Yesterday’s Hash turned out to be a relatively pleasant hike, especially when you consider what usually lies in store for you when Guenter (Vienna Sausage) is the Hare. But this time one of the assigned Hares was tasked with doing an “easy” trail for those of us who prefer not to risk life and limb. Bum Burgler did a long (around 7K) but mostly flat trail on which the biggest hazard was muddy feet from walking across two rice paddies. I’ll take it.

Pubic Head and I actually walked to the starting point rather than riding in the Hashmobile. So that added a couple more Ks to the mix. We ran into Leech My Nuggets who was also walking to the start along the way. When we reached the beginning of the trail, Leech took off to get a head start on the difficult course. The two trails reconnected near the end of the hike and Leech passed me on his way to the On-Home. I asked him how he liked the hard trail and he shook his head and said he wouldn’t be surprised if someone wound up injured. Damn, coming from Leech who I reckon does the second hardest trails in our kennel that’s really saying something. Of course, I learned my lesson long ago and won’t even consider doing a Guenter trail again. I hope none of my fellow Hashers wind up learning that the hard way.

As it turned out, out of 20+ hashers, only four took the hard trail. I guess you might say people voted with their feet yesterday. Good for them. The three other than Leech didn’t get back to the On-Home until almost an hour after everyone else. But they all made it safely, so that’s the good news.

Let’s go to the photos, which are of course featuring the easy trail:

Then it was on up one small hill and into Alta Vista then on to Queen Victoria for the Hash festivities.

At the conclusion of the Hash, I staggered meandered across the street to Mango’s and put something in my belly besides beer:

Thanks for coming along!

UPDATE: Damn it! I really try not to use the same title for a post more than once. I usually check before starting a new post but got lazy today. Now I see that I used “between a rock and hard place” back in August 2015. Ah well, if I didn’t remember probably no one else does either.

or Hash a trail. More on that in a bit.

Grocery shopping day and as usual, a mixed bag Royal. Coke Zero finally in stock, but none available in the 24 pack case. So, I pulled two dozen individual cans off the shelf. Pretty much cleaned them out again. Still no frozen fruit, but I did find this long-unseen item:

Although I wasn’t able to buy frozen strawberries, I scored some fresh ones from Baguio. Iline has a friend who brings them down once a week. A bit pricey at twenty bucks for two kilos, but what are you gonna do.

That pretty much covers today’s “adventure”. Yesterday was Hash day…

We did something a little unusual and not really planned–two separate trails. The Hare’s had some challenging ups and downs in store for the group, but some of us weren’t in the mood for that kind of adventure. What made it unusual was there was about an equal number doing the “old man” hike as there were doing the actual trail. I felt a little bad for the Hare’s who had invested a lot of time and effort in laying out their chosen path but it occurs to me that maybe having a harder and easier trail to choose from might be a good option for our future Hash hikes. For example, Guenter is the Hare next week so I already know I’ll be looking for an alternative. Anyway, it all worked out fine yesterday.

And that was how the day went down. Well, except for the me getting drunk part. But I don’t remember much about that. I’m pretty sure I had a good time though.

Are you back for more? Alright, let’s get to it.

My lazy Tuesday shopping day. Royal is STILL out of Coke Zero. Three weeks now. I was able to clean out the local 7/11 which will get me through the week, but damn. [My Grammarly app says no comma after week, but I like it that way.]

After completing my shopping excursion I took an abbreviated nap. Abbreviated because during my slumber the power went out and without a fan blowing on me it didn’t take long to become a sweaty mess. So I decided I may as well take a walk to the vape store on the far side of town. I completed my purchases there, then headed over to Sit-n-Bull for lunch.

Right about the time I was finishing up my meal a big thunderstorm blew through. Lots of lighting and heavy rain, then the power went out. I sat there for a while waiting for things to calm down, then finally just said fuck it, paid my bill and headed out.

Damn, there was a six-inch deep river flowing where the street used to be. As I was wading my way back to the highway a beggar accosted me for money. I gave him 50 pesos and then he asked for more. WTF? I was not a happy camper to begin with but I let his ingratitude of my generoisty get the better of me. I’m ashamed to admit that I blasted him with some choice curse words. I need to do and be better than that.

So, that’s my day up to this point. Now, about yesterday’s Hash. It was a Günter trail so I was expecting the worst and was prepared to deal with it by shortcutting his trail at the first sign of trouble. The first climb of the day was steep, but not too long. So far, so good. I was on familar terrain and had the new girl Hashers and one other guy with me at the back of the pack. When the trail took a turn down into what appeared to be a creek bed, I said no thanks! The girls were happy to keep it easy, the guy kind of wanted to follow the trail. I told him to go for it, but he didn’t want to do it alone so stayed with us.

My plan at this point was to circle back to the four corners intersection on the My Bitch trail. But before I got to that point I was surprised to see that Günter’s trail was once again crossing our path. It looked sane enough so I opted to follow it and see where it might lead. And it really wasn’t bad at all. Still, when we got back down and his trail began another climb, I wasn’t feeling it. Unfortunately, I no long had a clear idea where I was. I looked for alternatives but finally had to concede that going up as Günter intended was the only option. Again, it wasn’t that bad a climb, and the down, while steep, was manageable. But when he started a THIRD up, I told the group no way I’m doing that. It was vaguely familiar and I knew it was going to suck big time to go that way. I also knew where I needed to go from here (back to my subdivision) but wasn’t exactly clear on how to get there. I led us to one deadend, then retreated and took another path. Eureka! I found the way and we made it back On-Home safely. I’d call that a successful afternoon!

Here’s some pictures from the trail:

And a good time was had by all!

Well, best trail this week at least. When I Hare my priorities are that no one gets lost or hurt on trail. Secondarily, I want the Hashers to enjoy the hike. I think me and my co-Hare accomplished all that. Yesterday was the first time I’d gone out ahead of the pack to make sure the proper trail markings were still in place. By all accounts, it was a well-marked trail.

I left an hour ahead of the appointed noon starting time and three newbie females came along with me (my helper Gina and two of her friends). I was surprised to be passed by two runners shortly before I reached our On-Home location at 12:40. I asked them if they had taken a shortcut and they denied it. The also said they didn’t start early. Well, I’m sorry but I don’t believe you could cover that terrain in a mere 40 minutes. Turns out they fessed up to having missed the final down/up that we had added to the trail. Rather than turn around they just kept going which significantly shortened the journey.

Leech My Nuggets is one of the fastest Hashers around and he didn’t make it back until after 1:00. He too had missed that same turnoff but went back when he realized it. He told me that once he saw the turn he was surprised he’d missed it initially because it was heavily marked. I think the problem was that everyone is so used to going straight on that portion of My Bitch that they just blew on past the turnoff and then kept going. Oh well, that’s how it goes sometimes.

A relatively small group of Hashers (22 instead of the usual high thirties) for yesterday’s run. I’m guessing the On-Home being at Derelick’s scared some folks away. The last time we were there someone called the police on us for having an “illegal” gathering. Sure enough, the police showed up again based on a neighbor’s complaint. They just told us to “hold it down” and practice social distancing and then they left us. Still, it was a buzz killer.

Twenty Hashers showed up at the designated location at the appointed time.

And that was a few steps closer to getting back to some kind of normalcy. I think next week we’ll even order up some ice.

And so it goes. I’m having some folks over to the house tomorrow afternoon. Went out today to buy some stuff to accommodate guests. More on that next time.

I haven’t touched a dart in way too long, but this cracked me up anyway:

I’ll be back!