Barnes Field - Huge Group Memorial Day weekend

[RoySwkr]

I once picked up a hitchhiker who was a Rainbow Family attendee, apparently they have both regional and national gatherings all held in National Forests. There is actually a special team of Forest Service employees who help arrange these gatherings. The Family tries both to comply with FS rules and avoid harming nature. When they held a gathering in the WMNF many years ago they didn't use a group campsite but were given a special use permit (IIRC) for a log yard at the end of a road near Lost River that's on the way to the B-18 crash - but they have the infrastructure to use such a site reasonably.

It sounds like fun - if they had better taste in music I might go

 

[MichaelJ]

Thanks, Roy, for that. It's a heck of a lot more forest-friendly, collaborative, and ethical-sounding than their blog post!

 

[Chip]

Oh, lovely:
Creating trails and digging their own outhouses — sounds like these people are very much not friends of the forest.

I generally have no issues with groups like this, whatever floats your boat, but I do think it's very sad and something worse than ironic that (from the 10 minutes of research I did on them) they seem to have a rep for leaving an area worse than they found it. Maybe Red Oak can refute.

 

[Red Oak]

I generally have no issues with groups like this, whatever floats your boat, but I do think it's very sad and something worse than ironic that (from the 10 minutes of research I did on them) they seem to have a rep for leaving an area worse than they found it. Maybe Red Oak can refute.

So many moons ago.......My rainbow experience was in the early 90s in the southeast which became very divided due to issues like the trashing of mother nature.Ironically one group was led by a guy named "Zeus" who wanted larger gatherings[memory issues here] and those who wanted smaller ones.A lot of hippis up and moved to Montana and Cali back then. Rainbow culture also was very much interweaved with Dead tour.Sadly any info you have on them trashing the national forests might be correct.The rainbow family became a outlet for wayward teenagers running from the "sell out life" and people who wanted to drink away their issues.I liked it at first because of the overlap with various political causes[such as A.I.M.,e.t.c.] but that changed when criminals and druggies got control of the "scene"[imho].All sub-groups in our society have their bad apples,the rainbows had a very large portion.However I also met a lot of friends I still have!hope this helps somewhat...Just think of people living in trees and you got the rainbow family down

 

[Chip]

Thanks for that input Red Oak. I'm intrigued by folks like these. Where'd they get $$$ for the concert tix, food and alcohol ? Not like The Dead were working for free. FWIW: I was the only one, of a group of about 10 friends, who passed all my classes 2nd semester freshman year; The rest skipped finals week to follow The Dead up the east coast .

Apologies for the drift.

 

[David Metsky]

I'm pretty sure I recall there being a NH gathering in the past. I think it was on Tunnel Brook Rd about 20 years ago or so?

The 1991 Rainbow Gathering was in the Green Mountains of VT but there hasn't been an official gathering in NH apparently. But I also remember some even occurring off the Tunnel Brook road at about the same time frame you remember. Not sure what it was, exactly.

 

[TDawg]

After looking into this whole Rainbow thing, something I saw a couple years ago that I thought peculiar at the time now makes a little sense.

I was doing the up Miles Notch --> over Red Rock --> down Great Brook loop with my little brother, and at the end was an old VW van and a couple tents. They had a bunch of signs set up near the end of Hut Road at the FS gate in Stoneham, ME saying, "welcome home." Well, welcome home who? I didn't understand and just figured they were some hippies that found a cheap vacation spot.

These were some real vagrant looking types I now am pretty sure were these Rainbow people. Just a small group of them, maybe 8-10. They were friendly enough asking questions about our hike, but walking away from the site my brother and I just looked at each other and said, "WTF?"

 

[RoySwkr]

They had a bunch of signs set up near the end of Hut Road at the FS gate in Stoneham, ME saying, "welcome home." Welcome home, who? I just figured they found a cheap vacation spot.

"Welcome Home" is the unofficial (nothing with them is official) greeting of the Rainbow Family
http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/index.html

As mentioned earlier, some attendees may just be looking for a cheap vacation while others are more spiritual or environmentally conscious and these views may conflict. And they have regional and local gatherings in addition to the national, NH is not a particularly central location for a national group that often travels by thumb or vintage VW.

 

[Zimmer]

I googled it and there was a regional Northeast Rainbow Gathering on Tunnel Brook Rd in 2009, so I would think it's conceivable that it's a location they've used before; I suspect that what I ran into a couple of decades ago must have been a northeast one as well. I remember unwittingly heading out to the Tunnel Brook trailhead and encountering a LOT of people on the road, and chatting with several folks. In thinking about it, I would think it was probably closer to 25 years ago at this point -- probably 1987 or 1988?

http://tribes.tribe.net/newjerseyfamily/thread/36c5615d-369e-4b85-a87d-b994b8624d3f

The 1991 Rainbow Gathering was in the Green Mountains of VT but there hasn't been an official gathering in NH apparently. But I also remember some even occurring off the Tunnel Brook road at about the same time frame you remember. Not sure what it was, exactly.

 

[Hillwalker]

It takes all kinds

Even though I am a short haired pre-boomer who was in Vietnam during Woodstock, this group intrigues me. I think I first heard about Rainbow People while reading the AT (Whiteblaze) BB. There were quite a few posters on WB who really denigrated the Rainbows and their gatherings. I suppose that anytime a really large group sets up camp in an area without facilities that the environment suffers. Hopefully I will be able to see for myself someday.

Interestingly, the Rainbow people call the less responsible attendees "Drainbow People".

I joined the Facebook group of Rainbow to gather information and am not comfortable with the "recreational chemical" discussions since I neither drink nor smoke.

We'll see.

 

[peakbagger]

Look up the "tragedy of the commons". Unfortunately that has applied to many group events including a few VFTT gatherings.

I beleive there may have been a similiar event on the end of Sawyer River Road long ago (25 years). The gravel pit is mostly grown in but there used to be quite an area to spread out in.

 

[HAMTERO]

I googled it and there was a regional Northeast Rainbow Gathering on Tunnel Brook Rd in 2009, so I would think it's conceivable that it's a location they've used before; I suspect that what I ran into a couple of decades ago must have been a northeast one as well. I remember unwittingly heading out to the Tunnel Brook trailhead and encountering a LOT of people on the road, and chatting with several folks. In thinking about it, I would think it was probably closer to 25 years ago at this point -- probably 1987 or 1988?

http://tribes.tribe.net/newjerseyfamily/thread/36c5615d-369e-4b85-a87d-b994b8624d3f

I drove thru the 2009 event on Tunnel Brook Road. Raining, people just hanging out, some schoolbuses. Everybody nice. Ladies carrying sheath knives on the hip.