to a new runsite turning RIGHT off the Sameong road… Fighting through traffic I drove around the mountain and followed Sloppy up the hill until we stopped just a few hundred yards away from where Struggles to Cum lives and the area behind Doi Kham – had I known I would have driven the shorter route! Lung La was quick to set off the other way back to the city after!
Anyway, we were in for a virgin run! I’ve heard HRA talk about scouting that area before (and deciding not to set a run there). Sloppy has tried scouting there, and opted against it. Shagless tried, but gave up, and Square Rooter, who knows every trail in the area still hasn’t set a run there… What had TMB found?
We set off, and I had some inside information that helped me out early on, although I’m still not sure I understood what I was instructed – it was nowhere near the in-trail, so perhaps it was some hare misdirection tactic? Either way we went up a hill, cut abruptly left and back down to where the hare was waiting camera in hand. Sloppy got ahead and as we crossed the road he made good time climbing the hill the other side. This was the mountain that even Turkey was afraid to set a run on – as we climbed the trail we were nervous about what was ahead of us. We followed the main trail, which makes it hard to put checks, but the hare tricked us a few times with false trails, only to loop around and rejoin the trail just ahead of where we were.
The tactic worked well and kept Turkey, Poo, Sloppy and I together, and after a while CW and some others joined us. There was a lot of climbing (216m total), so the kind of thing Belly would enjoy, but wouldn’t be proud of. The thought going through everyone’s mind was – how would we get back down from the hill??? Had TMB finally found the holy grail of hares? In short, no… After she’d had enough, she turned abruptly left and dropped us off the side of the hill. Straight down, sliding, slipping on the wet muddy slope.
It was little surprise that some struggled to come in daylight. Rooter got all the way to the top, and then knowing there was no pleasant way down turned back and jogged back in from the opposite direction. The first sections of the trail were fantastic – great running and some great checks, had the trail continued over the mountain it would have made an excellent miniballbreaker!