Here I am back in Stockholm after a ten year absence, and running with Absolut.

So first a blast from the past - on 6 January 2001, Malibog and I set the New Year recovery run off in the countryside near Farsta and it was one of the more memorable all time runs. When setting the trail, we came across a mountainous pile of horseshit, and of course ran the trail across the top of this landmark, though not intending for the pack to actually follow this course. On the day of the run it had been snowing and raining and the hill (i.e. pile of horseshit) was now looking just like another hill in the countryside, though covered with snow, which was actually covering a thin layer of ice, which in turn sat on top of the horseshit. Now the horseshit was, like any good pile of coposting organic material, fermenting away, and quite liquid underneath the thin layer of ice. Somehow the pack manages to negotiate this, but Malibog (for whatever reason) manages to fall through the thin ice and ends up knee deep in steaming liquid manure. Or else he'd fallen early in the trail and damaged something, memory of the event is a bit hazy for reasons which will be clear later.

Back to the present, I am a few minutes late and not particularly in the mood for running, wearing a heavy jacket recently purchased to cope with weather conditions quite alien to what I have been used to living on the beach in Queensland, and generally thinking that a walk might be a better plan. However some last minute advice has me dumping the thing upstairs and setting out for the run rather underdressed, fortunately we are having a very mild winter and temperatures are well above zero and little wind chill.

Off we go and there is Laid Bird hauling a dog who immediately takes off in entirely the wrong direction. The dog has noticed that there is a rabbit just off trail and apparently wants to follow the wrong hare. The doges name is "Drag Queen" which makes perfect sense. We wind through the neighborhood, the trail crosses the E4 after a check, and continues winding back and forth, with the hare able to keep up with the pack by walking in a straigh line while we cover four or five times the distance. We descend through the woods and cross Solnavägen, then into the park and graveyard, though with Laid Bird and Drag Queen sent on a "dogleg" since dogs aren't supposed to be there. Out of the graveyard, and back across the E4, a bit of trail through the woods bordering the E4 followed by a steep descent over slippery rocks with No Shit falling on his ass (in spite of his claimed 18 years of orienteering) Back under the E4 and into Karolinska, into a parking garage, and down about ten flights of stairs, with ambiguous hash arrows, apparently from previous runs.  After descending deep into the bowels of the carpark we then start back up on the ramps, expecting to run but before too many flights we are off up stairs again and into the open air.

Someone commented that any GPS recording of this section would be a bit confusing, so I used my built-in GPS memory to roughly reconstruct this section of the trail.

A welcome sign DN (which is not a local paper) but rather an indication that drinks are nearby. I missed the pre run briefing where it was explained that this merely meant that the drink stop was somewhere up ahead. From my early hash days in Pittsburgh, DN (or rather BN, i.e. Beer Near) meant "search around in the woods nearby, and you will find beeeeeer, generally hidden. (The hare would have left a bag filled with ice and a case of beer somewhere in the vicinity) Clearly this is not a recognized hash feature, strange, since on the previous run Termite had put a backpack full of drinks only 5m off trail, and we'd all stood there dying of thirst and cold before he turned up and told us to look around for it.

I digress, DN-> means drinks are some way ahead, DVN-> means drinks very near, and DS is the actual piss stop. Two minutes later there was the actual DS. So there is glögg and some vodka to top things up. Back on the New Years recovery run in 2001, DN meant "Dig Near here" cos there was a bottle of vodka buried in the snow (and by bottle we meant a liter of the stuff). And that was the piss stop, we passed around the bottle and consumed most of it.

On back home across the new Solna Bridge (apparently the first hash trail here, officially opening this landmark). So to downdowns, and No Shit is featured for numerous infractions. In particular, in spite of Malibog's warnings about slippery rocks still managing to fall on his ass while negotiating the descent. Numerous other infractions I don't remember, probably because of the Estonian (or wherever) vodka, except that CD and I got a downdown for latecoming. Then back to the apartment for a good feed and cold beers.

Ramblin' Rod

[From Malibog’s Hash Trash, January 2014]