Tag Archives: Graven Image

28th December – CSH3 – Square Rooter & Co…

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Square Rooter teamed up with Brown Finger, Big Top & Toe Sucker to bring us a ‘dirty’ new year run. With so many minds working together, what on earth would they come up with?

We set off and there were no checks for a kilometer, that was straight down a road – a fast start! Then turned abruptly and started up the hill, crossing onto some familiar trails that we’d run from Ob Khan before. Up to a ridge and the trail kept turning left – how? Several checks had me foxed because I expected us to end up running into old trails, but nope the sly hares had found another way down and I fortunately got lucky as we hit the checks at the bottom of the hill. A long flat section had Graven “following” me at the checks, along with Alice who was full of inside information!

We started scrambling up into the hills again, but now the checks were getting easier – unfortunately for me Sloppy Rod & Alice hit the front, along with “Grey Ham”. I preferred to hang back with Fandango, but we all managed to come in at the same time as the walkers on their walking trail. Except when I say “All”, I lie – as one visiting hasher didn’t make it back to the A. With the GM & hares exploring the hills in the dark, the circle was tough. Turns out the hasher was already back at the hash pub drinking beer.

All in all, a great run with plenty of challenge and a good warm up for next week’s ball breaker!

24th November – CH4 – Baldrick

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 1.0/10 (1 vote cast)

Baldrick as a hare – I’ve not done one of his runs before, but I was assured he knew what he was doing by Skid Mark at the hash pub the night before – strangely Skid Mark wasn’t there…

A rambled hare brief set us off with the promise of around 3-4km ahead. We took off running with Brown Finger and I setting a blistering early pace on the tarmac. We may as well right? It’s a short run, and we’re on flat road! Oops! It turns out the hare had his poker face on, or in other words, was full of shit! 3 or 4km turned out to be 3+4=7km for those lucky enough to find a short trail, and 9.5km for those who found a different trail.

The paper was sparse with an environmentally friendly hare cautious about putting more than 1 stamp sized piece of paper per 500m or so. A lot of guess work was involved. Rather than heading into the usual valley, we turned right, so that we could stay on the road – perhaps the hare was a bit scared of leaving the roads? A short climb up the stairs past a temple took us to the point of confusion. Being that deep into the run, we all wanted to head back towards home, and it was only Brown Finger who reluctantly checked left. You could hear the joy in his voice when he called us On! By then we were already making our way along the wrong side of the canal, so carried along. When I found a circle check I headed out into a construction site, finding occasional papers, and calling confidently enough to bring Chuck Wao and Dead Virgin along with me. Eventually we gave up on trail – it was too patchy, so we cut through a rice field to the road. When we hit the road we found Brown Finger and Graven Image, and trail!!!!

A bit of a climb over another ridge, past another temple, and back down… At least I saw the On-In, and finally I could hit the beers. Eventually everyone else trailed in covered in mud from their own stories. The circle was slow starting, but turned into an absolute classic. Dead Virgin and I took longer to recover from the pain of laughing so hard than it took recovering from the terrible run!

3rd November – CH4 – Itchy Bitchy

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 9.0/10 (1 vote cast)

Itchy stepped up, and the run was way down canal road – great running area. Itchy was coy in the harebrief, no clues as to how far it was but time to start running! I set off with None of Your Business and Brownfinger, and at the end of the road was the first circle check. Brownfinger graciously let NOYB take the most obvious trail, and pointed me out a further option. Pretty close to the circle I found pink paper – it seemed too close, but there was another piece. OK, I guess i’m on? A quick call and everyone came over to decide it was old paper. Back to the circle – everyone seemed to head off in the direction BF had been checking, but I went with NOYB to where he hadn’t gone far enough.

