Rainbows came, camped, prayed, left

They came, they prayed -- some say preyed -- and left. For about four weeks this summer, about 7,000 of the free-spirited Rainbow Family -- "the largest non-organization of non-members in the world" -- converged on the Bridger-Teton National Forest. The gathering caused several ruckuses in Pinedale and Sublette County, and faded as fast as it arrived. The Rainbow Family gathers during the first week of July to live in alternative communities with their own camps and kitchens, learn different cultures, and primarily pray for peace and harmony with the Earth. But the rapid creation of a community nearly four times the size of nearby Pinedale didn't necessarily lend itself to peaceable relations among townsfolk, the U.S. Forest Service and its LEOs (Rainbow parlance for law enforcement officers), "drain-bows" (Rainbow parlance for slackers) who panhandled and shoplifted, Wyomingites unhappy with hippies, Sublette County residents concerned about the gathering's effects on the land, and Boy Scouts who had planned a conservation project near the gathering. The Forest Service's allowance of the Rainbow gathering irked Sublette County Commissioner Joel Bousman. It let the Rainbows camp without a permit, which in turn displaced the Boy Scouts who followed the rules to obtain permits, Bousman said. "If the rules are good enough for anybody, they're good enough for everybody."....