Burlington H3 #740

After a long drive up from Syracuse, NY . . . I was able to catch a trail in Burlington, Vermont. The instructions said to bring a flotation device, but I don’t have such things in my backpack, so just turned up and hoped for the best. Fortunately, one of the other hashers had an extra innertube and all was well. We had a pack of about a dozen, and shortly after the hares set off, we ran after them with an innertube over our head or wrapped around a shoulder, and made our way through the small town of Jeffersonville. We certainly must have looked funny running through the middle of town, and after about 2 miles we found ourselves on the shores of the Lamoille River.

The hares had arranged an assortment of shots there (I don't drink on trail, so just jumped into the water), before we all jumped on our tubes and started floating down river . . . but VERY slowly. The water was barely moving, and it would take us over an hour to go the one mile that was planned for trail. Not to mention that it was about 9:30 by the time we finished, and the last half hour was in pitch dark solitude (I think there was a consensus, that we all had had enough floating by that point), with nothing other than the laughs and yelps of our fellow hashers to let us know we were not alone on the river. Just in the last few minutes of floating, the nearly full moon popped up over the horizon and lit things up just a bit. The water was cold, but tolerable . . . right up until we jumped off our tubes, and the cold night air hit our backsides . . . THEN, we realized just how cold things could be.

With about a quarter mile walk back to the cars, we made a quick change to dry clothes, and had a short circle. With my teeth a chattering . . . I thanked the hares, and said goodbye to the pack, and headed back to Stowe for a hot shower and a warm bed. Many thanks to the Burlington H3 for a mostly fun day on the hash.Read more