This time we found the paper, and were off. Familiar trails, and I nailed quite a few checks, out of contact with the pack behind me. Things were going well, and the ‘dream hash’ flashed through my mind… And of course then I got to the check that screwed me over! I checked straight, I checked right, I checked further right, and then set off left – finally I could hear the pack approaching from behind. I was wrong again! Where was the trail??? Even with the help of the other FRBs it took us another 5 minutes or so to find the trail, and the pack set off again – knowing that we must be turning right soon…

Of course we got it wrong when the trail didn’t turn right, and kept going straight. Finally we followed Square Rooter around to the right, and it was Poo that took up the pace along the mud roads back towards the A site. Brown Finger was on a mission to chase him down, but he did the right thing checking the dummy way at another junction, while Graven and I jogged along behind Poo. A further check, and it had to be to the left, but with Poo and Graven already checking there, I gambled on straight. There must have been some fuck up as it took forever to be called, by which time I’d started paralleling into a field surrounded by barbed wire. I had to head back, and ended up with 8k on the clock, some ways behind the true FRBs. We Are F R B!

21s October – CH3 – Humperdick

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 8.5/10 (2 votes cast)

Humperdick is a good hare and when I set off from work, I was certain we were in for a treat… Even if it was going to be a brief one as the run wasn’t going to start any earlier! (As the circle later turned into a Thai lesson “ดื้อ” springs to mind. Anyway, with little hope of finishing in daylight, we set off on Humper’s run.

The checks were excellent. Clearly well thought out, and sneaky – I would have been proud of them and been chuckling to myself as I spied on the erroneous hashers from behind the bushes – only this time I was a runner, not a hare! First check, of course I got it wrong. Foolishly I ran back and got back to the lead at the 2nd check, which I also got wrong. It was a trend – the first to the check were likely to get it wrong. The landscape and our history were begging the run to go clockwise around to the right, but the hare disagreed.

Humpers found some good trails and checks to take us back over the other side of the road. I ran along with Horny remarking at what a great run it was (a bit premature). We hit a gate that had been sneakily electrified, and the brief shock was compounded by the skiddy sticks. Bugger! We headed ominously towards the hills, and when finally the good trails ran out the hare didn’t give up, and forged a creative path straight up the shiggy, along a ridge and back down. There was no trail, but apparently the hare had assumed there would be.

We got back down, and inexplicitly the hare decided to take us back up again, another steep climb, only to cut over to the left and cut back down again. why? We’ll never know… Graven meanwhile had thought better of the trail and reappeared ahead of us having taken a much nicer trail along the bottom of the hill the other side. If only the hare had found it!

It was getting dark and we were hacking through shiggy… It was dark and we were approaching a road… It was pitch black and we were heading along the road, On-In and beer was waiting.

16th April – CH3 – Frozen Dick

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 6.5/10 (2 votes cast)

Down to Ob Khan for the run and as I got to the runsite in a little mango orchard the hare was setting off to rescue hashers who were lost on the road. The songthaew was somewhere behind busy playing Songkran, but soon enough made it in time for the off.

Humperdick ran off to the first check, and promptly was wrong as I headed right – Chuck Wao right on my tail. As we headed up the mountain through another couple of checks, and CW was right there checking a few metres behind me… We looped around to the left, with the trail going pretty much straight on through each check descending through the trees. Angry Inch, the master descender / psycho, took over from Chuckie as the Lemming that just followed me right up to when I finally got it wrong and we turned left back towards the A.

I didn’t like the look of the climb back over the hill, so opted for a longer route “checking” around the base of the mountain. It might have been longer, but at least it was flat, so I came back to the trail in line with Graven, Angry and Chuckie.

14th April – CH4 – Graven Image

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 7.0/10 (1 vote cast)

With Songkran still in full swing, it wasn’t clear how many would manage to get to the runsite – even though Graven had chosen one close to the town at the Boy Scout Camp. As it happened there was a reasonable turnout, with a few visitors appearing from the US. Graven told us how Angry (his cohare) had managed to short cut the run set, and what could have been 6km was now 3km. Whatever – it was hot as hell.

