Seed Camp Versus Gathering

While the dates of the gathering are announced as July 1-7 or July 1-4, the reality is that you can't put a date on when the transition from Seed Camp to Gathering takes place. Many years I'm sitting at Dinner Circle with a friend and we look at each other and said, today is the first day of the gathering. That day can take place on June 25 or July 1 or .... It varies year to year.

During seed camp, the ratio of law enforcement to gatherers is very high and many people who come to seed camp become victims of overzealous law enforcment activity. Once the gathering starts, and especially closer to July 1, the number of people on the roads coming in increases significantly. During the early days of seed camp, you may have one car every couple of hours. Then all those cops with nothing better to do jump all over that unfortunate person and her/his traveling companions. Closer to July 1 you may have multiple cars an hour or even a minute coming in with the same amount of law enforcement staffing. Now of course, someone is going to fall victim to law enforment insanity, but the odds of any one car getting caught up in the madness are dramatically less.

Food for thought.