Hashing: You need to know when it is time to do your part

The Hash House Harriers can only function if the people involved in it are actually actively participating in creating the events. It's not like anyone is getting paid or that these trails are made for us. Every single run is a bit different because people inside our organization volunteer to make the trail for the others in the week prior to the day that the event takes place.

The "position" of going to make a trail is called being a "Hare" and this can and does take a lot of time and effort. However, if you are going to take part in the festivities created by other people at some point it will be expected of you to also help out in the creation of the trails and become a Hare yourself.

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The reason why I know this is because I learned by doing it wrong. I was a member and regular participant in the Hash House Harriers in Chiang Mai for over a year and never volunteered to do any Hare responsibilities. I am being completely honest when I say that I didn't realize that it is something that is expected of you as a participant. It wasn't until one of the more senior members of the group talked to me at an event after a run and kind of grilled me for freeloading that I realized that what I was doing was unintentionally uncool. So if you are enjoying the things that the Hash House Harriers do, and I think 90% of people will, you need to get out there and make a trail for the group.

This isn't easy but it also isn't terribly difficult especially when you consider that the organization that you are with will likely provide you with all the things that you need to make it happen as well as partner you up with someone that has more experience so they can show you the ropes.

It can be a bit daunting to head out into the jungle and then just come up with a plan of where to go especially when you have no idea where any direction will lead. This is where experience truly comes into play and you'll need to have a sense of adventure to figure it out. The idea is for the trail to be truly unique and many of the long-term members are going to be extremely aware of how the trails at various locations tend to go so mixing it up can be a bit difficult to pull off. I know that in my first time scouting for a trail I was basically completely dependent on the co-Hare that I was partnered with to basically point me in the right direction. All I really had going for me was that I was much younger than he and was more able to run off into the distance to check and see if that way was a possible route for the group.

This took several days of exploring but at the end of it all we had a good time and got the trail marked and ready for all the people that were coming on Thursday. After you mark the trail, which is done with flour, you really just need to pray that it doesn't rain because if it does, you are going to have to go back and do it again. In rainy season we instead will use bits of paper stapled to trees and other plants instead but when you do this, it entails going back to the trail afterwards and cleaning up all the bits of paper because one thing the Hash never does, is litter. The paper is a special kind of paper that dissolves a lot more quickly than regular paper in the rain, but we also have a reputation to uphold and we don't want the people whose land we are trespassing on to get upset with us.

If you are a regular attendee to the thrice weekly events in Chiang Mai it is only logical that you would set at least one trail every 3 months or so. Look at it this way: you are out there exploring and getting some accidental exercise and to me, I kind of felt like a kid again as simply wandering into the woods was something I think all of us looked forward to as children, why not enjoy it as an adult?

The only real downside about being the Hare on a trail is that if you set the trail it is expected that you not actually participate in the running of the trail. NO HARES ON TRAIL! is a rule that is strongly stuck to by our group so that is kind of a downer since by setting the trail you have to basically just sit at the camp and wait for all the others to get back. That can be a bit of a bummer and for me, it is what I like the least about being a Hare.

So you miss out on the on-trail fun but at the end of it all you get to be a bit of a hero for what it is that you set up, especially if you can manage to do something different that people aren't expecting. you'll get the accolades once the others return to the circle starting point and by accolades I mean that it is tradition for the people to say as terrible things as they can think of. They don't mean it, it's just something that we have always done and one of our silly rules that have existed for decades.

So if you are enjoying Hashing just do your part to participate as much as you can in keeping it running. Almost all of the dead chapters around the world got that way because nobody would go out of their way to make the trails in the first place. Do your part!