You’ve been on their trails. You’ve saluted their cleverness, marveled at the beauty of their terrain, and cursed their YBFs.
Now, you want to become one of them.
There’s lots of guides to haring out there – Flying Booger has one of the best – and much of the fun of hashing is getting to set trails for the pack to follow.
You should hare for about every 10-15 trails you hash. It’s called Being a Good Hasher. What are you afraid of? A down-down?
Music City Haring Specifics
- Trail information – get it to the Hare Raiser as soon as you know it! The earlier you promote your hash, the more people will show up.
- Beer needs – as dictated by the Beermeister, you must arrange delivery of beverages in advance – no CODs, no day-of delivery allowed.
- Apparently, the hash will pay for ice as needed. Keep your receipts (usually a good idea to have separate purchases to just keep it easier). Give to the hash cash that day and make sure you get your reimbursement.
- Hares do not have to pay for the trail they hare; however, all responsibility of orange food, trail marking materials, and any other trail-related items (except for ice! see above) come out of the hare’s pocket. It’s a good idea to see who is haring the trail before you and go to that trail to possibly get any excess snacks or trail marking materials from the previous hares. The beermeister may also be able to hook you up with snacks and such with enough advance warning.
- Coolers must pass from hare to hare. (This is also a good reason to go to the hash immediately preceding yours – not that you wouldn’t be hashing, anyhow!!) Get the previous and following hare(s)’s contact information and pass off the coolers as soon as possible.
Definitions
- Dead Trail – entire trail is pre-laid.
- Live Trail – entire trail is thrown live.
Some General Tips for Haring
- Don’t be overly clever
- Don’t over-think the trail
- Do adjust your trails based on extenuating circumstances if you need to (weather, turnout, etc)
- Scout the trail in advance – there’s no such thing as too much scouting
- Find interesting locations
- Ask other hashers in advance for assistance with beer truck or other logistics
- Ask permission to cross private property. People in Middle Tennessee love to shoot-first-ask-questions-later.
- Hare at least once a year – twice if you can!
- Co-hare with an experienced hare before you set your own trail or plan your own trail; they can show you the ropes of haring
- With that said, develop your own haring style
- Stay on the lookout for trail potential everywhere you go
- If you’re pre-laying the trail, keep an eye on the weather and be prepared to re-lay some of your trail live
- There’s no such thing as too many marks (especially for night hashes)
- Remember to put all of your marks in circle (as well as potential trail marking material types) and explain any unfamiliar or rarely used marks
- When you send information to the Hare Raiser for publication on the website and other avenues, please state if it’s an A-to-A (back to the same start), A-to-A’ (back to close to the start – within walking distance back to vehicles), or A-to-B trail (ending far away from vehicles and requiring shuttle logistics)
- If you have an A-to-B trail, prepare to ferry people back to the start to get their vehicles
- An exact address for the on-start is helpful – include details like “park behind the store” or use cardinal directions to indicate where the hash will gather up (“north side of Gallatin Road at Delmas”)
- If you are going to have an on-after at a bar or restaurant, it’s usually a good idea to give them a heads up that 10-30 people may be coming
- If you’re using toilet paper to mark trail, do ask that the DFLs pick it up along the way