editor's note - incomplete

The Post Christmas Hash started on the far west side in the general vicinity of Barker-Cypress at Clay Road. The day had great hash potential: cloudless sky, temperature in the high 60’s, and of course it started in the center of Houston’s shiggy mecca -- The Barker Cypress Reservoir. The run was to start at 3:15 (?). At around 3:30 the hares called the group together to get things going. Low Life and Frank mounted a six inch curb and began to give instructions. It was at this point that Frank produced a numbered list which he began to read from (dangling prepostion). The list included the exact number of checks, backchecks and falses, minimum, maximum and mean distances betweens checks and first marks, and the number of marks between a check and a false (which happened to be 2), not to mention standard deviations for all of the preceeding. With the hounds still reeling from the plethora of data that had just been thrown at them, the hares pointed us to the first mark on the other side of a ditch. As I left the start I heard Low Life yell out, “Don’t worry, you don’t have to get your feet wet!” I hoped that she was kidding.

The trail paralleled the ditch to a street and turned to the south. After following the road for awhile the trail crossed a field and we ended up on Clay Road. The check there stumped the pack for several minutes (2 marks before each false as promised). Eventually trail was found to the East crossing a potholed field and heading into a subdivision. In the neighborhhod we found the first of the backchecks which the hares were apparently using interchangeibly with the false since true trail was found in the opposite direction on the other side of the check. Next came an extended pavement straightaway up Barker-Cypress road which led to a ditch which led to a park with a paved jogging path (complete with 1/4 mile markers). After 3/4 of a mile of the jogging path we cut through a recreation center and entered an airport. I was really surprised when the hares didn’t take us up the runway (they are known to be long and straight, a trademark of this trail). Anyway, we eventually made it to the On Home where Drummer dubbed it “The Never Ending Trail”.