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Sierra Ledge Rat
Social climber
Retired to Appalachia
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Oct 26, 2011 - 09:53am PT
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Great story Barry.
I haven't seen you since I watched you crank 1-arm, 1-finger pull-ups in the back room of the San Jose North Face store back 'bout 1982.
Did I ever tell you that I saw some of your artwork in a gallery in Santa Fe?
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tarek
climber
berkeley
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Oct 26, 2011 - 10:11am PT
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This thread shows how good the forum can be. It's all in the first-person details, while speculation and disgorging of items read somewhere take an appropriate backseat.
Thanks.
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gb3
Mountain climber
Pinon Hills, CA
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Nov 25, 2011 - 08:36pm PT
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I was partying in the Stoneman Meadow on the July 4th weekend of 1970. I remember that remarkably well under the circumstances. It seems I was drinking beer and smoking quite a bit of pot. I'd have to say it was the most uninhibited party atmosphere I have ever encountered. There were people there under every level of intoxication possible. There were obviously some people on acid and on down to people like me; a little drunk and pretty stoned.
These people were not war protesters as was mentioned. I wouldn't say there was a riot. It was just about as many people as you could possibly fit in that meadow partying their brains out. Before it got dark, I saw Rangers riding around the meadows keeping an eye on things. Then after dark I didn't see anything until 10:00 P.M. when the Rangers were all lined up on horseback along the road east of Stoneman Bridge. They used megaphones to tell us leave the meadow and go back to our camps. It was park quite time after 10:00. Now, I've read that rocks and bottles were thrown at the Rangers. I think there may have been some of that then. I wasn't involved in that or near it. Nobody left and just kept doing what they were doing. The Rangers were vastly out numbered. I think they just left. I sure didn't see any get pulled off of their horses or beat up. If that kind of commotion was going on I think I would have noticed. I'm not saying it didn't; I might have been too distracted by the partying. The next day I think I remember hearing stories about that stuff happening but I took it as just talk.
It was thick hippy partying on that dark smokey night. The valley would fill up with smoke at night from all the campfires. There was a couple guys riding choppers around slowly through the crowd. One had his headlight pointed straight up. You could follow him with that shaft of light up in the smoke. Once in a while it would jerk like he ran over a rock or maybe someone passed out on the ground. There was a guy with a huge strobe light on a rope around his neck that would flash every two seconds or so. Just walking around through the crowd. It was great fun just being there and watching all the crazed stoners. It was just a wild, wild time but not a riot.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Nov 26, 2011 - 01:51am PT
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Thank you for a first person account. A sort of precursor to the Occupy movement, perhaps? It sounds like more of a party than a riot, although it seems the authorities didn't see it that way. They probably had quite legitimate concerns for the safety of both the partiers and the public, although they seem to have been somewhat heavy-handed in addressing them.
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labrat
Trad climber
Auburn, CA
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Bump!
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nutjob
Sport climber
Almost to Hollywood, Baby!
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throwpie
Trad climber
Berkeley
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A post of mine from another thread I thought I'd add.
Lets see...being a 18 yr old kid from Merced in 1968, Yosemite was my San Francisco and Stonemans bridge was my Haight Street. Became a full hippie by smoking my first joint under said bridge. Met two freaks in a van named Thor and Raoul, scored a handful of Purple Double Domes and tripped with my buddies for the first time among the cascades above Happy Isles. And it was a Full Dose. Just like the movies. I recall the rocks were spongy and looked like persian rugs.
Lots of other groovy stuff happened over the summer(s). Missed the Stoneman Meadows riot...ironically, I was in SF that weekend.
Got busted by ranger Bob Cahill for pot, locked up in the Yosemite jail, sent to Mariposa for grilling, then two nights in Merced juvi. Bummer. But I did get a job as a Merced city garbage man from my probation officer, so all was cool. Great job.
Not too long after that, I ran into de Flames, was taught to tie a figure eight, and the rest is history.
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MarieCeleste
Social climber
Menlo Park, CA
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Aug 27, 2013 - 11:02pm PT
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July 5th, 1970, Boyfriend and I there to celebrate 1st anniversary of relationship. Saw Families, children, picknicking, on "Main Meadow"...apparently, curfew had been given day before on the 4th-not there so can't testify...walked to edge of Meadow for drink of water...turned back after seeing quiet parade of horseback and foot-soldiers bearing axe handles...immediately engulfed by barrage of horse-back and foot-soldiers chasing us- TERRIFIED-fleeing for their lives-all I ever saw were families playing "Frisbee"...at the Bridge, someone yelled, "Are we going to let them get away with this?"...At this time, the crowd stampeded the horses, while I and my boyfriend ran for our lives to the cross street and our car. Just as reaching the drive, a police car "screaming sirens" was hit by a rock through the window...We continued our run for escape to my VW Bug, and got the hell out...A Government Official, camped on the other side of the River wrote a two-page account in the San Francisco Chronicle...he was very supportive of just some families trying to have a peaceful time in Yosemite. I was never witness to nudity, extreme behaviour of any sort...Just some young ones trying to have a picnic...I have never returned. I did not associate with the term "hippy"..just a young woman, working, supporting our troops, and wanted peace. I have never returned. Sherry Hanbury
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