In Chiang Mai we are kind of spoiled for choice because we are surrounded by national parks as well as private land that is just ripe for us to make trails to run on. That being the case, one of the best things that a member could possibly do for their local Hash is to discover a new area that runs can be done on. It can be anywhere within a certain proximity to the city center, other than that the major issue is whether or not the owners of the land are going to freak out when a bunch of silly-dress foreigners are running across their land.
Myself and another local Hasher recently came across some land that we think might be wonderful for future Hash events.
What makes this are potentially a great site is that it is near roads, but has plenty of natural land nearby. Hash runs can be boring if they involve too much street running and if it is nothing but rubber plantations or some other sort of agricultural land, it doesn't have the necessary twists and turns that keep a trail a bit of a mystery as to where it is going to go next.
Water features are just an added bonus and luckily, this area has some of that as well.
Small bodies of water like this one are ideal because whoever is setting the trail could seriously throw off the running pack by making them guess which side of the "lake" the runners are going to need to go down. We never really involve the water in the runs because most of the standing water in this part of the country is filled with chemical runoff from the nearby farms.
Another potential bonus about this newfound area is that, as you can likely tell, some of the land is cultivated but as we get closer to the hills it isn't. This tends to make for good runs because while we do like jungle, proper jungle is basically un-traversable. It is also a great way for people to get lost or injured.
The elevated portions also are not too terribly steep so this could make for a good trail for the Chiang Mai HHH in the future.
The difficult part is that me and the other Hare I am scouting with, we are not really that good at speaking the local language and we always have to be at least a bit concerned that the owners of the farms might not be cool with us just wandering onto their land. I should have learned more of the language than I have since living here for years but in these instances we will normally keep a Thai national who is also a Hasher on phone call standby in case we need to ask for permission from the local land-owners. It would benefit them to allow us on their land because we are incredibly courteous towards the areas and we always take away trash that was already there and never leave anything behind.
It's still a work in progress and I hope that it can turn into a real trail in the near future. Like the title of this blog says, finding a new area, especially if it ends up being a really good site, is basically the best thing that you can possibly do for your local Hash.
On On!