Once again I want to put a disclaimer at the front of this that this article and everything that I refer to inside of all Hashing articles has nothing to do with hashish or any other drug. It is referring to the Hash House Harriers (H3) which is a global group of "drinkers with a running problem" that I highly suggest you join up with if your area has them. There is a good chance that there is one as there are more than 2000 chapters worldwide.
While there is no global consensus on what the rules are other than the fact that "there are no rules, only traditions" - there are some generally accepted things that are bound to happen no matter where in the world you decide to do a Hash run. One of the most fun aspects of the HHH in general is that we go for a run, if you are lucky this happens somewhere in nature, and the path of said run is not known to anyone who is participating in it. It is intentionally designed this way so that the front runners don't end up leaving the slower people in the dust because the people up front have to figure out where the trail is.
The path you are meant to follow is marked with flour normally but during rainy times of year the path could be marked with bits of paper that are stapled to leaves and what not (don't worry, we use biodegradable paper and also go back to clean up after ourselves.) However, a big part of the fun is the fact that the person who made the trail is often a cheeky bastard, which is one of those "traditions" i was referring to and they will lead you intentionally down a trail that is wrong!
These are called "false trails" and are just another method of attempting to keep the pack together and not let the front running bastards get to far ahead. There are a number of ways that these false trails are marked but generally the letters FT or just F either written with chalk or a piece of paper on a tree will let you know that you have gone the wrong way.
I have run with other groups that are outside of Thailand where instead of the F or FT they simply will have 2 or 3 lines that cross the trail that you are currently on.
When these are encountered, you need to shout out "CHECK BACK" which indicates to the rest of the pack that presumably will be somewhat close to you, that they should no longer follow you, or the trail that you were on that got you into this predicament in the first place. In most places the real trail is no more than 100 meters from the last "turn" or obvious option in the trail, in more difficult situations the real trail will be a bit more hidden and you have to find where the real trail picks up somewhere in the vicinity of the markings for the false trail.
If you are a new hasher, it is probably pretty unlikely you are going to be the first person to encounter this as more experienced users are going to understand the inner workings of how the trails work.
It is always important to remember that if you find yourself in a situation where you are alone and can't see the others in the group or find the trail then you need to shout out "HOW YOU" and wait for the "ON ON" response. If you are in a responsible Hash group (of which there are none) you should probably have some contact information on you with another member so that you don't get totally lost. Plus, if you have a phone with you, you can always use GPS of some sort to get you back to the camp.
This "getting lost" situation has only occurred a handful of times in the many years that I have been hashing, and it was always the fault of the person who got lost.
So that is False Trails, and they are great fun even if you are the victim of them. There is a certain sense of pride that comes along with being the first person to discover you were wrong about which path to choose. This is just another one of the many reasons to get involved in Hashing.
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