HISTORY Page

In July of 1999, Carl Fye, the Copy Editor for The Slant, the monthly newspaper of Marin County's gay community, was kind enough to offer our club a monthly column about our activities  Each month through June 2000 our column in The Slant described our activities, and those articles are copied below.  After June 2000 club news was written in our weekly Friday morning e-mails, and that section of the e-mails is copied below, as well.

In the August 1999 issue I wrote in The Slant all about the club and how it came to be.  This is the first article below...the History of the "Boyz In The Woodz".  The articles that follow detail our activities month after month...and, unlike the published versions, are completely unedited!

August 1999

The History of The "Boyz In The Woodz" Club

750 guys just looking for fun

written by BITWClub Founder RJPupkin

Carl Fye, the Copy Editor for The Slant, the monthly newspaper of Marin County's gay community, was kind enough to offer our club a monthly column about our activities. In the August 1999 issue I wrote all about the club and how it came to be.  This is the history of the "Boyz In The Woodz".

I am a single, bisexual, white male adult...I'm always looking to meet guys and make new friends, and last Spring I realized that I was discouraged by the types of events I found.

I'd been to my fair share of bars, parties, sex clubs, festivals, and singles events. As a non-drinking, non-dancing man of 38 who detests loud music and shallow bar boys, I find certain aspects of all those avenues of meeting guys tiring and dysfunctional in their own individual ways.

Not, that is, that I don't still go to bars and sex clubs! Everything has its time and place. But I also wanted to regularly meet new guys socially, have some fun, save my money, and get outdoors. After all, almost all those other activities cost money, have rules, and/or occur indoors.

What I wanted, without paying money and following rules, was a way to meet and get to know guys in some of the hundreds of incredibly beautiful outdoor recreation areas here in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. I decided that I should form my own club...that way, I could keep it free, and free of rules. I figured we could meet at nude beaches, lakes, and trails, to laugh and talk and exercise and commune with nature.

How to organize and run it, though, without rules and dues...that was a problem. I didn't want to use the phone to call a bunch of guys every month...I've got a life. I couldn't mail hike announcements...printing and postage cost money...I'm not rich...so I'd have to charge dues. That idea was out, too. Then I realized that e-mail is free, and there is a huge online community of queers.

So, in the Spring of 1998 I founded The "Boyz In The Woodz" Online Gay & Bi Men's Hiking Club (aka "BITWClub"). No dues, no rules, and, when practical (and legal), no clothes! Just a bunch of guys outdoors having a good time! I created a web site (http://members.aol.com/BITWClub), and began making announcements in AOL chat rooms, garnering a few interested guys.

I began e-mailing announcements for free hikes to such places as Hagmire Pond, Bass Lake, RCA Beach, and Bonita/Black Sand Beach in Marin, Wohler Beach in Sonoma County, and Golden Gate Bridge Beach in San Francisco. All are beautiful, populated on sunny afternoons almost exclusively by nude gay & bi men, and, with the exception of Wohler, all are legally clothing-optional.

In the beginning there were only a dozen guys on the list. Today, a year later, there are more than 750 guys on the list, mainly from Sonoma, Marin, and San Francisco (the three counties in which all of our events take place), but there are men on the list from all over the Bay Area, and all over the country (as some guys frequently travel to the Bay Area and join us when they're in town).

Every month we lose three or four men as they change their e-mail adddresses, and every month we gain ten or twenty, as more guys find our site and AOL profile online, and as more and more read our ads in The Slant and other publications. I receive e-mailed requests to join almost every day. Of our 750 members, more than 500 at the top of our roster have been with us for more than six months, and there are about 100 who have been on for more than a year.

In September of 1998 I sent out a survey to the 400+ men on the list at the time, asking their opinions about our past activities and their suggestions for the future. Some responded with answers ranging from one sentence to several paragraphs, some responding directly to the questions asked, others simply wrote general reactions, and many made new suggestions for interesting activities. I'll be sending out a new survey in the months to come.

Our roster includes men from all walks of life: entertainers, cops, waiters, accountants, artists, pilots, mailmen, chemists, hoboes, CEOs, EMTs, etcetera. And our members have different tastes, but all we share common interests in sex, nudity, hiking, sunshine, fresh air, and the beauty of nature and the male body.

Some of our members enjoy such hobbies as tennis and golf and hiking and biking and swimming and canoeing and kayaking and fishing and team sports, as well as such diverse fetishes as WS, TT, CBT, SM / BD, FF, etcetera. We are all men, but, yes, we are truly all kinds of men!

As far as the list itself is concerned, it is not public. I have never and will never give it to anyone else. All e-mail is sent out in "Blind CC" format so that no one can see anyone else's name, and I send out only two or three notices per month. Most of our events take place on the last Sunday afternoon of each month, so, generally, I send out an announcement at the beginning of the month, one on the Monday of the week before, and one final reminder the week of the event.

