First time haring?  Congratulations on what we call your "virgin lay." 

You chose wisely. Haring a trail is a thrill unto itself. You can't get a proper hash name until you lay some sh*tty trail, so you might as well get to it!

Haring Guide

There aren't really any rules in hashing, but more like guidelines. Here are some guidelines to make haring more enjoyable (and safe) for all involved. 

The Goal of the Pack:  to catch the hare.  We say it's to drink beer, but the goal is also to catch you.

The Goal of the Hare:  to lay a trail that is safe, challenging, fun, and slows the pack down enough so that they don't catch you.

Trail Length: 3-6 miles

Start time: Varies
  • Saturday hashes always start at 3:00 summer, 2:00 when daylight savings ends.  We occasionally have flexible times for event hashes but you MUST get mismanagement approval.
  • Full Moon Friday Hashes start at 7:00pm and happen during daylight savings time. 

Planning -- Good hares plan, shitty hares think they don't have to.
  • Decide if you will hare alone or with someone (for your first lay, please talk to the hare raisers about getting an experienced cohare.)
  • Find a great trail and run or hike it a few times. You don't need to plan the whole trail out in detail yet, but you do need to find a location. Look for:
    • Adequate parking for 15-30 people
    • Subtle circle location away from small children and woodland animals (don't put us in obvious violation of open container laws. Groton City= open containers, Groton Town, not so much)
    • opportunities for several interesting intersections/obstacles.  Intersections are what makes it a hash trail, so use many of them
    • Safety third!!! Jk. . .if it's not a safe area, don't use it or mark it very carefully with a BVC
    • Shiggy is always a plus- water, brush, buildings, whatever. Make it interesting.
    • 1 beer check per mile is a fun number
  • As a new hare, you may want to map your trail out and print or save the map for your day of or use some apps.  Some great resources for this are:
  • Plan to set part or all of the trail live based on your running ability.  RgH3 has a reputation for 3-6 mile trails that are almost always at least partly live.  You can prelay some of the trail if you're worried about getting caught, but dead trails take the fun out of it. Either way, DON'T TELL THE PACK IF ITS DEAD OR LIVE, just keep it a mystery. Check out Booger's Guide to Haring to learn more about how to make this work based on your running ability.

Talk to the Hare Raiser
  • Talk to the hare raiser and sign up for a date.  If you've got some haring experience, you can do this step first, otherwise, it's best to have a trail location in mind so you don't accidentally sign up for a date that won't work:
    • Make sure your date has NO conflicts with your regular life
    • Check that the location of the trail won't be in use by other groups that day
    • Check that your schedule allows you to scout the week of the trail
    • Consider any holidays on/near your hare date if you feel like having a theme
  • Please provide the Hare Raiser with the start location and hash details 1 WEEK BEFORE YOUR RUN so that it can be promotes.

Map Your trail 
  • digitally, manually, or mentally. . .the point is to get out there and know that trail!.
  • Plan out your intersections, plan your beer check locations, plan your false/bad trail marks. Haring can be discombobulating, and having that safety net can make a huge difference when you have to make adjustments on the fly or when you have a pack behind you and forget.
  • Once you've determined if it's A to A, and where the on after is, contact your hare raisers with this information.  The PACK doesn't need to know if it's A to A or A to B, but the beermeister does, and they will let him know.  The on after will go on the online announcement

Gather and Stash flour, chalk and beer 
  • You can get reimbursed for up to $50 on your beer, jus turn in your receipt to hash cash.  Divide up the beer for beer checks, and make sure to include water at your beverage checks (amount of water depends on the temp)
  • Purchase enough flour to complete your trail without having to leave huge gaps.  Generally speaking, a 5lb bag will get you through a 2 mile trail
  • If you are haring in the evening or in an area where flour may be difficult to see, you may want to color it.
  • Chalk is a godsend for saving your flour, and marking on flat surfaces.  Different hares have different preferences.  I am a fan of carrying small chalk and stashing additional chalk with my stashed flour.  Hummer loves carrying a single gigantic piece of chalk.
  • You may have chosen to prelay some of your trail and stash beer.  If so, plan to have that complete at least 1 hour before trail is supposed to start. Trust me, something ALWAYS comes up if you don't allow for enough time.

Get to the start early and talk to your Mismanagement before Chalk Talk
  • Tell the RA what chalk marks you'll be using (or better yet, help him draw them), and if there are any special instructions (this is the most important thing you'll do before trail)
  • Talk to the beermeister if the trail is A to B
  • Talk to the Hare Raiser if this is one of your first trails. . .not for any reason, just because they'll want to know how things are going and that you're doing ok.
  • Talk to the GM - let know about any trail issues that may come up for "special needs" hashers (the especially slow, the easily lost, dogs, etc), this will help with sweeping to ensure everyone gets in
Lay that Trail 
  • See our Trail Mark guide as a refresher for the marks you'll use.
  • Use a timer/watch to count down until the pack leaves (you get 15 minutes)
  • See our Laying Trail Best Practices guide to get great detailed advice on laying trial in different surfaces with chalk or flour

More bathroom reading material: Top 10 Stupid Things Hares Do That Make Everyone Hate Them 

Commonly used RgH3 trail marks.

We probably missed a few, but that's ok. We'll give the hareraiser a down-down on your behalf because it's all his fault anyway.