Lazy Bear part 1

For those of you that read my blog and don't know what Lazy Bear is... I will give you a brief history. Every first weekend of August for the last 12 years the "Bear" community descends on the tiny little town of Guernville (aka: The Russian River). To give you an idea of the magnitude of this event all you need do is look at the population. Normally the population of Guernville is just over 1000 people, on lazy bear weekend the population jumps to over 6000. Yeah... it's that big.

For those of you who don't know what I mean when I say "Bear Community" I will explain that too. Because the gay community is so sexualized (ie. separated from the rest of the world because of the type of sex we have) the gay community has spent a lot of time labeling and separating themselves from each other, you have twinks, jocks, straight acting, queeny, drag queens, alternative guys, muscle queens, rice queens, dirty hot guys, etc... seriously... then there are all the guys that don't fit into any of those categories and the guys that are attracted to them.

A lot of these guys fit into what we call the "Bear" community. And even in the bear community we have separation: muscle bears, hairy guys, chubs, chasers, cubs, otters, wolves, super-chubs, admirers... and so on. In my experience, the bear community tends to be much more relaxed and friendly than the rest of the gay community. Based on the fact that they are clear that they are not everyone's type and so they typically don't make a move on you unless you show some interest.

This year was my third time going to Lazy Bear and it was the best one so far. My god. I could have died at the end of the weekend and it still would have been worth it!!! So now I will give you a recap of each day... and every sordid detail. Don't worry mom, you can still read it.



Thursday: I had planned on leaving Thursday morning at 10:00am, driving up early, getting set up and everything before the weekend rush... I got to the rental car place at about 10:15. Yeah, I know... totally not a morning person... There is a line. Of course. Not only is there a line... but it is not moving. At all. Dammit! So I wait. I get to the counter at about 10:45 and give them my reservation. I did this weird thing online with the car company. I couldn't spend a lot of money, but I knew I wouldn't fit in a compact or economy car. I had to get something midsize or larger. So in between economy and midsize they had this thing called wildcard. The price was right and they guaranteed a midsize or larger.

So they take their damn sweet time and I am just waiting... finally they call me back up to the counter. By this time it is already noon so I am starting to get peeved. Then she gives me the good news. I got a 2007 extended black jeep wrangler. Sweet!!! So I get the car... run home and finish packing. I get on the road at 3pm and have a nice relaxing drive up to the river.

I get there and set up my tent. The office is closed when I get there so I figure I will check-in in the morning. There is this nice HOT school teacher that helps me set up my tent and there is this cute couple camping next to me that brought the kitchen sink and invited me to all their meals. Sweet!!! The last two times I went up I went with friends and spent most of my time with them. So this time I went alone and camped alone so that I would be forced to meet new people.

I went into town and got my beartag, and yeah it came with some wild flirting. I then walked around the town and stopped by the pool parties. I hung out on the dock at the willows. That night I went out to the local gay bars the Rainbow Cattle Company, Yamagata, and then to the bonfire... had a lot of fun at all three. At the bonfire I met this hot guy named Marcus. We hit it off really well... and after a lot of touchy feely and flirting at the bonfire... he came back to my tent and we totally made out!!! So much fun!!! After he went back to his hotel I walked around the camp. Met some cool people and played a really funny guessing game. Then hung out on the dock in the middle of the night with a bunch of guys that were getting stoned and laughing. It was beautiful watching the fog roll over the hill and across the river with the two bridges under lit. It was right out of a scary movie!!!