Anybody hear of the Rainbow people. A loose collection of freaks and hippie wanna be's that get together once a year in some national forrest in the name of peace and leg humping or whatever and trash it. Well this year they are gathering in bear valley. Home to one of the most critical wild salmon spawning grounds left on the face of this earth. Millions and millions of dollars have been spent trying to bring this area back for wild salmon production.. Finally, just when it seems like these very endangered fish looked like they were going to get a break 20,000 skinchy a-holes show up and make camp right smack in the middle of the valley- Right next to and around bear valley creek. Thats right, 20,000 freaks with kids and dogs .. without any type of toilet facilitys.. No trash removal plan.. No money... lots of drugs.. lots of love and little else. It would seem that a group that labels themselves as protectors of nature would know better. Its sorta like EARTH FIRST having a clearcut party with 20,000 freaks dancing around with chainsaws cutting down redwoods.. These people have trashed every spot they have ever gathered in and they really picked a honey of a spot to screw up this time..

I'm pissed and ranting I know, but the thought of some tie dyed transient X 20,000 sitting around, crapping in the creek and talking about love is driving me crazy.. I might get over it but I doubt that the fish ever will..

That sucks...

That is a little bit ironic...isn't it? I mean, all these "Enviromentalitst groups" trying to stop people like us from "raping" Moter Nature. It's funny, but the older I get, the more I realize that it's "Rednck Hunters and Fishermen" such as ourselves who are the "real" enviromentalist. We are the ones who truly care about what hapens to our fish runs, the rest are just a bunch of losers who have to be on some kind of bandwagon all of the time "SAve the Whales" "Save the Trees" Save the Spotted Owl" etc. In actuality it's us, the ones who are in the outdoors constantly, who truly understand the importance of preserving our rivers and streams. I hate those posers

Ahh yes the infamous Rainbow Clan. Haven't heard of them in about 8 years. They had a "piece gathering" at a small back pack lake called "Twin Lakes" in the North Umpqua Forest (Southern Oregon) about 8 years ago. These guys stink!!! WHooo, man many havn't showered in quit some time. A buddy of mine asked them not go into the North Umpqua, when they asked why, he said "We didn't want it polluted". Another guy I knew infultrated there "power circle" and stole their "power stone." This was nothing more than drug trip with a group of people starring at a stone in the middle of a circle. Just thinking about it makes me laugh.

They were up in the Superior National Forest a few years ago up in Northern Minnesota for their annual love fest. It happened to take place in one of the biggest deer wintering areas on Lake Superior. What a bunch of stinkin dirtballs. My buddy owns land right next to where they camped, and found crap like minefields all over his property. One of them actually died (unknown cause of death) and ended up dying in a pool of crap about a foot deep. The people in Minnesota just cringe when you bring up their name.

The Rainbow People, What a bunch of freaks. Ive had my run ins with them. When i lived in Prineville they came and camped in the Ochoco National forest. Most of the biusnesses in town got together and decided not to serve them. It was funny seeing all the beater cars and VW vans sitting along side the roads out of gas. They say they dont hurt the areas they camp in. Thats a lie. They trash every place they go to.

Ya know, I have nothing against a few guys sitting in a circle and spacing out on a rock or whatever, but 20,000??? The area they are camped in has what can be concidered the true headwaters of the snake River salmon. These fish travel 800+ miles to come home to what?? woodstock without any money??? The creek itself is tiny. You could walk across it just about anywhere and as you are all well aware, this is a drought year. What really makes me mad is that with all the threats and B.S about wanting it stopped, the forrest service is just sitting on their hands and letting it happen. What good does it do to write a ticket to a loser whos brain you can smell burning from 50 feet away..the same freak who has been hitch hiking and bumming money all the way here.. I don't understand why they don't just block the roads and turn them all back. The local paper has been having fun with it. They asked them what they thought the cause of the decline in wild salmon could be. One freak who said he was from seattle said it was all because of Starbucks coffie. The rocket scientist claims that so many people drink so much coffie in and around the Puget sound area that all the pee has caffine in it now and the fish are getting caffinated to death.. There are approx 4000 of them now with 20,000 expected on the week of the 4th of july when they will hold their "circle of peace" Zo brought up the point that in the end "sportsmen will pay for this"

Freaks and losers!

