Caves Shopping Center – 06.02.2008 – Run 1393
There are some days when I’m driving to the hash and I think to myself, “This island is only so big and there are not that many different places to set a trail – every few months the cycle of locations has a tendency to repeat itself.” This isn’t any real concern because people still set good trails and the primary goal is not exploration, it’s beer consumption. But when the frame is represented by this sort of tiny orbit, it makes it that much more exciting to have a trail set in some place I’ve never been, be it some part of the island I’ve never had reason to go to or somewhere in the backwoods that I did not even know existed. So when I was in the car, driving to the Caves, I thought to myself, “Alright, another run over by the Caves.” Little did I know what our hare, Miriam, had in store for us. (And just so you know, I’m setting the trail july 7th and I will be 100% guilty of the “same old trail, same old place” syndrome. Just cause I’m bringing it up doesn’t mean I’m doing anything about it. Kaboom.)
There we were, Monday evening, humid, having rained earlier in the day I was told (just flew back into town three hours earlier), milling around the parking lot of the Caves shopping center, behind the Gourmet Market (because the concepts of “gourmet” and “hash” go together so very well). Rambling… rambling. Allow me to say again, Miriram was our hare for the week. And we were off! The first check-in sent us scrambling in three different directions, the correct one heading through the center of the complex towards Bay Street. From there we turned left and another check-in took us past Blake and onto the beach across from Orange Hill. Here, I would say a full half of the group took to the beach to follow the trail properly while the other half cheated their way along the street. I won’t name names, you know who you are (it wasn’t me, I swear). After a short while, we cut back onto the road and after encountering a backcheck, we found our way heading uphill on a dirt path alongside some houses being built. We climbed up this way and made a sharp right turn that took us down a steep 7-foot drop into a clearing which we crossed and found not only a box, but also… a beer stop! Yes! A beer stop! But there were only three or four beers, so we had to share. Which was cool, sharing is a wonderful thing.
Eventually we regrouped and the trail continued through a small bit of wood before emerging back on paved roads. Once we came out there, the trail essentially went in a straight line for the next mile or so with the occasional check-in teasing us onto sideroads. But every side road check-in was just that, a tease, and the trail continued forward until we hit a cul-de-sac and found another box and… another beer stop! Yes! Another beer stop!
From here, we reentered the woods on a wide trail, found a dozen very cute puppies frolicking along the path, and after a short check-in found ourselves heading left, also known as east. And this is where my ability to faithfully recreate the hash falls to pieces. I mean, PIECES! We talked about this last week, but allow me to reiterate: I very much enjoy trail runs. Partially because they take me places I have not been on my own and partially because I simply enjoy this type of running. The only catch is not being able to recall well what happened because everything really looks pretty much the same. Sorry, but that’s the case, at least for me, and if I’m the one writing this than it really only matters how it works for me, right? Right. I’ll try though.
So we ran down this one big path for awhile, came to a box (Beer stop!!), check-in to the left, down some overgrown path that turned out to be fairly muddy, backchecked onto an even more overgrown path, saw some very large piles of shit (I hypothesize rhinoceros), came to another box, climbed past some other piles… and than chaos in my memory. A lot more muddy trails, a lot of jumping around rocks, another box or two or three, quite a few check-ins. I recall seeing Frank walking his way through an incredibly large puddle up past his ankles instead of around it. Eventually we emerged behind this school on Blake road but instead of finding the On-In, we found the trail continuing along another dirt path that came out in front of the swimming pool near where Miriam now lives. Another box. Another backcheck taking us the way we came, towards the school. Reemerging into the open field behind the school, we finally found the On-In sign and hauled ass back to the Caves.
So right there, that’s my recollection of the second half of the run: one paragraph. A lot of fun, yes; detailed recollection, no. As far as hashes go, this one is in the running for best hash of the year. It had everything: trails, beer stops, beach, puppies, many backchecks, rocks, Frank in a large pool of water and more beer stops. Well done, well played, well set, well hashed. Solid.