Higgins Creek

When I visited the Syracuse Hash on Monday, I mentioned that I had found hash clubs and would be hashing in Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. One of the hashers mentioned there were two hash clubs in Portland, but did not recall the name of the one on Thursday . . . so after a bit of looking around, I found an event listed for the Knightvillain H3 on Thursday. So after hashing in Vermont on Wednesday, it was a quick drive to Portland to join them. Given the name, and the fact there was a full moon the same night, I figured it may be the local FM Hash. But that is not the case, the Knightvillains run every Thursday evening, and as you can see above, this was their 306th.

Juggling the info on several new hash clubs in this region, I mistakenly thought it was starting at 6:30, but after checking into the hotel, I realized the start was at 6, so jumped in the car and off I went. The event listing as you can see in the pictures, stated the start was at 69 Providence, but clicking on it did not bring up a map. So copied and pasted that into Google Maps, and 69 Providence St popped up, only 4 miles away, so easy. Arriving at the street at 5:50, I slowly drove down the road looking for 69, and there was none . . . it went from 55 to 77 on the odd side of the street, so looked on the other side, just in case. Nothing. Wondering if it was just hashers changing the number for fun, I looked in Google Maps again, and noticed there was also a Providence Ave on the other side of town. I posted a question on their FB page, and got an immediate response that it was indeed on Providence Ave.

Making the 15 minute drive across town (South Portland is actually a different city), upon arrival I looked around for hashers. Nothing. Knocked on the door, no answer. So wondered if they had already started, and looked around for marks . . . nothing. Thinking I was either getting pranked, or something else hinky was going on, I sat in the car and waited for 15 minutes thinking if no one showed up, I’d just have to leave. But just before pulling away, two people who looked like hashers walked up, and confirmed this was the place. They walked around to the back yard, and found the hare, and in the end it was just 5 of us on trail.

Our hare set a fun trail around town, using blue chalk . . . unfortunately the streets are literally covered with blue spray painted arrows for future maintenance work. Close inspection was required for each mark throughout. Our pack of 4 hashers swerved our way through the first couple miles, and finding a check at one point, we split up and looked for marks. One went right, and I went straight and found only one mark. As I was coming back, I saw the hasher who went right coming my way, as if to say he found nothing. So I started heading over to the left to see if there were marks down that street. Well, after making a big loop back to the left I eventually came back to the check, and they were all gone. So figured they must have found the trail over to the right, and had run on . . . but did no mark the check. I ran out that way, and eventually found an arrow and followed the trail on to the finish another mile and a half or so away.

Upon arrival, I jokingly said thanks for marking the checks, only to find out that the pack had not found trail at that check, and had run the trail backwards to the start. So we had lots to talk about in circle, the hare got roasted for blue chalk, the pack got roasted (the other three) for giving up on trail, and fun was had by all. We all had a good laugh, drank some beers, sang some songs, and then started talking about the PorMe Hash scheduled for Saturday. Come to find out, it was a generic marker event, and there was no hare. In the end, arrangements were made, a hare volunteered, and now we have a trail for tomorrow . . . Hooray!Read more