Winter finally arrived in earnest in Penticton. Snow fell gently on the pack while they waited..and waited..for a tardy RA and a flour-less hare. After much fooling with jello and flour the hare, our illustrious Philty, was off and the pack proceeded to wait for 5 minutes inside.
It soon became clear that the falling snow was making it difficult to find checks. The trail climbed and climbed and the pack became more and more strung out. Shunty attempted to zen and ended up half a kilometer off course. Moaner Lisa managed to zen off trail and then back on, but only by running over a few marks. While checks were hard to find, the FRB’s quickly figured out that his footsteps were much easier to find.
The pack reassembled near the top of Vancouver Hill. The trail began to descend (finally) but misfortune struck. The hare and rolled his ankle in the slippery conditions.
After a brief consult, Goat Bag took over as hare while Philthy hobbled down the hill and home.
Goat Bag was given an entirely unfair (for the pack) 30 second head start. He was still in sight, heading north on the KVR when the pack yelled on-on and began the chase. The trail did a small loop and soon the pack was back at Vancouver Hill and the KVR trail, only this time there was a large check.
The pack quickly went every direction except north. Finally after much searching the pack reached the bottom on the hill. Dickweasel led Shunty and Spermy to the lame hare’s house where the got warm and drank beer. Meanwhile MoanerLisa, Stinky & Hugo, and Hard To Swallow went all the way back up the hill the the hated check. MoanerLisa and Hard To Swallow finally decided to head north and found that the hare had looped again and had continued north along the KVR.
The hare proved even more wily as he took the expected route down the esplanade trail, but cleverly jumped the fence to hide his tracks. The pack discovered this after a good 250 meter detour. Finally back on trail the FRBs arrived at Philthy’s house where everyone asked “Where the hell were you?” Then we all poked Philty’s swollen ankle with sticks. Princess MoanerLisa enjoyed the high point of her day (bailey’s and ice cream).
The down downs I remember are:
To Philty for haring until injury
To Goat Bag for being wily.
To Princess MoanerLisa for suggesting we hash with out beer (blasphmeny!) (A bailey’s down down).
To Dickweasel for running all the way down the hill despite seeing no checks.
The good news is that Philty’s ankle is not broken and he expects to be back in his shoes in a few weeks.
The Shiggy Dusters also raised $125 for food hampers for the Supported Child Development Program.
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So much for happy endings. Philthy’s ankle turns out to be really broken. Beer and rest is the prescription.