Thursday 12 March 2015

MH3 Run 261. Bell and Harp, Little Eaton



MH3 Run 261
Date: Monday 9th March 2015
Location: Bell and Harp, Little Eaton (DE21 5AE)
Hares: K2 and Spike
Weather: Wet day
Pack size: 4 walkers; 6 r*nners; and 2 hares




B*gger reports:

The email that Dobber sends out about the forthcoming Mickleover trail, will during the winter months at least, always include the postscript for us to remember to bring a torch – never, has a torch been more needed, to say it was dark, does not give sections of this trail justice – if I had come across Lord Lucan, Flight MH370 and Shergar in those woods I would not have been in the least bit surprised…
A motley crew of mainly MH3 hashers gathered in the car park of the Bell & Harp, luckily they waited for me to get ready before setting off – the fact that I was a ‘runner’ & had a torch put me in rare company. 
We set off down the road to the first check, not near any obvious alternative routes – this was the first of many.  After one blob and 300 yards up a bridle path, the next check was found weirdly on a bridge over a stream – apparently this is very picturesque spot, but in the pitch dark it was a lost on the pack.  After about 500 yards Trianal located the 3rd blob and we battled against the mud up the hill to the next check – in an attempt to keep the pack together the hares had cunningly marked some checks with a ‘T’ – this was to signify that the FRBs should wait until 10 hashers were there before continuing, difficult tonight as there was only a (running) pack of 8 including the hares.  Most of us held the check until everyone had caught up, except for Trianal who chose not to wait and continued on his own – he wasn’t seen again until the pub.  We then entered the woods, if you didn’t have a torch (like Artless Dodger) you were extremely likely to get stuck in deep mud, fall off a cliff, run into a fence or just disappear – it was a case of sticking together, the hares doing an excellent job of waiting for the checkers to catch up again after each check.   After apparently passing an Iron Age fort (where the trail followed a very precarious path), we lost the flour, the hare didn’t know where we should be either but urged us to continue anyway!
After a total of 3 miles, the pack had completed the first of two promised loops and so with the offer of beer 5 minutes away, most of the pack headed back shortcutting what I thought was the best part of the trail. No one else had this opinion because this part of the trail was only completed by K2 the hare and me – my reasoning being, that if the hares had laid a trail then I felt duty bound to run it.  Slightly alarmingly we headed off in completely the opposite direction to that of the rest of the pack along the Portway, before turning uphill at the check.  From the top the trail cut across numerous fields – I’m sure on a clear day or just in daylight it would be cracking view, but tonight we struggled to stay on the flour, in fact we missed the final stile by about 200 yards but regained the flour again for the descent down the pub , we decided to miss the loop to see Betty’s box on the grounds that we been out quite a while.
Dobber conducted the circle in the pub – DDs were awarded to Gobalot for remaining remarkably quiet during the evening – she even said she was speechless, Lionel for moaning but not enough to take over my role – he was therefore nominated as being B*gger’s deputy, Woggle got a DD for taking time off from electioneering and Trianal for going AWOL, finally the hares, were awarded for a good run although they were asked to repeat the trail in the summer when it would be light!


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