full on hippie / Indian / back to the woods Rainbow 2013

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rockermike

Trad climber
Berkeley
Topic Author's Original Post - May 5, 2013 - 11:31pm PT
The Rainbow Gathering is in Montana this year (exact location to be announced later).
They could use some donations for first aid and water piping etc.
see
http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/sites/annual-site.html

I love these guys. Soft drugs, tipis, topless girls, folk music, Hare Krishna free food kitchens, 20,000 people camping in the woods, and NO COVER since 1972. How hippie can you get.

The whole event based on volunteers and donations. . .


Salamanizer

Trad climber
The land of Fruits & Nuts!
May 5, 2013 - 11:54pm PT
I personally can't stand hippies.

Now, the people who are living the lifestyle and just doing they're thing. More flowerpower to em'.

But for the most part, hippies buy into the idea, much like the Hot Topic crowd. They pay for there look, then buy into a drug culture dominated ideology that is for the most part, based on various forms of feel good bullsh#t.

The real hippies were the native Americans or more recently the self reliance gurus like Dave Canterbury who actually have an intimate understanding and relationship with the natural world around them.

I bet their wasn't one vegetarian Indian in the whole 11,000+ years they dominated the Americas.
atchafalaya

Boulder climber
May 6, 2013 - 12:30am PT
Love hippies, but drums suck.
TheTye

Trad climber
Sacramento CA
May 6, 2013 - 01:20am PT
Do "Rainbow Children" stem from this festival?

My ex wife had a cousin who, with her boyfriend, referred to themselves as "Rainbow Children" and I remember them saying something about a festival.

They stayed with us for a short time and took advantage of me. They refused to help out with anything and I finally had them leave. They also got a puppy and bragged about how much more money they made spare changing with the dog... way more parasite than hippie. You can't talk about living free while subsiding on others hard work... at least not without coming off like an assho1e... But maybe this was an isolated incident of worthless people.
Chinchen

climber
Way out there....
May 6, 2013 - 01:28am PT
Seen the same thing many times, Tye.
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
May 6, 2013 - 03:01am PT
Spare a dollar, man?
BobLoblaw

climber
May 6, 2013 - 04:14am PT
"I bet their wasn't one vegetarian Indian in the whole 11,000+ years they dominated the Americas."

To suggest that because Native Americans weren't vegetarians there is no usefulness to the idea now is just plainly ignorant. They didn't have even close to the population density that we have now, and modern Americans eat more meat per capita than pretty much any culture ever (including NAs). By almost any measure, being vegetarian is good for conserving natural resources...you need know little more than the basic concepts of energy transfer between trophic levels to understand why.
Norwegian

Trad climber
the tip of god's middle finger
May 6, 2013 - 07:21am PT
rope-haired puppy pullers.

i've had negative run in's and
i have also met some incredibly kind, generous
and hard-working hippies.
no generalization defines anyone...

summer of 2000 plus or minus:

jackson, montana. i drove the toyota motorhome as close to the rainbow gathering as her clearance would permit. the closest i could make it was the little town of jackson. so i had a few beers in the local bar (also the grocery store i think) and then set off with a weeks worth of gear on my back, pedaling my mountain bike. the actual gathering was about 10 miles off, down very unpaved roads.

so im wheelin out into the georgous wilderness with an oversize pack strapped on my back, and this car stops and asks if they can take my photo. i concede. they inform me that they are from some montana rag and they're doing a write up on this hippy festival. they ask where i'm from and i say california. so they interpret my response as i rode my bike all the way from cali to the high montains of montana on this full suspension mountain bike in birkenstok sandals with a 60 lb mountainsmith wobblin around on my back. not being one to get in the way of a good story, i let them role with their fantasy. so i become the mascot of the montana rainbow gathering. the role model hippy so to speak. no sh#t. front page story.

i pull over into a wildflower-littered meadow and make a dent in my space bag of wine. as im swillin wine, another car stops to chat. this time it is my friend Elspeth whom i met earlier in the summer in yosemite. so we rejoice in our synergetic meeting and i tell her my story.

it was and is a splendid time.
bentelbow

climber
spud state
May 6, 2013 - 08:30am PT
Q: What's the difference between a hippie chick and a hockey player?

A: A hockey player showers between periods
Skeptimistic

Mountain climber
La Mancha
May 6, 2013 - 09:07am PT
^^^^ sounds like a pretty sissy hockey team if they can't stand a little sweat...^^^^

But for the most part, hippies buy into the idea, much like the Hot Topic crowd. They pay for their look, then buy into a drug culture dominated ideology that is for the most part, based on various forms of feel good bullsh#t.

-But for the most part, Rat Racers buy into the idea, much like the Hot Topic crowd. They pay for their look, then buy into a consumer culture dominated ideology that is for the most part, based on various forms of Capitalist "keeping ahead of your neighbor."- What's worse, the very people who benefit from this scheme spend hundreds of billions brainwashing people from the day they are born to believe this mindfock is natural.

