Hares: ID10T and L’il P*ssy

More photos from IMCMSTN can be found here. Pics taken by Grind Slut can be found here.

I was off playing Land Rovers in College Station and got to the start of the run slightly late. At 4:45 p.m., I called LP from the start, advising I was getting ready to run the trail solo. No maps on the cars, so no clue which direction the end was. But a manly arrow pointed towards the front door of the elementery school…… A good start!

I got into my hash gear and finally got on trail a little before 5 p.m. finding a check behind the school, I noticed an overgrown powerline easement in front and some open area to the right. Knowing LP’s style, I went for the easement, but found no flour so after about 30 yards started bushwhacking through the palmettos…. to a nice grassy pathway heading East, leading to a gas pumping station. I decided trail must be in that direction and eventually ran onto a check further down the path. And continued, to find trail to another check in front of the pump enclosure.

Hmmmmm, go straight or round the side? Round the side I went and found a swampy pipeline right of way heading North. Aha, gotta be there… and so it was, eventually a few remaining traces of flour were found along with muddy footprints. First one check was found — straight ahead! Then a second. Hmmmm. Again straight ahead?

Sort of — but I noticed a bank that seemed to have been scrambled up, so following I found myself on the lip of the sandpit from hell. Down I went, following what few spots of flour I could find and lost trail at the edge of a suspicious muddy ditch that seemed to go all the way round the center of the pit. I first tried climbing along the left-hand edge, but then noticed flour and footprints emerging from the ditch towards the center of the pit. So I went straight for them.

I don’t know if my crossing, some distance from the rest of the pack, was deeper or the same, but my first leg went up to the thigh in water, with everything below the knee in quicksand. I put my second leg in to similar results. And upon attempting to extract either leg, found myself totally immobilized. No panic! I saw the Discovery Channel program about escaping from quicksand!

I fell to my knees and with one hand was able to extract one leg from the ooze. Then the second. Then on my belly, I slithered to the edge, just keeping my head above the stinking soup. And I emerged, like the first primitive creature to escape the primordial sludge….

And squelched my way onwards and upwards, traversing the pit to the exit ramp. Flour was sparse and a bit of wandering brought me to an unnecessary check at the gate, leading onto a road. Bad Hares! I can just imagine the slimy pack emerging onto the road and wondering in disgust at this poor choice of checkpoint (unsolicited advice to hares: It should have been in the large open area at the top of the exit ramp with trail picking up at the gate, leading straight across the road into the shiggy!)

However, I was lucky and quickly solved the check, diving once more into shiggy heading roughly east, with clear marks on trees leading me ever onwards. Again, I got lucky with the checks (seemed to be straignt ahead, into the sun) until trail emerged on a right of way. Spying open territory to the left, I went that way, found flour and got up a bit of a jog for the first time on the run. To cross a giant powerline right of way to a check, with an inviting little drainage ditch and path straight ahead. Not another straight ahead check, please! So I went to the right (north) for a few hundred yards. Nothing. So maybe it was straight ahead after all! No, a long false! Back and down to the South.

Footprints and the occasional flour (much having been destroyed by the passing pack. Another teaser check at a cut to the West. Nah, lets try straight ahead. Nothing! But turning back, noticed a very rough muddy cut to the east that proved to be correct, with footprints. And eventually, flour running along a small drainage ditch parallel to the right of way (going south) to an arrow (very suspicious, I thought!) crossing the ditch (more toe-jamming mud) to a check at the edge of a “lake” (or something resembling one – most likely a toxic waste fluid repository…).

After a cool moment’s reflection, I went to the left along the edge of the lake, to find myself once more at the drainage ditch. So I was right, I mused, and crossed the ditch and checked an obvious dirt trail, first to the left — wrong! and then to the right, right! and round the south side of the “lake” to the exit and another infernal check on the road! Hmmmm. I tried south for a few hundred yards — nothing, crossed the road and started to return to the check, when I noticed open territory some yards in to the west.

So in I went to find a large drainage ditch with paths on both sides. So I ran back north, to find another check, right opposite the check at the exit of the “lake”. So I asked myself: why not an arrow at the exit of the lake, rather than another frustrating roadway check? I proceeded north on the path to a bend in the drainage ditch, without success. And crossed the ditch and proceeded south again, to find another check opposite the previous one…. Hmmm at least I am making progress.

Continued south to eventually find the flour once again entering the shiggy heading west into the sun. The first “vague” check was quickly solved by a short circular cast. But the second did not yield such a nice result as my circle crossed the trail without seeing the flour. So I completed a full 360 circle and returned to the check. (lucky there was a sun to orient me!). And this time, not trying anything fancy I headed to the sun and quickly found trail.

However, now it was more difficult as the many marks presumably on the ground had long disappeared under the feet of the pack. However, a bit of patience was rewarded by voices in the distance. And as I was about to emerge from the shiggy, in came Womb Service, on a mission of mercy! To be frustrated after 100 yards of his quest!

Evidently, with the sun dipping towards the horizon and the lengthy circle over, some kind souls thought it worthy to look for me…..

However, time on trail was little over 1 hr 30 minutes, which was not much more than the bulk of the pack had managed. So a fairly reasonable hashing effort. But it was interesting to follow a shiggy trail all by myself, and enjoyable. But not advisable unless you have a decent sense of direction (and a strong sun to orient one is essential in this!

Thanks to LP and ID10T for a decent shiggy trail. Thanks to the pack for attempting to give an honorary archway into the keg. And thanks to Grind Slut who, at the entrance to the archway, was forced to relinquish his beer as this curmudgeon disdained the honor, quaffed the purloined beer and sidestepped the throng, to end, as he had started.

Alone…..

I have uploaded the track from my Forerunner to the Yahoogroups files section. Unfortunately, I managed to switch it off at the end of the false trail and only realized as I was circumnavigating the lake, so there is a straight line “gap” in the true trail (in red). I attempted to add a “pink” trace to the Google image that approximates my perambulations between these two points.

OnOn
H’ache