On-In: Gowanus Yacht Club
Hares: Just Dan and Wonky
We stood and pondered why so many would skip a hash on a night with beautiful weather and an easily accessed start location. We scorned those who weren’t there, we called them racists, we called them mudders, we called them losers.
The delightfully matching hares arrived. Wearing the same M*A*F*H t-shirts, black shorts, and black eye glasses, it was only their hair color and height that helped keep track of who was who. They gave word that the trail would be long, close to six miles, but that it included a beer stop.
One visitor joined us that night, Julia, from the London City Hash. She was quite excited to be there, in Brooklyn, at the hash, for the first time, knowing no one, and without a phone, but eager to hash.
And we were off – sent uphill towards the park and through Park Slope. Then we went south through the lovely projects and quaint brownstones of Red Hook. We made it to the second check and realized Julia was already lost from the pack. Well, the group was now one smaller, but the hash is not for the weak, so we wished her luck in finding the on-in, but the trail was ours to solve. We continued on through the Ikea grounds, including lavish grass, harbor, and the sunset reflecting back over the water. This was indeed new hashing territory well worth a moment to stop and look and enjoy the beautiful night that we were out on trail.
We made it to the beer stop. This was no beer check, mind you, but an actual bar called Fort De-(something-or-other), which was full of brooklyn artsy types and a bunch of sweaty hashers waiting for their "small beer". The bar-keep was more than excited to see us, and had hoped for a larger crowd. Unfortunately our GPS told us, we were not quite half-way through this 6-mile trail, so on-on we must go!
We turned back north and headed into Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens and arrived at a check on 2nd Place. The pack had managed to catch-up to the front-runner, Barnacle, who hadn’t even stopped for the small beer. This check was so difficult, we had hopes that the visitor would appear again. I crossed two different bridges across the Gowanus canal alone, trying to solve it. But some quick thinking from Drag-Hag, that the hares got off the train headed back INTO brooklyn made us realize, the on-in had to be in Carroll Gardens. Sure enough, we found trail and the on-in was not much farther along.
We reached the Gowanus Yacht Club, which can give the Hamptons a run for their money any day, and drank Duff Beer from the pitcher, and ate cheap hamburgers and hotdogs with ketchup and mustard.
We decided our dear visitor was lost to the mean streets of Brooklyn, and hoped nothing too terrible had happened. Then sure enough, she appeared! Telling a tale of finding a book store with an internet connection and with employees who had the patience to help her out. She found her way to the on-in and back to her stuff.
Down-Downs were given as follows:
- Hares: Just Dan (the blonde) and Wonky (the brunette)
- Visitor: Julia
- Virgins: Trent & Mark
- Li’l Dirty: for picking up a guy on trail and bringing him to the on-in
- Barnacle: For NOT being the FRB to the on-in.
- Li’l Dirty & Sandy Syphilis: FRBs
- Hares: For a S-H-I-T-T-Y T-R-A-I-L (except for the good parts)
- Hares again: For the matching outfits – they, of course, claimed it was an accident
- Eager 4 Beaver: For running Devo’s trail for last Wednesday’s hash on Thursday and for falling and gashing his elbow in process. (I asked him about this afterwards – apparently there was a good amount of rat poo involved too).
- Random Abuse of Power: Smashmouth assigned it to… Smashmouth
Well, it was a scenic trail, a nice bar stop, and even the visitor made it to the on-in. So all of you who had something better to do – you missed a good one.
On-out,
Just Melanie