Hash House Harriers III

6/24/2006

Well another month and another installment of Hash House Harriers. This time I was a 'hare' along with Neal. He thought up a good trail, and the fun part was doing all the prep work which we did a day or so ahead of time.

The trail would take people outside where they had to choose two paths. One was a dead end, the other took them into the Dome where they had to climb up to a hatch, walk across the snow to another hatch which took them down a spiral staircase into the buried fuel arch, then outside again.

We had to dig out the fuel arch hatch which is the opening to a vertical tube that sticks out of the snow. During the summer one could open the hatch (door) and the snow was level with the threshold. It only took a few months for snow to bury the hatch, which is on the windward side. As we walked around the outside, I fell into the 10 foot drop on the leeward side of the structure. It spooked Neal seeing me beside him one second then disappeared the next. It's amazing how snow settles around structures. It doesn't build up level with things but instead accumulates on one side while the other remains free of buildup.

Since it was dark outside, we used green food coloring to make a trail from the Dome hatch to the Fuel Arch hatch. During one of our times at prep work, I lost my mitten and spent considerable time looking for it. Neal did not complain, but I feel he may never want to partner up with me again.

After everyone gathered for the evening's festivities, we were given a 20 minute head start. We walked part of the trail, and added last minute signs which we couldn't do before. As we headed back to the station we saw the runners outside with lights bleeding into the night. Neal and I fell to the snow, worried they might see us although they were 100+ yards away. As they disappeared we raced back into the station, placing the last few signs, and then coming to rest at the finish. We listened on the radio as the runners went through the course. We laughed at their comments to the trail, especially when the lead runners thought they had gotten to the end and were told to go back 200 yards.

Finally everyone found the finish and the 'down-downs' began. People were named. I was not one of them. I'm quite dreading what name they will come up with eventually.