Are we old? Well yeah.. but we still exercise... do you?

I say this without an ounce of shame or regret and if you look at the Hash House Harriers on a global scale I think you'll find that for the most part this ends up being the case. Sure we have a few youths that are mixed in among our groups but for the most part we are all retirees or working stiffs that probably don't get much social time.

I suppose you could say that in many ways, especially for the people that are married, this is kind of the "poor man's golf" outings where we get to get away from our families for a few hours and have some fun with the fellas.

When I look at a lot of our pictures, especially the "scouting" ones where are determining a new trail, these are mostly just a bunch of dudes that are all exploring the great beyond like you did when you were kids. We are trying to determine as a group if this area is suitable for future runs and the people in the pics look like they are really old and out of shape but I challenge anyone to find a group of 60+ year olds that are all capable of this without complaining that also drink a bunch of beer afterwards.

We are not spring chickens, so to speak, and a few of our members actually walk with canes. But therein lies what we are proud of. We are not the most spry people in the world but we are out there doing stuff and staying active. I'm quite certain that these meetups 3 times a week where we walk / jog / run between 5-10 km each time is likely a lot more than most of the fellas our age are doing.

On occasion and mostly just for the amusement of the others and also for the photos, one of us will make a fast run for it through the brush even though we are very aware of how dangerous this is. On multiple days we have had people badly twist their ankles but an unseen dip in the terrain. What can I say? We are a bunch of old thrill seekers!

At the end of this trek I wouldn't say that we accomplished a great deal, but our Thai guide did manage to know the area pretty well and perhaps we could use this at some point in the future. The main problem was that since most of this was farmland that one, we are trespassing every step of the way and also there wasn't much shade. This wasn't really an issue today because it is rainy season and overcast basically all the time, but on sunny days this could prove to be a recipe for heat exhaustion disaster.

So even though this exploratory walk in the "jungle" wasn't terribly productive, the 12 of us or so still had a good time and are really hoping we'll find some new territory soon. We are still operating under some restrictions because of Covid so we have to be careful to not piss off the locals.

If you are in the Chiang Mai area and would like to join us on one of our adventures know that you don't have to be old in order to participate but please check with us first at our official website beforehand so we can make certain to save a spot for ya.

On on!