It was a glorious evening as the assembled pack greeted two new hashers Matthew and Stephen, neighbours of Jo’s and a father and son combination. Our hare did warn us; “if you don’t like hills, there’s the pub” and he was right, as soon as we crossed the road it was off up the first of many hills.
The first long short split came almost straight away with the short cutters carrying on straight up the hill and the long route going diagonally north west across the slope. The Moose came past me up the hill like a young gazelle before landing on the floor having found the small stump sticking up next to the path. We soon discovered it was not to be an easy long cut; as soon as we reached the crest of the ridge it was straight back down again. Admittedly there was time to admire fantastic views west toward Bledlow Ridge on the way. Down to the farm and, guess what left back up the hill – with an extra loop to bring us back to the crest of the ridge exactly where we had been about 10 minutes earlier - thanks Simon!
At least we had the first levelish part of the run south east along the crest of the ridge past Nobles Farm. When we find these beautiful farmhouses in the middle of nowhere I always wonder what these people do for a living and where did I go wrong? I was enjoying trotting along in the back third of the pack wondering why the same faces kept coming from the front to the back every 10 minutes or so. I idly speculate whether Helen, Sam, Ade and Sam’s young friend have selfishly done every back check or whether they will save one for someone else- no one seems to mind too much!
Having run along the crest of the ridge for almost a mile it was predictably time to go down again, this time on the south side of the ridge to the Chinnor Road. Steve got most of the way across the field to the next road before we discovered the trail was heading along the road for a little while. Apparently we passed Peter’s house, but no one knew because Simon had forgotten to tell him to arrange a beer stop (I thought it was only in my family that no one talked to each other!).
Instead we headed back up into the woods and along toward the West Wycombe Mausoleum (with a few false trails thrown in for good measure). There were three red kites soaring in the evening thermals around the car park at the top of the hill – magnificent! As we dropped down the track toward the village both parts of the hash met up again (well done Simon!).
We turned back north and dropped down to cross the main Princes Risborough road (ah – there’s Sam and Helen coming back up the hill from yet another back check, joined for a change by a couple of the more adventurous (foolhardy?) shortcutters. We crossed the railway lines and headed north into the woods between Naphill and Bradenham and up our fourth climb of the evening to the crest of yet another ridge!
Eventually we turned left and begun to drop down toward the back of Bradenham Manor – were we heading back to the on inn or would our cunning if somewhat sadistic hare put in another loop? No, with perfect timing we jogged down the track back to the pub arriving spot on time and with exactly 5.5m on my GPS as promised by the hare at the start of the run! According to Gerry’s machine we did 686ft of ascent on the run – I have to say it felt like more!
Back in the pub, Maggie handed out routes and maps for the “not the Ridgeway Run” on 26th July and Anthony reminded us to let him know if we were doing the Thame 10k and joining him for a BBQ on 26th June.
Great run, thanks Simon