White Powder on Public Paths

'Hounds' chasing a 'hare' or the paper chase is one of this country's oldest sports, a tradition kept alive around the world by the Hash House Harriers. However, most hashing groups out of respect for the environment will now use flour, lime or sawdust to mark their trails. The origins of the Hash House Harriers goes back to the 1930s, in what is now Malaysia, when a group of British colonial officers and expatriates felt the need to run off the excesses of the weekend, basically an excuse for more socialising and drinking. A trail is set by a hare who is chased by a pack of hounds. If you've ever watched the film 'The Railway Children' an important part of the story involves a group of public school boys on a paper chase through a railway tunnel where one of them breaks a leg. Health and safety issues have long been present!

The hare marks the trail with blobs of flour (paper, sawdust etc.) and every so often the trail comes to a check from which there are many false trails in addition to the correct route home. The more athletic hashers (hounds) spend time checking out the false trails allowing the slower ones a chance to catch up.

A bar, circle and blobs of flour are the common marking found on the
route of a Quorn Hash House Harriers trail. Find three blobs and you're ON the right way.

The sad thing is that suspicion of what the white powder marking the trail represents is increasingly generating some concern amongst the general public who have no comprehension of what hashing is. This time of year, as the daytime gets shorter, our hash trails move into the urban areas where we can use paths lit by street lights, so our hashes are more obvious and seen by many more people.

Concerns about our trail markings change according to the current public paranoia. Ten years ago there was international concern about terrorists using anthrax. The Quorn Hash House Harriers (QH3) had a  trail investigated by the police after a member of the public had reported an man looking like an Arab behaving strangely and placing a white powder by lamp-posts. In August 2005 whilst laying a trail for the Quorn Hash House Harriers I was taken by surprise by a minibus-load of plain-clothed police in a sub-urban area of Nottingham after being reported by a concerned local as someone distributing anthrax powder. With recent newspaper reports of pets being targeted  with poisoned bait, the white powder is now seen dog poison. Our flour markings are seen as a real evil. Only last month on a QH3 trail we had a ranting and racially abusive farmer who was convinced we were marking out his land as a prospective plot for a  group of 'travelling gyppos'. 

Do a Google search on 'white powder public paths' and you'll find many worldwide newspaper reports on the mystery white powder (e.g. QH3 - Eastwood & Kimberly Advertiser; LH3 - London News Shopper; AH3 - OtherAberdeen ; and recently, internationally, CH3 - The Cayman Reporter). It is unfortunate that this minority of paranoid dog owners are not blessed with an inquisitive nature or the ability to use the internet. Hashers find it incredulous that people could be stupid enough to think we would be placing toxic/poisonous substances on footpaths by hand. A four-year old could work out that the markings show a trail to be followed. It is ironic to hear dog walkers complain about a trail of flour through a wheat field whilst their dearly beloveds deposits far more toxic biohazards. 

A notice pinned to a post on QH3 run 876, part of the trail through a wheat field in the countryside, flour blobs placed regularly at 50-m intervals.

I'm not the first hasher to have spent a just few minutes of my day worrying about how we mark our trails (e.g Flying Booger). So what should we do to allay this unfounded fear of white powder on public paths?  We have to be more proactive in advertising the House Hash Harriers and what we do. Where we are going is not so predictable as the hash is a very informal event and quite often the hare makes up the route of the trail as it happens, or so many trails seem.

Never miss a chance to publicise what we do (e.g. local radio - Durex  on 'white powder on the streets of Derby'). Hares should explain to passing dog walkers what they are doing. If the On Inn has a notice board put up a poster announcing there will be a hash from the pub and what that involves - we may get some new recruits! 

Never set the trail through a shopping mall or near a sensitive security area (e.g a Power Station) without giving prior notice of what you are doing. Do a Google search to see the consequences of failing to do so (e.g Sacramento Hash House Harriers).

It's a tough job being a hare without having the additional stress of dealing with a very small minority of the paranoid public. It is always an anxious time worrying whether the flour will survive on the trail. Rain washes it away, slugs, rabbits, squirrels, birds, sheep and other livestock eat it. And so do inquisitive dogs.