Hash 507 – Crown Inn @ Cerney Wick

On a bright but very cold morning we assembled with anticipation and expectation to run the first trail to be laid by Ainsley and Simon.

Simon gave us details of the likely hazards en route; there were few, except the mud, a herd of disinterested cows and a warning of how slippery the ground was after such a hard frost last night. However, he’d noted whilst laying the trail that, despite the cold weather, there was a great amount of wildlife around. He’d seen buzzards, a flight of geese overhead and a dead fox. I’m not sure if a dead fox qualifies as wild life, though.

The route took us immediately on to the canal towpath towards North Meadow, a sharp right onto the old railway track, down Wick Lane past the expensive water fronted properties and the yacht club, and finally a return on the canal towpath.

Strangely on the outward part of the trail, I missed the fox, so in the sense of true reportage I had to validate that the fox was there and also as the total run was only four miles, Viv and I ran to the dead fox and then back to The Crown, only then achieving a total distance of five miles.

After a particularly muddy section some of the walkers decided to clean off their boots in the lake the other side of a gate. Unfortunately, when they came to return through the gate they found during that short period of time someone had come along and locked the gate! So our intrepid walkers had to climb the gate to get out, which was perhaps a bit difficult when walking with young children and dogs. Rumour has it that many of the walkers did the long route, although I’m not sure if that was through misplaced enthusiasm or that they just missed the short route turn off.

This is the first trail to be laid by Ainsley and Simon and we all agreed they did a super job. The signs were clear and well placed, and they were very kind to us as the wrong trails were teed off immediately by the check point circle, so we didn’t have to go searching for them. I’m sure they won’t treat us so gently on the next trail they lay.

After a bit of a warm up in The Crown, Keith gave the usual thanks to our hares, and let us know that the next Hash will be at The Runner, Swindon and our hares will be Sue and Brian.