Trust me – you will want to watch the fly-by to figure out wtf happened on this one!!! (Link at the bottom)
I was late – escaping work is a struggle on Thursdays, so much that this was the first CH4 I’ve been on in months. I was about 15 minutes late setting off, with little hope of seeing another hasher on route, but what the hell? The trail, starting at the Sameong road football field, set off in the usual direction, towards the temple. A circle check at the bridge was kicked out to the left, so I set off in pursuit, but after 120-150m, I knew something wasn’t right, so I turned back and sure enough found the trail heading to the temple steps. Had the rest of the pack found this? What had happened ahead of me?
Some worshippers were making their way up the steps – very slowly, so I skipped past, trying to save energy, but also trying to push on. A V-check halfway up the steps, and thankfully it was kicked out to the left- firstly the hares had spared us the climb to the top, and secondly at least someone else was ahead of me! I jogged on down to the road, and circle check – fully intact. A nice pile of paper sat neatly in the middle. Hmmmmz…. I turned right, and climbed up the hill for 100m or so processing in my head, and realised how most of the pack might have shortcut. Turned out Poo had checked 200+m to find trail, and soon enough I was back on it, but no idea how far behind I was.
The next check was kicked out twice – straight on AND right. What were these halfminds up to??? I figured it was likely to be right, so went that way, and luckily found powder. A short loop up the hill and the next check was confidently kicked out to the left. A paper trail running down the hill. It took some finding, but eventually I found some powder heading across the quarry. It wasn’t marked anywhere near as clearly as the previous trail had been. Across the quarry and up the hill to a circle that had been completely decimated. WTF was going on? This was a check from a run from Cuckold a few weeks back.
Shit. What to do? I was pretty sure it was fucked up from the previous circle, so figured I’d head back there and see what I could find. There are multiple trails heading up the hill there, and as I set off up one, I heard people up ahead – it was Brownie, Piggy & Graven coming towards me. They confessed they were going backwards and ran out of trail. Together we found the interim circle, and after a brief discussion, they continued backwards, while I continued on. I was tempted to turn back, but also determined to complete the run.
From there I was on my own… Most of the checks were kicked out in the general direction, which made life easier, and the run really was a nice one – a bit of hill, but mostly teasing us with hills rather than a long slog. Thanks hares!