I set off with Chuckie & HRA and straight away the trail went up. It’s kind of difficult to set a flat run at the boy scout camp, nestled at the base of Doi Suthep, but fortunately the hares weren’t going to be too evil. At the 2nd check, most carried on up the hill checking, while I headed along the flat and down a little slope. I was on, but it took me forever to find the powder. Dumbass.

Then came the “Skiddy Sticks”. Some miscommunication between the two hares had the sticks at a small tunnel, with the trail continuing from about 5 metres further on. NOT back, as expected with Skiddy Sticks, but further along the trail… Confusion ruled, with CW running backwards and forwards along a partially built aqueduct (spelt it right this time!) Square Rooter had a sit down to get his head straight.

Back down a waterfall with a last little climb back over the ridge and we were home. Not too bad, just the right length, and it ate the time up with the way we screwed it up.

8th April – CH3 – Graven Image

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 7.5/10 (2 votes cast)

Was it Graven Image or Skid Mark? Apparently GI set most of the trail – making it up as he went along – but it was clearly a Skid Mark ending with the On-In the wrong side of the river Ping to the cars. We had been warned it was a trademark “Ping River Run”.

Back track a bit. I’m a bit hash weary these days, so was reluctant to make an appearance, but after chatting to Chuckie in the afternoon decided to go along and hope there wouldn’t be any more male hash dramas. The directions were complicated, and with little in the way of signage it was amazing that a large group found the A site.

After a hare brief we were taken by Songthaew to the B, from which we set off into orchards – seemingly in the wrong direction away from the river. A few early checks kept us confused as we weaved through orchards. One check at a road had CW and I checking left and Angry checking right – we arced around until we heard the call from somewhere off to the right. Cutting across had us the wrong side of a river and as we made our way along, we found the powder. Did we short cut? Or was it superior hashing? Either way we could see powder both sides of a canal, and tracked back along the trail till we came to Angry Inch coming the other way. Not long after we found Superman and Belly Dancer who had short cut!

It was here that the trail turned inevitably towards the river and the next few checks had us strung out by the time we got to the beer stop. The virgin, a relative newby and Shagless nowhere to be seen as we continued over to the river bank with Skiddy dashing back to take photos. CW was first to reach the river bank, but as he’d seen the On-In he opted for the 2.5km alternative up to the nearest bridge. Angry & I saw our chance and dived in to paddle across to the cold waiting beers.

Good fun circle!

6th April – CSH3 – HRA

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 7.5/10 (2 votes cast)

With heads suffering from Animal Dinner excesses, there was a small fragile group assembled at Huay Tung Thao in the hope that HRA would be gentle with us. He’d been drinking heavily the day before, so surely he wouldn’t have had the energy for anything too taxing?

Graven & Angry were lively, having missed out on the previous evening, and Angry set the early running as we weaved nicely along some flat trails at the edge of the lake. Along to the guard house, and a set of skiddy sticks. I was already losing the pace and the trail turned abruptly up the waterfall… I stood and contemplated for a while, as it is a long way up, with little choices for where to come down.

What the hell, I didn’t want beer yet anyway, so I started climbing, and climbing, and climbing… Scrambling over fallen trees up into the heavens. YOU BASTARD HRA! I hate hills even more so when hungover, and this was just not fun. Finally it leveled out and for a while at least I could run downhill passing Mind Your Nuts, Humperdick and I Got Gas. Chuck Wao was probably in the worst state – he went for a stroll with Square Rooter!

The circle was a quiet affair with little energy! Damn the Animal Dinner!

31st March – CH4 – Humperdick

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 7.7/10 (3 votes cast)

Humpers took us to Ob Khan for the happy hash – a runsite quite familiar being the same A bucket as the 400th run. A reasonable turnout despite the Bunnies being the same day.

We were pointed out up a short rise to an early circle check. Only Angry Inch was interested in running – and he promptly got it wrong. I was feeling tired and lazy, and had little intention of putting too much into it, hoping I could stay with the FRBs for a while – except I kept hitting the checks. Thats great until a check is Skiddy sticks.

