The trick for the hounds is to try to mimic the hare's path in three dimensions, and reasonably quickly before the rising sun, storm fronts, high/low pressure systems, etc. change the pattern. Balloon rallies are great fun (but dang do those folks get up early!), I've crewed/chased a few times for a couple of different balloons. Read that as I'm good at being dead weight on the end of a rope. Though I've been "fan man" and "top rope" guy too. I'm not even a virgin anymore, been up - only once for about 20 min, but it was great fun.