Fall River Micro-Hash

Run #957, August 16, 2004

Hare:  SESYB

Location:  Freetown/Fall River State Forest

Weather:  High 70’s, Clear

Present:  Dr WHO, Oozing SD, Late: Basket Boom Boom, Seamus. Gave up in Traffic: Async, Tinker.

The Run:

An accident on 195 ensured a late start, and a poor showing. Newport County resident Dr WHO was first to arrive, and with the hare, sat alone in the deepening dusk at 6:30 at the Copicut Rd entrance to Fall River/Freetown State Forest. Oozing called in traffic reports and finally arrived, just in time to save the hare from succumbing to Dr WHO’s charms (and skipping the run and opening the beer). Basket was on his way. This made it clear that he wouldn’t be anywhere near the beer check that night!

They entered the woods at a record 6:55. Trail led southeast, then south. A check confused them briefly, but the sound of running water brought them downhill and west to a crossing of Rattlesnake River. They turned back south on the gas pipeline, avoiding mud in the tire ruts. WHO avoided the mud so successfully that he avoided the trail altogether, and would still be heading south no doubt if the hare had not called him back. When there are only two hounds and a large cache of beer at the BC, one can afford to be charitable. Trail turned east and came to Daly path. WHO had an advantage at this point as the run turned into Run #910 in reverse, from fall, 2003.

Trail led east and south, with a few side excursions on the dirt bike single-track. They came south and then back slightly west to Ledge Road, where Oozing explored a falsie into the stream that EB RIPTA had so enjoyed the last time the hash was here. But the relentless WHO now knew that the beer had to be at the Old Quarry ledge, so he took off on Upper Ledge Road, turned back north on Pond Road, and hardly pausing to look for marks, climbed the boulder field on the south side of the ledge to the top and a very modest “B” on the rocks.

It didn’t do him much good though. The hare had hidden the beer so carefully, she had to call the two hashers to form a search party and comb the woods. Beer was finally found, with potato chips as well. They settled down to wait for Basket, until finally the hare realized she could call his cellphone. It was now 8 PM and well past sunset. Basket was reached at the start, and while WHO and Oozing recommended that he go looking for trail northwards, the hare told him that he should wait for the sounds of whistles before blundering off into the woods. Yet another missed opportunity!

After a while, they turned back on dirt road northwest to the pipelines, then northeast without incident and without Basket. They crossed the river again at a slightly different spot, and came out to the start to find Basketand Seamus circling the cars.

They circled and ratings were good: some shiggy, no Bondo, no Basket, no Fuwangi, and a 33% on the bimbo scale (at least until the circle. This brings up a point: is it fair to rate a run when disaster occurs, but only in the circle? This could have been a near-perfect hash if Basket had not shown up. Where does one draw the line of misfortune? But I digress.): +6.9. Hashit was given to Bondo simply because he deserves it twice for the previous week’s efforts.

The On On On  was at TKO’Malley’s in Fall River, a spot that has improved immeasurably with the new anti-smoking laws in Massachusetts. But they still only serve appetizers on Mondays, and were unaccountably unwilling to switch all the TVs to the Pakistani Men’s Field Hockey semis in the Olympics. They left around 11, secure in the knowledge that this trail can be reused again, at least one more time!

On On