Yesterday’s Hash was challenging. Given that the German (Almoranus) and his Austrian pal (Vienna Sausage) were the Hares, that’s not surprising. Of course we did the big mountain, but the up route, while steep, wasn’t vertical like they normally prefer. No, it was Mother Nature who set about mucking things up.

The afternoon was cloudy with some light sprinkles. I was fine with that because it cooled things down a tad.

Even so, the climb up the mountain was a hot and sweaty one. Took about 30 minutes of hard work to reach the top.

The sky continued to darken and the clouds were looking ominous as we continued along the trail. I knew it was just a matter of time, but would the rain hold off until we were safely ensconced at our “on-home”?

Shortly after the above photo was taken the skies opened up and the rain came down hard and fast. This created several problems. The already challenging downhill became muddy and even more treacherous. And the rain washed away most of the powder used to mark the trail which made it quite difficult to follow. Then my glasses got so damn wet I could barely see.

About half way down I lost the trail. No big deal. I knew where I was so it was just a matter of finding a decent path back down into Barretto. And I managed to do that without falling or otherwise fucking up. Once safely on the road (my old friend Rizal Extension) I noticed several Hashers on up ahead of me a couple of blocks. So I guess my downhill path must have run almost parallel to the one I should have taken. From there is was just enduring a rain soaked walk back to Johansson’s. All told the path I walked was just under 6 KM.

In other news I bought a plane ticket to Korea yesterday. I’ll fly out on May 30 and return to the PI on June 13. I’ll spend part of the time in Seoul and the rest in Pyeongtaek. I plan to catch up with some friends, walk old trails, and get my annual physical examination. Looking forward to it.