Butterfly Bill <butterflyb...@grapevine.net>

I walked back up a slight slope in the road to the welcome home camp,
down the driveway to the bottom, and then crossed a Rainbow built
bridge of several straight logs of dead pine, lashed together with the
gaps between filled with dried mud. Then there was a dry dip about four
feet deep, then a turn to the right over to the only part of the main
trail that had been graded to be a vehicle road. This road went down to
a ford in the stream that had a closed metal gate across it. It sloped
up the other way at about 30 degrees for about 100 yards. The graded
part ended at the top of the hill, and the trail continued as footpath.

This turned out to be the only long steep slope in the main trail.
There was only one other stretch of maybe 30 feet a little way further.
The trail made a long gradual undulating climb along the side of a
stream valley. It entered and left tree cover, and in the sunny places
I could look back and see the trailhead and the parked vehicles for a
lot of the way in.

The site was very reminiscent of the California one of two years ago.
There was a long valley with a wide riparian area covering most of its
floor, curving in a counterclockwise direction, and mountain slopes on
each side with patchworks of trees covered areas and meadows. The green
of Colorado was just a little darker and brighter.

When I looked at the trees on the other side of the valley, I saw many
patches of brown and yellowing green among the usual dark green of
mountain conifers. I was later told that there had been an infestation
of a beetle that ate the trees just under their bark, and destroyed
their vascular systems, killing them in the end. A majority of the
trees in this forest were now dead or mortally diseased, and the Forest
Service intended to have the area clear cut later this year. There was
a wealth of down and dead timber for construction, but there was also
severe fire danger with all the dry kindling around. There were many
dry trunks with spindly dry branches that could have ignited in a
hurry.

The meadows were covered with varying numbers of thick-leaved clumps of
a plant that looked like buffalo grass, another grass with narrower and
more yellowish leaves, the same grayish green sage that I saw in
California, and another plant that looked similar but with darker green
rounded leaves. Some places were mostly covered with the grasses,
others with the bushes. There was a rainbow of wild flowers: big yellow
dandelions, something that looked like a Texas bluebonnet but
definitely violet in color, another which looked like a large alyssum
with tiny white petals. There were wet patches that were covered with
false hellebore, but fortunately the rumor that eating them can make
you high that created such a crisis for CALM in Oregon never emerged at
this gathering.

The weather was also very much like the California site. At the high
altitude (8800 feet at main meadow) the afternoon temperatures were
usually somewhere in the 60s, but direct sunlight could make it feel
much warmer. It could warm enough for nudity out in the sun and cold
enough to want a coat in the shade nearby, especially if the wind
picked up a bit. There were about two hours of uncomfortable cold just
before sunrise. And whatever rain fell just came down in brief
sprinkles not strong enough to soak.

As I walked in on June 22, the main trail was already wide enough for
two people to pass, and I went by a number of large kitchens well
advanced in their set up. There was a kitchen staffed mostly by young
people in black, brown, and olive drab, called Nut N 2 Eat. A little
way further was Early Bird Café, which was the only place that
consistently had something to serve when I went by at times like 7 and
8 in the morning. Most of the rest of the gathering wasn't past just
having coffee until about 10:30.

Then there was a big fire pit named Sit Down and Kick It. What the
people who sat around there seemed most interested in you kicking was
your weed. It was a major drumming locale at night. Then in a wooded
area further on was the largest and most elaborate Nick at Night I have
yet experienced, with a huge fire pit. They dug another pit nearby and
filled it with mud made with warm water, and put on Naked Mud Wrestling
a few nights. Further up the hill on a trail leaving the main one was
Bread of Life, which was the second most consistent place in the early
morning.

Shortly after passing Nick at Night I met Jai on the trail, and he
said, "Come with me and I'll show you the way to Info.", which turned
out to be continuing up the main trail. We passed Shut Up and Eat It,
which had grown over twice as large as they had been in California.
"This was the main feeding kitchen during Seed Camp." Then we passed
another, called the Magic Bowl, and thru a stretch of trail where Trade
Circle had laid out its first blankets. I was finally shown a clearing
framed by some tall trees with two long logs tied between two trees
forming the rudimentary frame of a counter. You could stand there and
look out over the Main Circle meadow, like being in a sportscaster's
booth overlooking the field.

I was told some stories of what had happened the previous night. Some
of them differed in details, but the composite version that emerged to
me was this: Some LEOs attempted to make a blockade at a point in the
road leading in. (The one and only road, there was no "back door".)
This left some Rainbows on the inside, and others on the outside.
Rainbows started to join hands on both sides, and started up an Om, and
at one end the two lines succeeded in joining hands. At this point the
LEOs brought out their guns: pistols, and a few semiautomatic military
rifles.