I got to "experience" them back in the early 80's. My dad was a research forester for the forest service and drug me along for slave labor. He had some field work to do around blue river which is a tributary of the mackenzie river east of eugene, or.

We were going to camp up by cougar reservoir when, low and behold, we come upon a couple thousand hippies dancing in the meadows naked, smoking bongs alongside the road and completley overwhelming one of the campgrounds up there......it was ugly and left quite an impression on an 8th grader. I can't repeat what dad said about them except to say that he was furious the forest service couldn't do more to get them the hell out of there. They simply didn't have the manpower or funding to police these idiots.

Perhaps one solution would be to have congress pass a law limiting how large a gathering can be in state and national forests. Or, and I like this one, limit large gatherings to treeless, desert areas and they are not allowed to be 5 miles near a water source.

Lovers of earth? Yeah, right! biggest bunch of hyppocrites I've ever seen.

Sounds like you all have a problem with people who live differently than you all - while I have never gone, I have friends who and have not heard of the "bad" you guys refer to - here is an article from the oregonian I found which may enlighten your views -

Rainbow repairs restore meadow
A year after 27,000 people camped on Indian Prairie near Prineville, the land shows no signs that they were ever there

Thursday, July 9 1998

By Gordon Gregory, Correspondent, The Oregonian

PRINEVILLE -- Sitting amid a cluster of blue forget-me-nots and looking over the green lushness of the great meadow, Ochoco District ranger Susan Skalski recalled what the place looked like one year ago.

Instead of the waist-high grasses and the scattered flashes of red Indian paintbrush and yellow lomatium, the expanse was marred by bare dirt paths crisscrossing the soggy meadow.

Tarps had been stretched between trees. Tents of all shapes and colors dotted the 300-acre field. Trench latrines had been dug in the surrounding groves of larch and fir trees. Dust from the ceaseless traffic on the forest road and smoke from the many campfires clouded the mountain air.

Miles of water pipes and banks of mud ovens were scattered over the landscape.

And everywhere was a sea of humanity.

"It was pretty overwhelming," she said.

Indian Prairie, about 30 miles northeast of Prineville, was the site for last year's annual reunion of the Rainbow Family of Living Light. An estimated 27,000 people came and camped, creating headaches for many Crook County residents and worries for forest officials charged with protecting the environment.

Skalski and several other U.S. Forest Service employees were back to Indian Prairie this week and they were pleased at what they saw, or rather did not see.

"I'm impressed," Skalski said.

"I never thought this place would recover so quickly."

There was literally no sign that a year ago, this mountain meadow was effectively the second largest Oregon city east of the Cascades.

Although the exceptionally wet spring this year helped loosen the soil, compacted by footsteps, and by giving all the plants a boost, Skalski also gives a lot of credit to the Rainbow Family.

Hundreds of family members stayed weeks after the event decommissioning trails, repairing miles of fencing, removing all the ovens and fire rings, as well as every speck of the tons of trash.

They also removed all the abandoned vehicles and stray dogs left in the area.

"They had a genuine, sincere commitment to leaving the prairie better than they found it," said Terry Holtzapple, part of a team of Forest Service personnel who worked with the family.

Holtzapple, an archaeologist with the Ochoco Ranger District, said Rainbow Family members who stayed at the site weeks after the Fourth of July celebration to clean up and repair the area, knew what they were doing.

"They taught us some techniques for rehabing sites," she said.

Family gathers on Fourth
The Rainbow Family has been gathering every July Fourth weekend on national forest land since 1972. The family is not a classical organization. It is a loose association of people bound by a philosophy of life that embraces personal freedom, environmental respect and communal love. They also reject consumerism and competition for personal gain.

For committed Rainbow members, the annual gathering is a spiritual celebration, as well as an opportunity to experience a type of cooperative living they believe can teach society important lessons.

This summer, they met on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in northern Arizona. Most of the estimated 25,000 visitors left after the July Fourth climax, according to Faith Duncan, part of a Forest Service team that handles the annual gathering.

