I was looking at a list of other stashing games and came across some
links for poker runs and hashing. I'm wondering if these could be
adapted for letterboxing or maybe an activity at a gathering.
In a poker run you travel by boat (or other vehicle) to various
checkpoints and pick up a card sealed in an envelope. At the end of
the run you see who's got the best hand. I thought maybe cards could
be stashed with a letterbox or maybe the stamps are cards.
Hashers describe themselves as a drinking club with a running
problem. One or two people (the hares) take off first leaving
a "scent" for the rest of the group (the hounds) to follow. It can
be strips of paper dropped here and there. Others use flour or chalk
to mark the trail. The trick is that the hares can lead you down
false trails and you have to back track to get back on the scent.
The trail usually ends at a pub or a BBQ in a park somewhere. I'm
still puzzling how this might work for letterboxing but it sounds
like fun. hmm...maybe it's because there's beer at the end.
Anyone ever tried a poker run or hashing?
~vickie
OT: Anyone ever done a poker run or hashing?
2 messages in this thread |
Started on 2004-04-07
OT: Anyone ever done a poker run or hashing?
From: gromit459 (3vix@earthlink.net) |
Date: 2004-04-07 17:06:30 UTC
Re: OT: Anyone ever done a poker run or hashing?
From: dvn2rckr (dvn2rckr@yahoo.com) |
Date: 2004-04-07 23:39:11 UTC
In our 'pre-children' lives, my husband and I regularly participated
in hash-harrier runs. It is sort of like letterboxing but with a
group of people, limited clues (sort of like blazes for a trail) and
no letterbox at the end of the run--instead a big drinking fest,
provided you find the correct trail (as it's littered with false
leads along the way). It comes with a bunch of rules--similar to
letterboxing (trail names, a trail/path to follow, false leads along
the way, 'experts' in the hobby and newbie welcoming 'traditions')
and is frought with British pub style activities--drinking seemed to
be the capstone event of every hash run. I'm not a drinker (I
really only like Port, Brandy, cheap sweet wine or good German beer
that requires chewing) ;) so I never really got into that portion of
the hobby--I was in it for the exercise (figuring out the correct
trail sort of encouraged me to not THINK it was exercise while we
were running along trying to catch the rabbit before he got to
the 'end'. DH, on the other hand, brews his own beer, and really
ENJOYED that part of the hobby but wasn't into the run all that
much. Looking back, I sort of describe letterboxing as 'hashing'
without the 'rabbit', group of beer drinking buddies and party at
the end.
HASHING: The premise of it (as I interpreted it at the time we
participated in it about 10 years ago) seemed to be: get a group of
folks together at an assigned place, assigned time--launch
a 'rabbit' who knew/set the 'true trail' leading to the ultimate
destination (i.e. beer drinking locale)--he'd blaze a trail with
flour/toilet paper/chalk/other non-permanent substance and then
throw in lots of 'false leads' along the way. The main body (group
of remaining hashers) would start 5, 10, or 15 minutes behind
the 'rabbit' with the goal of trying to catch the 'rabbit' before he
made it to the desired destination (read beer drinking locale). If
the 'rabbit' gets to the destination without the main body catching
him, the group would all have to buy him rounds of beer. If the
main body caught the 'rabbit' before he reached the final
destination, then he would have to buy the entire group a round of
beer. So, either way, a lot of beer drinking goes on! There are a
bunch of other 'rules' that one learns along the way--such as an
entire new vocabulary and other 'odd' stuff but this is sort of the
gist of the hobby.
What appealed to me about letterboxing was the fact that I wasn't
restricted to a certain time of the week to participate, I could
bring the family along, see something new, learn some history in the
process, proceed at our own pace (we love to stop and study things
along the way) and not have that 'peer pressure' to drink that
seemed to go hand in hand with the hash runs (not something I wanted
my 'youngins' to see quite so soon in life). I also got a bit
scared when we followed a 'true' hash-trail that jumped a rancher's
fence in Texas--home of 'you can shoot 'em if they cross your fence
without askin' questions and you're good by the sheriff'. Well,
fortunately, the rancher took the time to ask questions before
firin' off his sawed off shotgun and we quickly got off his property
without bloodshed--that was enough to make us reconsider the hobby.
I didn't care much for the rattlesnakes there, either.
I'm sure you could incorporate the two hobbies together--instead of
the beer drinking binge at the end, the goal would be finding the
letterbox. It may have to be a 'time sensitive' type of a box
depending upon which type of true & false trails you blaze leading
to it.
I think it's funny--since we started letterboxing about 2 years ago,
every time I see tell-tale evidence of a hash-run along a trail, I
sort of chuckle about it wondering where the 'party' was!
POKER RUN: As for the poker run--the first I heard about it was at
a recent geoclaching event near home a few weeks ago. I was there
to retrieve a letterbox stamp of mine that somehow ended up in
the 'geocash' system about 100 miles from its 'residential
letterbox'. One kind geocacher noticed that it appeared to be
letterbox component (since the park's name was written on the
stamp!!!) and made arrangements to get it back to me. It just
happened to be at the beginning of the big area 'geocache' poker
run. They, in essence, put 'special codes' in each area geocache.
There was a list of about 30 geocaches participating in the event
that was handed out to the attendants after they paid their
$5/participant entry fee. They set off at noon and then had plans
to link back up at 6pm at a local restaurant. The folks with the
most 'codes' in hand upon entering the restaurant would be handed
playing cards--based on their resulting hands, they played a round
of poker. He with the best hand(s) won various prizes. Of course
it was all geocaching items purchased via the geocaching website
(sweatshirts, tshirts, caps, bumper stickers, etc). I'm sure you
could incorporate this sort of concept into letterboxing, too. It
just looks like a WHOLE BUNCH of work!
