Bangkok Harriettes #2275

What a day. Less than an hour before the start, like clockwork, it started to pour. On the bright side, about 15 min before pack away, it stopped. That led to a series of events that made for a hilarious hash trail. Marked in paper and chalk, we anticipated spotty marks. In fact, the first 1500 meters there were no marks at all. We finally started seeing paper after that, so made the effort much easier.

At the 3 km mark, we came to a T, and there was a faded arrow pointing to the right, and everyone in front of me was going right. We thought it was just faded due to the rain, as we continued to see arrows and paper (you starting to think this was a point of deviation?). Well, we continued south on these marks for 2 more kms, the marks were slightly faded, but still clear. In one gap between marks, I figured we are 5 kms out we crossed a bridge and were still headed away, so I turned left and headed to the next bridge where I anticipated the trail would be headed back. I was correct, found a mark on the stairs entering the sidewalk to the bridge. Marks became spotty again, but there was some paper in a few poles over the next km, until the arrows started up again.

At 6.5 kms, the trail turned left, and the arrows pointed back under the bridge along the khlong . . . so cool. The trail started heading east, but since the trail was only supposed to be 5-6 kms, why are we heading away from the finish again? The marks were solid at this point, and it looped around for another 2+ kms and back finally to the finish. This is when the discussion and laughing began. We were informed by the hare, that her trail was a standard loop, everything we found for 3+ kms in the middle (the yellow circle on the map) was not her trail. Turns out, as best we could figure, it was another trail from a few weeks ago. How had all these arrows and paper survived that long? Even the hare for that previous trail turned right at that T and followed his old marks unbeknownst to him.

We all figured it out at and made it back to the beer. We just scored a few extra kms in fitness. 😊 The circle was full of stories of who went where and how they got there. There was even discussion of possibly a third trail a couple hashers crossed over on, leading them yet farther off track. In the end, we had a rare rare rare occurrence, with Pat Pom having run nearly 12 kms, receiving ToTW . . . the rare part was it was the first time she ever got it, what made it rare rare rare was she had already received the PoTW on Monday, for leading the pack astray on her own marks, not following the trail. Plenty to laugh about, another great day on the hash!! See lessRead more