She said about 5,000 people are remaining at the site for the cleanup.

Two people were cited this year because the group refused to get a special use permit the government says is required. The Forest Service thinks that the lack of a permit means that this year's gathering was illegal, although Duncan said no one knows what, if any, repercussions that will have.

Five people cited
Five people were cited last year because the group also failed to get a permit for the Ochoco National Forest. But when one participant signed the permit, the case against the five was dropped.

Duncan said the permit is important because it allows the agency to set health, safety and environmental requirements.

"It's to reassure that all those needs will be met," she said.

The Rainbow Family has repeatedly clashed with the Forest Service over the issue, arguing that the family has a constitutional right to gather on public lands. And family members say they know how to protect the land and to provide participants with essential services and do not need the bureaucratic blessing.

Ochoco Forest officials were impressed by the rather obscure yet sophisticated infrastructure of the Rainbow Family. And while they think authorities need to be fully involved from the onset, they say the family is able to take care of itself.

Bruce Cheney, Ochoco District fire management officer who also helped oversee last year's event, said it became apparent that the old-timers among the Rainbows had tremendous influence over the group.

"If you look under the surface, they're very organized," he said.

Cheney said the group was able to provide its own security, food service and medical aid, as well as its own social services. People who needed special care or attention were taken care of, he said.

"It was kind of impressive to me," he said.

Cheney also said that the gathering showed him and others on the Ochoco just how special Indian Prairie is. The gentle beauty, combined with the size and resilience of the place, was made more apparent by watching thousands of strangers come to visit.

"It made us appreciate what this thing is," he said of the meadow.

Cheney expects the Ochoco will begin to manage the area more for its beauty and recreational appeal than it has in the past. Citing a clear-cut on the edge of the meadow, Cheney said, "We probably won't do that again."

"It's something we've taken kind of for granted."

No, my views are not changed. These slackers do "not" have a good track record on keeping things clean or even taking care of themselves. How can you or anyone tell me that its just O.K to dig a trench in the middle of a very pristine area and have 20,000 plus people crap in it. The salmon are the real issue here. They have enough dogs with them to insure the the fish are harrassed at all times. This creek is small- 20,000 plus people do not belong right next to it at this time of year. Any organization or group of people who claim to care about the enviroment would never even concider this site for this type of gathering. They did not get a permit- it was denied for obvious reasons- they do not pay any fees like any other person would at a forrest service camp ground- they will trash the area and then they will leave it..And we will pay to clean it up. And the wild salmon... they are screwed


We don't need 20,000 rainbow people to show us how special bear valley is. Posers... thats the perfect description of what these people are..

I agree B- Run Steelie. Also, goes to show you that you shouldn't believe everything you read.

Hey Tagnook, your post says they cleaned the area up and it surpisingly recovered after a year. What about all the visiters and campers that could of gone to this place and you wouldn't even known they had been. Thats a whole year with extra rain to wash away what wasn't there before. sad very sad. Where do you thing it went? I know I learnt this one in 2nd grade, what you dump into the ground goes into the rivers then the sea!!!

You haven't responded since your post to enlighten us...care to enlighten the masses some more. But this time use you own ammo not some else's.

Just because your firend is part of this group doesn't mean their right...

Your newspaper clipping only acounts for one party, what about the other 28 years??? They dont have a track record for no reason...

Just some of my thoughts

Personally, I laghed my a** off at the quote:

"They also removed all the abandoned vehicles and stray dogs left in the area."

Regardless how much is/was cleaned up afterwards, there will be devestating effects if these people are truly camped out on salmon head waters. How does one "clean up" when one has been tromping on salmon redds and killing the eggs, fry, and just messing up the spawning grounds? How does one "clean up" when human fesces infests the local water supply for the few weeks that they are there? How does one "clean up" all the oil that leaked out of these cars and in to the waterways? It does and will happen.

Parker

I've been to Bear Valley and it is everything B-run says it is and more. The creek meanders back and forth across that high altitude meadow ,it will recover much slower than the site mentioned.

Ive never heard of them before, all I can say is wow I guess It's ok to trash a place as long as it "looks" good in a year?

Fishhead5