Personally, though, I'm not that intrigued by 'speed racing' to
various letterboxes because I would certainly miss out on what is so
special about each letterbox venue. I'm sure there are others out
there, though, who would enjoy it. I'm also one of
those 'competitive types' who is trying my hardest to get away from
being so competitive--hence my affinity for letterboxing. I do,
however, enjoy meeting other letterboxers and would probably
participate in such an event nonetheless just to interact with other
folks who share a similar passion for this neat hobby.
dvn2r ckr
--- In LbNCA@yahoogroups.com, "gromit459" <3vix@e...> wrote:
> Anyone ever tried a poker run or hashing?
>
> ~vickie
in hash-harrier runs. It is sort of like letterboxing but with a
group of people, limited clues (sort of like blazes for a trail) and
no letterbox at the end of the run--instead a big drinking fest,
provided you find the correct trail (as it's littered with false
leads along the way). It comes with a bunch of rules--similar to
letterboxing (trail names, a trail/path to follow, false leads along
the way, 'experts' in the hobby and newbie welcoming 'traditions')
and is frought with British pub style activities--drinking seemed to
be the capstone event of every hash run. I'm not a drinker (I
really only like Port, Brandy, cheap sweet wine or good German beer
that requires chewing) ;) so I never really got into that portion of
the hobby--I was in it for the exercise (figuring out the correct
trail sort of encouraged me to not THINK it was exercise while we
were running along trying to catch the rabbit before he got to
the 'end'. DH, on the other hand, brews his own beer, and really
ENJOYED that part of the hobby but wasn't into the run all that
much. Looking back, I sort of describe letterboxing as 'hashing'
without the 'rabbit', group of beer drinking buddies and party at
the end.
HASHING: The premise of it (as I interpreted it at the time we
participated in it about 10 years ago) seemed to be: get a group of
folks together at an assigned place, assigned time--launch
a 'rabbit' who knew/set the 'true trail' leading to the ultimate
destination (i.e. beer drinking locale)--he'd blaze a trail with
flour/toilet paper/chalk/other non-permanent substance and then
throw in lots of 'false leads' along the way. The main body (group
of remaining hashers) would start 5, 10, or 15 minutes behind
the 'rabbit' with the goal of trying to catch the 'rabbit' before he
made it to the desired destination (read beer drinking locale). If
the 'rabbit' gets to the destination without the main body catching
him, the group would all have to buy him rounds of beer. If the
main body caught the 'rabbit' before he reached the final
destination, then he would have to buy the entire group a round of
beer. So, either way, a lot of beer drinking goes on! There are a
bunch of other 'rules' that one learns along the way--such as an
entire new vocabulary and other 'odd' stuff but this is sort of the
gist of the hobby.
What appealed to me about letterboxing was the fact that I wasn't
restricted to a certain time of the week to participate, I could
bring the family along, see something new, learn some history in the
process, proceed at our own pace (we love to stop and study things
along the way) and not have that 'peer pressure' to drink that
seemed to go hand in hand with the hash runs (not something I wanted
my 'youngins' to see quite so soon in life). I also got a bit
scared when we followed a 'true' hash-trail that jumped a rancher's
fence in Texas--home of 'you can shoot 'em if they cross your fence
without askin' questions and you're good by the sheriff'. Well,
fortunately, the rancher took the time to ask questions before
firin' off his sawed off shotgun and we quickly got off his property
without bloodshed--that was enough to make us reconsider the hobby.
I didn't care much for the rattlesnakes there, either.
I'm sure you could incorporate the two hobbies together--instead of
the beer drinking binge at the end, the goal would be finding the
letterbox. It may have to be a 'time sensitive' type of a box
depending upon which type of true & false trails you blaze leading
to it.
I think it's funny--since we started letterboxing about 2 years ago,
every time I see tell-tale evidence of a hash-run along a trail, I
sort of chuckle about it wondering where the 'party' was!
POKER RUN: As for the poker run--the first I heard about it was at
a recent geoclaching event near home a few weeks ago. I was there
to retrieve a letterbox stamp of mine that somehow ended up in
the 'geocash' system about 100 miles from its 'residential
letterbox'. One kind geocacher noticed that it appeared to be
letterbox component (since the park's name was written on the
stamp!!!) and made arrangements to get it back to me. It just
happened to be at the beginning of the big area 'geocache' poker
run. They, in essence, put 'special codes' in each area geocache.
There was a list of about 30 geocaches participating in the event
that was handed out to the attendants after they paid their
$5/participant entry fee. They set off at noon and then had plans
to link back up at 6pm at a local restaurant. The folks with the
most 'codes' in hand upon entering the restaurant would be handed
playing cards--based on their resulting hands, they played a round
of poker. He with the best hand(s) won various prizes. Of course
it was all geocaching items purchased via the geocaching website
(sweatshirts, tshirts, caps, bumper stickers, etc). I'm sure you
could incorporate this sort of concept into letterboxing, too. It
just looks like a WHOLE BUNCH of work!
Personally, though, I'm not that intrigued by 'speed racing' to
various letterboxes because I would certainly miss out on what is so
special about each letterbox venue. I'm sure there are others out
there, though, who would enjoy it. I'm also one of
those 'competitive types' who is trying my hardest to get away from
being so competitive--hence my affinity for letterboxing. I do,
however, enjoy meeting other letterboxers and would probably
participate in such an event nonetheless just to interact with other
folks who share a similar passion for this neat hobby.
dvn2r ckr
--- In LbNCA@yahoogroups.com, "gromit459" <3vix@e...> wrote:
> Anyone ever tried a poker run or hashing?
>
> ~vickie