Hawker's 2005 West Virginia National Gathering
Comments
Comments from Hawker June
18th 6:29 PM regarding the blockade:
So we are not "Welcome Home" but sitting here Welcome Homeless.
Things seem to be getting a bit depressing at the site. The last of the
kitchens inside the gathering all got tickets yesterday. Some folks
from CALM doing a walk through yesterday also got tickets. The same
mandatory appearance on the 28th "use and occupancy" tickets that
everyone else got. This seems especially strange since there were not 75
folks on site at the time so I don't see how that rule applied anymore.
The mood seems to have changed yesterday from "hold our ground" to "we
just want to gather so lets move to another site". While many folks
are arriving, many are leaving as well. There are a bazillion ways into
the site and kitchens are setting up here are there through stealth
tactics of going around the FEDs. Still if caught it's a ticket. As a
result there are several other campsites including one at an old strip
mine that folks are also starting to gather at. The central meeting
point seems to be the Krogers in town since we are all over the place in
many campsites.
A council was called for today to discuss
moving to a new site. I was
not there unfortunately but herd back from someone who was. Yesterday
as I was leaving the site I spoke to two scouts who have been checking
out FS proposed sites for two days. Up until yesterday they felt that
none of the sites were workable. They had a site that they found in
early spring scouting that was possibly workable and one of the FS
proposed sites shown yesterday was deemed workable as well. It sounded
that these sites had some things better than the existing site, but in
general were not as nice. I got a spotty cell call from site that
council had decided today to move to a new location and that location
will be announced tomorrow. The call dropped out then, but I assume the
site will be in Pocahontas county not Randolph or Tucker where the
current site is. I'll post more info just as soon as I know more.
The idea of not holding our ground saddens
me as we are setting a
dangerous precedence by moving. If the FS knows they can manipulate us
now they will try it again. I don't like this. The environmental
concerns seem to be BS. Every local resource ranger and environmental
ranger (and knowledgeable local) tells me each one ranges from total BS
to valid but not for here. I think it's similar to the BS salmon issue
in Idaho. The problem was real, but not for the stream we were in. An
unnamed ranger told me the site we chose was perfect. It's a very
popular camping spot and heavily encouraged to be used because it's a
good site. Three weeks ago there were hundreds of cars there camping.
Another person told me a group annually gathers there with about 3000
people. None of this would happen if there were real issues with the
site. I also found it interesting that three weeks ago when I was on
site the signs all said 21 day camping rule. Yesterday those signs have
been replaced with 14 day signs. This in an effort to have a reason to
kick us out before the 1st, however the change was only made for
Rainbows (didn't we win the last targeting one group court case we had).
The town has been great. Everyone has been
so friendly and helpful, including the law enforcement and other officials.
I have attended
meetings with the local hospital, EMS/EMT, Health Dept, State emergency
management, environmental team, town council and more and everyone has
been friendly and helpful.
On another note. My E-mail account has been receiving almost 300 e-mails
a day. I can't possibly respond to all these e-mails so If I don't
respond to you, or give you a form letter, short letter, etc, sorry I'm
just a bit overwhelmed by the amount of e-mail I am getting. If I get
a
good question I may answer publicly with your question so others know as
well.
I'm getting allot of emails about Cell phone
access. 1st cal your cell
company and ask them what code to type into your phone to update your
PRL (Preferred Roaming List) first. It's a couple of digets (different
for each cell carrier) that helps you get a tower when you roam.
I have US Cellular, a CDMA Tri Mode phone. It works up to close to the site.
I have been told that Cellular One works better. I think they are TDMA.
Folks with TDMA based phones get coverage on the ridge above the
gathering, mine is not as good.
Cingular GSM and SPRINT phones do not even work from Elkins much less
site. Older Cingular that come from the AT&T lineage (TDMA) work from town.
Along 3rd street in Elkins are many free 802.11 Wi-Fi hot spots with
easy access.
Hawker
A few comments from Hawker regarding
this years site:
"A few more comments and rumor control.
I too was at Spring Council location, but alas I
missed the council as
it
kept being put off till I left to walk the site.
Elkins turned out to be a great town. Not broke or
depressed like most
towns we have been in. The people were very friendly
and when we talked
about the possibility of a gathering there only
concerns were with the
FS
and problems with the FS. It was amazing how much
they said mirrored
our
issues. Things like keeping garbage picked up, no
owner ship of the
land,
the land is for the people to use as it was given to
us, not for the
gov to
control, etc. We spent time in a wonderful health
food store and spoke
with the three owners who are going to try to help
with bulk food
orders.