True, freedom isn't free and may be just another word for "nothin' left to lose", but those lucky few who can live in balance with nature outside of our Matrix without having to rely on the 9-5 hamster wheel have my respect and admiration. I could do it (and have for a summer), but I am too sucked in to consuming.

I'm willing to bet that you haven't spent any appreciable time in the company of "hippies" and your perceptions/stereotypes are based on a few people who are simply lazy or predators, not those who put forth the effort to contribute and support each other. True communism is actually a beautiful thing, but it's hard to achieve in any significant scale because there are always those who will want to lead, and power corrupts.

As I hear frequently from friends associated with The Rainbow Family- "Don't be a Drainbow. Find a way to put something into the mix that is uniquely you. That's what drives synergy." An ideal we could all do better to live up to...
Bad Climber

climber
May 6, 2013 - 09:29am PT
I find this whole gathering very interesting. I first learned about it in Richard Grant's American Nomads--great book. I guess my only concern would be clean up. 20K is a helluva lot of hippies in one place. Do they clean the grounds super well when they leave?

Oh, and for the record, grass/pasture-based meat is totally sustainable and quite healthy. The problems with modern meat are in its grotesque industrialization. And, I suppose, as a culture we do tend to eat too much of, well, everything! A pure vegetarian diet has its environmental problems, too--habitat destruction at the very least. There is no blood-free lunch.

My encounters with hippies have generally been of the good variety, but being a bum is not the same thing, in my mind. I've seen bums who claim to be hippies, but, er, sorry, dude. Yer just a bum. Work to support yer dope-smokin', drum-circle poundin', dred-lock danglin' ways, and I'm 100% with you. Sit around outside a Starbucks with yer hand out? LOSER. Especially if mommy and daddy are back home providing all the backup and trust fund once you get tired of living in the gutter.

I do kind of get hot and bothered by some o' those dred-sportin' babies in the loose, minimal clothing. Some gals can really pull it off. Saw one up in Mt. Shasta last year that still makes me lose my balance to think about. Damn, she was a feminine force of nature. She could turn gay men straight, I tell you what. Grrrrr..

Anyone got any hottie hippie pics?

BAd
Norwegian

Trad climber
the tip of god's middle finger
May 6, 2013 - 09:42am PT
Spider Savage

Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
May 6, 2013 - 09:49am PT
Thanks for the heads-up.

I'm gonna be. MT this summer. I'll have to catch up with the tribe again.
frank wyman

Mountain climber
montana
May 6, 2013 - 10:07am PT
Hey...If its anywhere near me...once you get tired of sleeping in the dirt and banging on drums...Come over to my house and eat,drink beer and sit in the hot-tub looking at my wifes ample breasts...
Crackslayer

Trad climber
Eldo
May 6, 2013 - 10:31am PT
what a bunch of freedloaders. Back in the day these MF's were camped in big red park outside of steamboat for the summer. They destroyed the whole place adding thousands of trails and leaving trash scatter through a vast area. My hatred for hippies started the moment we drove in and saw a huge drum circle.

Fukc rainbow people.
Crackslayer

Trad climber
Eldo
May 6, 2013 - 10:46am PT
TwistedCrank

climber
Dingleberry Gulch, Ideeho
May 6, 2013 - 10:48am PT
Remember to stop by the Bud Lite tent for free Tshirts.
Todd Eastman

climber
Bellingham, WA
May 6, 2013 - 11:06am PT
Rainbowers - camp in the dirt on public land, do nothing of use for society...

Climbers - camp in the dirt on public land, do nothing of use for society...
patrick compton

Trad climber
van
May 6, 2013 - 11:09am PT
^^^ Oh Snap!
rockermike

Trad climber
Berkeley
Topic Author's Reply - May 6, 2013 - 12:02pm PT
Do they clean the grounds super well when they leave?

On the original link posted up-thread, there is a sub-link to a report on the last Rainbow clean up (toward the bottom, search for "cleanup"). Those guys go way way beyond what is required to return the land to its native state. Like an extra week of volunteer effort to make things pristine. Puts Yosemite Facelift to shame where most people work half a day then party. lol


Lot of hate on this thread. Kind of surprises me. I guess the $180 Mammut stretch climbing pants / $1000 portaledge crowd doesn't take the concept of "alternative" seriously. If you haven't noticed, the human race is well on the way to destroying our one and only planet. Seems to me its time to at least start thinking about other paradigms for existence other than "work/buy/work/buy/work/buy...." ad nauseam.

Having said that, I'll admit to having left early from the last Rainbow I went to in Arizona. Left my friends and spent July 4th (the main Rainbow gathering day) by myself on top of Mt. Sneffels. Can only take so much folk music and Indian love. ha ha
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