An expedition weekend

For the last few weeks, Tim, Sara, Tony, our friend Belinda and I have been exploring the back tracks of Linden looking for trails for the Hash. For those of you who don't know, Hash House Harriers/H3 or simply the Hash, is a running/expedition club. There are groups all over the world that meet to run trails, share songs and drinks afterwards and enjoy a very unique sense of community. Tim and I were introduced to the Hash in San Diego, but were too busy to get very involved. We only went twice. Here in Guyana, after we heard there was a club, we haven't missed a trail.

In fact, we even volunteered to set the last two trails. As Hares, we were responsible for finding a trail and then marking it for the Hashers with piles of shredded paper as clues to follow. We set false trails too to throw them off course.

People were coming into Linden on Saturday afternoon for the first run and we planned another one for Sunday morning so we started setting the trails on Friday afternoon. Tim, Sara, Tony and I headed out with bags of 'shreddie” and started laying it down to mark the course. People stopped and stared, wondering what we were doing out on the backroads, placing paper marks near their houses. Were we setting jumbie curses perhaps? Well, we weren't deterred. Neither were we deterred by the sudden downpour, that soaked us to our skin and sogged-up our paper, making it extremely hard to set our trail. We slogged through what was once a dried, muddy flatlands when we explored the first time, but that the rain had turned into a veritable swamp. I think thats how Sara got a skin infection (poor girl!). We clambered over two rickety wooden bridges and snaked our way under the rusty, monolithic, long forgotten and abandoned aluminum factory. Basically, we set a RAD trail. In Hash terms, because we don't like to brag about how awesome we are, people call a trail like that a really shitty trail. :)

On Saturday we woke up at 5:30 to set the Sunday run, which we had named Hangover Hill. True to its name, the trail was up and down sand hills, canyons, valleys and more freakin sand hills. Although that trail was shorter, it required more endurance. We were beat after setting the second trail but only had enough time to head home and gobble down some mac and cheese before the Hashers showed up in Linden, ready to run the trail we had set on Friday. Sheesh.

Both runs went off without a hitch. We were proud to show off two very different sides of Linden to those who Hashed with us. Our trails took us through areas and provided vistas that most people, even locals who have lived here their whole lives, haven't seen. That is one of the benefits of being a part of the Hash; getting off the beaten trails. We got great reviews for our trails and were happy little first time Hares. We learned some new Hash songs and cooled down with some icy Banks. We ended our evenings at Belinda's ice cream shop and made fools of ourselves. Generally a great weekend. (Thanks to Sara for the awesome photos!).

Next weekend we are going to Shell Beach, a Northernmost part of Guyana, where the leatherback turtles come to lay their eggs. We are spending two nights on the beach and hope to come back with sweet pictures of TURTLES! Stay tuned.