Site. There are several sites under consideration. I
walked the most
likely
of them. It was long and narrow but had several
meadows, lots of water
and
easy level (sometimes even graveled) trails.
Parking will be a bit of
an
issue. There was a decent amount of parking, but not
enough IMHO.
Probably
be lots of road parking this year. The site didn't
have the grand
amazing
features that many past year site have had, but it
was very magical and
faerie like with mountain laurel, and hardwoods
everywhere. Lots of
tree
cover, running water and other great features. There
is no swimming
hole on
site per-se, but there is on the road in.
I took about 50 pictures and may post them when the
site is officially
announced.
As for delaying the site announcement till the
14th-16th (depending on
who
you ask the date is different). The main issue is
the 21 day rule. The
fear is when it is announced folks will move on it
immediately. There
is a
21 day rule for camping in the are. Hence the
16th-7th is 21 days.
The other issue is the permit. Trying to keep the
site from being
harassed
by permit signers and FEDS forces us to have to play
these games. There
is
no more conspiracy theory to this release date than
this.
Thinking more I thought I should expand on this.
I know this releasing the site around the 15th is a
sticky issue. I
thought I would say why I don't think it's an issue.
Also to clarify
there
is no 100% site yet. There are still a few sites
under consideration in
3
states, however there are most likely sites. They
are all close to Elkins
and I think that is close enough for anyone to make
travel plans. Worst
case is you will need to drive a few more hours to
the site.
There is no legitimate reason I can think of why
anyone needs to be on
site
before that. The gathering is the 1st to the 7th
and 2 weeks for seed
camp
is plenty of time. By keeping folks off the site we
keep the site clean
and
less trampled on. Folks know an area so travel
plans are not impacted.
The
only thing that is impacted is our own selfish needs
and desires. If
anyone
has any real need to know more they can show up at
the location
announced
for council and if the reason is real, I am sure
someone can show them
the
site.
Permits. Well turns out our permit signer this year
is most likely RJ
of
ocalla permit signing fame. He is actively trying to
recruit a team of
folks to sign the permit together. I have tried my
best to try to talk
him
out of it but he seems to think disrespecting the
desires of the
majority
is o.k. as signing the permit is a good thing for
us. I understand he
got
the snot beat out of him over this after I left.
While I don't condone
violence i think it's important that we all explain
to him in our best
ability, and logic (he responds to logic) why this
is a bad idea. I
think
he is 75% to signing it now but can be convinced to
change if enough of
us
voice our displeasure to him (flames here don't help
folks).
I will do my best to answer legitimate questions but
will not feed into
permit debates and the kind of flaming that seems to
be the norm here.
If
the naysayers three manage to take over this thread
your questions may
be
lost so try a new thread.
No matter what happens I for one will still gather
in the same way I
always
have, for if the FEDs, Permit, or anything else
changes my behavior
than
the government has won.
"For those who don't know me, my main focus
each year is usually
revolving around making sure there is clean water for all to drink.
This year
there are a few changes in that I am more connected with the
actual water pipe as the filters are pretty stable this year.
As of now we
have about 1.5 miles of pipe. This is nowhere near
enough pipe to run a gathering. We probably need 5-7 miles this year.
We need donations and kitchens to bring there own pipe to connect to
the main line. Please help spread the word.
We are asking all kitchens that
want
to be connected to the main water
line to bring the following items. These items in total should not
cost more than $50-$100. Please help get this word out to all
kitchens. If each kitchen brings a little it helps us all.
1-3 rolls (usually
300-400') of NSF rated 3/4" black poly pipe.
1 or more 3/4" plastic barbed T
2-3 3/4" plastic barbed couplings
1 or more spigots with 1/2" NPT male
pipe threads
1 or more 1/2" Female NPT threads to 3/4" barbed
insert
6-12 1 1/4" hose clamps"
You can also donate to the water system by
going to this link
http://tinyurl.com/cqdky. Anything you can donate supplies or $$$ would be
most helpful. one of the problems this year is that pipe is about 2x the
price this year as last year so we
need more $$$ than usual.
See our gallery of "Howdy Folks" and
Rainbow Guide Covers in the About the Guide section.