But just before the Rainbows succeeded in closing the circle, the
person in command of the LEOs called a retreat and they escaped thru
the gap that still remained. The LEOs got in their vehicles and left,
and there was much cheering in Rainbowland that night. This was a
situation where so many things had come so close to catastrophe but
didn't.

(If I had left the day I had wanted and arrived when I had planned, I
would have driven right into the middle of this.)

I went out to my van and brought in the first jackass load, the tent
and the cot and 1 of the pillows. (Well worth the weight after I
finally get them inside.) I found a place in the Info neighborhood and
set up. I tried to tell Marken that I was taking a sabbath from the
banking council, saying that I wanted to have a few evenings where I
could do stuff like visit the Krishna devotees, and there were people
like Carla on a.g.r. saying I should give it up for a year.

But he was persistent in trying to talk me back into it. "Maybe there
are some other people trying to tell you, you're doing a good job,
Bill" And that evening at Dinner Circle I was reminded of how I can get
the best meal there by carrying the little saucepan I use for a bowl
around in my right hand while I wave the bucket with the left. I can
ask any of the servers to give me a dollop as I pass by, and I can pass
up the bland and soupy stuff. There was also a young brother who seemed
very eager to become a part of the Magic Hat, and I figured I would be
able to pass things on to him after some grooming. But he fizzled out
after two days.

I could say it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it, but it isn't
tough, it's physically rather easy and often amusing. But finding
people who will show up at Dinner Circle each and every evening has
historically been a problem for Info and the RFOLL in general. I still
eagerly await some young thing who remains eager and demonstrably
reliable.

I brought in the second jackass load on the 23rd. It was the most
cop-free day I have ever experienced at a gathering. There were no
green trucks on the road (tho there were some white vehicles that
looked a little too clean to be Rainbow). Inside I heard neither six-up
nor seven-up all day. All of the LEOs were at the makeshift courthouse
that had been set up in a fire department station near Columbine, the
last town you passed on Hwy. 129 when coming to the gathering. The
people who had been given tickets up to then were all to have their
court hearings on that day.

I explored Main Trail further. It led thru some woods by Peace Camp
kitchen, then out into a large meadow that extended uphill from the
main meadow below. At its upper reaches before the treeline it was
marshy and covered with false hellebore. The trail made an arc thru it,
staying mostly level, then it went back into the trees and across a
stream. It led into another small meadow that had been chosen by Yoga
Camp, which maintained a schedule board full of assorted meditation
workshops. To the right in the trees was Chess Go Tea, which had books
to read and equipment for the two board games mentioned in their name.

At the back of yoga meadow was a trail into the woods which I was told
led to Instant Soup. It climbed a steep grade, then went over a brief
plateau to another steep climb that disappeared above eye level. I lost
my ambition when I was about halfway up. Back out in the large meadow
was a trail that led up the treeline to Kid Village.

Late that evening people who had been to court started to trickle back
into the gathering with their stories. Most of the people with tickets
were given an option that was less that pleading guilty, even less than
pleading nolo contendere. It was called "collateral forfeiture", and
you paid what amounted to a fine, but you had no offense record i that
followed you after that. For most of the people it was $40. Nobody said
that they had been banned from the National Forest for a year or any
other period of time, what had been one of the great fears of a lot of
the gatherers. The court had run until after it had gotten dark without
getting to all of the cases, and all the people left over at that time
had their tickets dismissed

On the 24th the LEOs returned. I started taking shifts monitoring
Info's two-way radio with an earpiece hanging from my ear, listening to
the Rainbow chatter.
There were lots of reports on locations of six-ups, and requests for
shanti sena aid, alongside kitchens arranging supply runs, offering
trades with each other, and talking about food in general --
interrupting each other in sometimes amusing and sometimes frustrating
ways. Occasionally I would hear an announcement that the road in was
being blocked off by the LEOs, then I would hear that it was reopened
15 or 20 minutes later. Apparently they would do this only when they
had a gatherer's car stopped to be searched.

At Dinner Circle, just after the meal had been served, and I had
finished running the Hat and was in my folding chair eating, a dark
gray helicopter that looked similar to a Huey came up and flew
completely around the perimeter of the circle, about fifty feet up and
back, counterclockwise at walking speed, pausing in mid air several
times. I could see a camera in the door being pointed at us. The
Rainbows responded with waving and peace signs. After it had completed
one trip around, it turned and flew off down the valley.

(to be continued)