Nonetheless I led the way down and into some deathly canyons. Being at least vaguely familiar with the area, I didn’t expect him to take us into the depths of the canyons, as there was little way out. So, Alice took over towards the front, winding deeper and deeper into them. Finally I started climbing up a spine between 2 canyons, with virgin Brad, Graven Image and Human Excrement leading others up behind us. It turned out that was a good call, as it avoided an “unavoidable” climb for the rest. We went further, arcing around a ridge back to the trail, but still got to the descent first.

Graven led the way down, and by the time we saw Humps taking photos at the bottom, my legs were shot. Another ridge took it out of me, and gradually I lost the pace. A nice interesting set though, with an interesting canyon variation.

25th March, CH3, Byte My Yahoo

VN:F [1.9.11_1134]
Were you there? - Rate the Run!
Rating: 9.5/10 (2 votes cast)

So what to expect from Cuddly Ken – Chiang Mai’s most innocent and alluring male Hasher (as well as most intelligent) … hummm … he hates hills, to date has set great running trails and is dab hand at the BBQ.

With a little telegraphing he’d be setting a slightly longer run – after both CSH3 and CH4 both >7km affairs – there was a certain degree of trepidation about what BmY had in store for us. None of this was eased when arriving at the A bucket – with him going on about how he’d set the run at 6AM and had been rehydrating on beer ever since – he even quipped to Belly Dancer that he had some doubt if BD would even make it back – I began to think there might be a muaahh aspect to this run.

The hare brief was absurdly short – just circle checks – and off out we were sent down a dirt road and it was 800m before the first circle check appeared – those who’d attempted None of Your Business’s storm truncated CH4 run had some advantage and soon found trail – and this continued with copious checks keeping us all together until the ‘hill’!

Hill – WTF – this is BmY – who professes to hate hills, and no small hill at that – up and up the bastard went and apart from the specially invited FRB In and Out – who checked like a demon all over the place and still ran up the mountain – the weary pack ground their way up BmY’s hellish rock strewn trail.

At the ‘top’ of course there was a check and the pack was all over the place looking for the trail – Kwazi Moto declared no more hills for him and vanished somewhere, leaving BD with Square Rooter and Dog Shit. Of course they sailed down the hill – rather rock strewn death trap – and fortunately Square Rooter held back long enough to indicate where the trail headed (right) – Doggy vanished – perhaps he found the real (nice & safe) trail Humprdick had found but the circle check had been kicked out straight down the 27’ slope!

Way down nearing the bottom of the slope of death – HRA appeared with Angry Inch who’d lost his GPS in an earlier tumble, and HRA valiantly assisted BD down the most evil part of the hill. Into the gully and putting a little cantor on with HRA – we got back in touch with Square Rooter and Semen Soars and later on Fishy Finger too. Up the slope Horny Monkey was commanding everyone to stick together which was much appreciated.

At last into what we were expecting from a BmY run – the more familiar dirt trails and with some disgust – black top/concrete road which had checks a plenty.

At the point where we came to the quarry we were all very close together – Humperdick appearing from left field after checking behind a wall for 400m – with a glance a GPS showing ~1km to the A bucket and the sun well and truly set – HRA again kindly stick with me and a ghostly Graven Image came up on our rear as BmY’s final evil twist of a stinking stream had to be navigated before the final jog in along 800m of filthy dirt road.

Amazingly BmY achieved the rare feat of getting the whole pack in (ex a short cutting Kwazi) with ~ 10 minutes of each other. In and Out and Graven Image had ~10km on their GPS and I had 7.4km.

A tough run – a bit bigger postage stamps would have helped on the confidence of not getting lost in the dark – but a well set run. BmY did deliver on expectations in the BBQ department – I don’t believe he made the burgers but thanks for a good feed and Horny led an entertaining circle.

OnOn
BD