Hes trying to move down here and in the meantime hes turning jackson into a giant zoo. His boredom is slowly turning jackson from the chill place i found when i first came eight years ago to a playground for chicago and STL area gymrats.

Interesting mistymountainhop. You are the one that recently said this on the Jackson Falls Retro bolting link about a guy putting up new routes:


Now you think a big party is cool and will bring the climbing community together. Does that mean the Chi-town and St. Louis gym rats aren't part of the community? Or is it ok for them to be there? Or were you just pissed off about a bunch of cool routes that you didn't put up?

PS. Thanks to whomever replaced the rope that was super cool of ya'!! Wish we knew your name so we could give you thanks.

Im glad to be saying I will be leaving SIU this spring for CU next fall.
I am looking forward to a climbing scene that is not negative and "controlled" by so few people with major anger problems.

Eric,

SICU name is a joke, a parody. I never even thought about it until Kathy emailed me, what SICU was. If it bothers you that much we can change the name to Southern Illinois University Climbers Union or such.

To address two issues at the moment: first I did not think having people come down to Jackson Falls to have fun and maybe clean up a little was such a big deal! Geesh! Our main goal Eric is for people to have a little fun, meet some of us locals and have some more fun and maybe clean up some trash, some of the worse chalked holds and maybe some dirty cracks in the process. The idea about cleaning up the fire pits is excellent and I guess we can do that also. The trail at Jackson is f---ed up at the moment and I wish we had gear to help fix it up a bit but we do not so most likely we will not being doing any work on the trail. The object of this day on April 16th is more to get people together to have fun, to build community and spirit, to bring a greater appreciation of our climbing. I did not think there was proper channels I should have gone through??!? Just please someone tell me what I am doing wrong, or what have we done that requires someone to "mull"?

Now it seems people have been talking trash behind my back. I have not chopped any bolts and probably will never chop any bolts in my lifetime, unless I have the route FA, even then I would not want to damage the rock more. I am not causing mischief, I am not vandalizing or destroying. About the only thing I have been doing is climbing and meeting people, walking around at night introducing myself laughing and having a good time. I have heard from people that others in the Southern Illinois Climbing community think I am some sort of menace when I have never done anything to prove such. People think the SICU is some sort of menace when all we do is organize a freakin trail day! Mistymountainhop has good intentions! Have you ever talked to him? The retro-bolting post was just us fussing and whining like you said Eric, you called me presumptious, ignorant etc etc. and now you invite me to attend the ICA meeting that seems kind of contradictory also but understand people don't always express their opinion correctly online, sometimes online is used a medium to air our emotions, our bad day. Look at people's actions, cause in the end mistymountainhop is a great guy he is not out to destroy; none of us are out to destroy, myself, misty, the SICU we just want to have fun, we are just a bunch of college kids trying to get drunk and climb after studying ourselves to the bone every week.

I know things might seem like we are trying to subvert others but we really are not, we really right now, could careless. I am not trying to start a flame war and no response is necessary Eric or if you want to I hope you PM me or email me because stuff like this does not belong in this thread. I would like to attend the ICA meeting if I am invited but I might not be around as I will most likely be at home spending time with my family before summer semester starts. I hope this answers your questions and I hope you understand we are not out to start a huge war or anything.

Thanks for your insight and the work you have done at Jackson.

Josiah

It is evident that alot of the climbing scene around Jackson Falls bears the all to familiar small town mentality that so many people criticize SIU for having. We are trying to help the climbing community, just something small, a get together, if you will where everyone is invited to do some good.
I admit that the trail day might lack in things to do, and that there is not alot of garbage to be picked up as eric stated, but people commonly b---- about the trails being devastated by horses and we would like to do a little something about that.

Climbing at Southern Illinois has been a good experience. But I believe Joe Thesengalds (spelling?) R&I article was right in many respects. NEver have I seen such a climbing community that is so negative.

Im glad to be saying I will be leaving SIU this spring for CU next fall.
I am looking forward to a climbing scene that is not negative and "controlled" by so few people with major anger problems.

But until them I will be a proudly doing all that i can to help this small community, even if it has the mentality of a small redneck town.

Eric,

To be fair to Josiah, nowhere in his original post did he mention any working on "equestrian damange to trails". He called his little get-together a 'trail day', but I think this is misleading. I was under the impression that he was simply calling out his friends to meet him at Jackson falls, and clean the place up a little bit, wherever possible.

-Robert

1) This thread in no way refers to Jeff Frizzel or material in the previous thread. And it would be wrong to assume I was mad at him, a more appropriate word would be misinformed about the situation. How does a bolting argument relate to this anyways?
2)When refering to no hostility in Boulder, I doubt I could find this sort of hostility toward other climbers anywhere unless chopping and chipping were involved, much less trying to organize a get together. I was not referring to access issues and environmentalists, that does not pertain to this subject either. In the past couple of threads i have certainly seen a good amount of hostility towards more than one person.
3)Redneck mentality did not refer to those living around Jackson, how many of the climbers are from St. Louis or Chicago? Id say the majority. The point is that everyone seems to be so critical about anything that happens.

Some people choose to see only what they want to.

But This is getting wayyy off the point...........
Organic is truly a good guy, he would never do anything to hurt anyone. We decided a get together would be a great idea and do some good for the community at the same time. Instead of being given suggestions or a thumbs up , we are being rediculed for pretty much trying to do good. It might not be the most organized event, but the idea is there and we want to make a difference; get people together. So there you go, thats what this is about. Sorry it had to turn into this.

When refering to no hostility in Boulder, I doubt I could find this sort of hostility toward other climbers anywhere unless chopping and chipping were involved, much less trying to organize a get together.

Redneck mentality did not refer to those living around Jackson, how many of the climbers are from St. Louis or Chicago? Id say the majority. The point is that everyone seems to be so critical about anything that happens.

Go ahead and test your theory. When you get to Boulder, get a couple of climbing buddies, go online to the Boulder climbing related message forums, and announce the new Boulder Climbers Union and the equivalent message regarding a trails day in the Chautauqua Park area. You'll be in for a second dose of reality. After that, you can call them all rednecks, too.

Actually some rc.commers had a Lumpy Ridge gathering a year or two ago, and from what I understood it was a success. The difference between them and us is that they KNEW the park's trail maintenance regulations beforehand and they didnt stay at Lumpy, due to rules against it. If we cant have a trail day then fine, well have a climbing gathering. Would that stop the bickering?