Some months have better weather and can take advantage of more activities than others. In June of '99 I sent out invitations to both the Santa Rosa and San Francisco Pride parades. In July our outing was to the "Up Your Alley (Dore) Alley Fair" in San Francisco. When there's incredible weather I may announce an extra outing with only week-of notice. Even during bad weather, though, I schedule events at least monthly. Some of us really enjoy hiking in the rain.

There was a day when it rained and I was the only one who came to a Hagmire Pond hike, and there have been days when it was hot and sunny and we had 45 guys who identified themselves as being on the BITWClub roster. At most outings we have between ten and twenty men who identify themselves as being "Boyz".

Many times guys show up and "cruise" the event without identifying themselves. Many times we outnumber the guys already at the venue, most times there are many guys already there when the BITWClubbers arrive. We welcome all men to join us, whether they want to state their screennames or not.

On most of our outings there is a very genuine and sincere comradery that develops. I learned that the most fun is to come with your boyfriend...in fact, bring all your male friends along. In the first few minutes, of course, some are a bit shy. After a while everyone is talking and laughing and having a good time.

We talk politics, tell jokes, tell secrets, and chat about our lives, our jobs, our exes, our relationships, our problems, and all the funny and fun things that our lifestyles have brought us. Some of the guys play cards, and Chess, and Monopoly; some play catch with a baseball, or football, or Frisbie; some just sunbathe and nap. Many bring sandwiches or picnics. Some bring their dogs. I usually bring my dog. I eat big before the hike, so I don't have to bother with food...I just smoke my cigars and have a good time.

Depending upon the venue, which changes with every outing, we hike or swim or simply lay on the grass or sand and chat. Sometimes individuals or pairs or groups will go off...for a walk...sometimes they return, sometimes they don't. Often guys who came to the venue on their own will join us. Sometimes guys who start off with us pair-off with each other, and sometimes our guys pair-off with guys who aren't with us. The BITWClub is definitely a great way to meet guys.

So, if you're a single, gay or bi man, over the age of 18, who lives in the Bay Area, who's online, who likes meeting guys, and who likes being in the beautiful out-of-doors, you should be on the BITWClub roster (AOL members must have a posted profile). Please visit our web site (http://members.aol.com/BITWClub) and e-mail us (BITWClub@aol.com) to join the free roster for the free "Boyz In The Woodz" Online Gay & Bi Men's Hiking Club.

Until then, Boyz,

"See you in the Woodz!"

September 1999

The Boyz Open the DORE in July

The "Boyz In The Woodz" is a free, online, gay and bi men's hiking club with over 750 members...it was founded by RJPupkin to provide free monthly social gatherings for gay and bi men in some of the many beautiful Bay Area nude recreation areas.  Our regular events are held on the last Sunday of the month, and are absolutely free...as is membership. This column is designed to highlight past club activities, inform and provoke discussion of topics of interest to queer men, inform Slant readers about recreation venues, and is provided by the BITWClub & The Slant to foster fellowship among queer men.

RJ is a trashy pig at the 1999 Dore Alley Fair

HELLO, BOYZ! The "Boyz in the Woodz" deviated from their normal outing in July (but, then, deviating IS the norm for the Boyz), as the last Sunday of that month was also the Dore Alley Fair. Our club was designed for social outings to beautiful nude beaches, lakes, rivers, and forests, and those are our typical venues. But not even the BITW want to compete with such a major queer draw as Dore!

If you haven't been to Dore and you're queer, then you're missing something. Even if you're straight but into leather and/or bondage and/or discipline and/or sadism and or masochism, then Dore, and its big brother, Folsom, is for you (there's information below about THIS month's BITWClub outing to the Folsom Street Fair on Sunday, September 26th)!

Dore is a small street that runs between Howard to the northwest and Folsom to the southeast and between 9th and 10th streets in SOMA. Dore at night, located in SOMA near dozens of nightclubs and gay leather bars, is reputed to be a cruising spot (For shame!), but twice a year, on Sunday afternoons, Dore and Folsom are closed to cars and open to queers!

Dore is all about dressing and behaving and doing and being exactly and exclusively and unabashedly what YOU want...acting out your fantasies in public out of doors in front of a crowd without restraint and without condemnation. Most everyone in sight is in his or her sexiest gear...that is, the gear than makes him or her feel sexiest.

You wanna wear a dress? Wear it! Wanna wear leather...okay! Wanna wear a diaper, a loin cloth, a rubber hose, safety pins, lingerie, white briefs, a Speedo, duct tape, a suit of armor, a Judy Garland costume, a martial arts gi, pajamas, bandages? DO IT! That's what Dore (and Folsom) is all about!

Check out a few of the many online picture galleries of Dore:

http://www.sfcarl.com/Contents.html

http://www.slip.net/~wjr/whiterats/scrapbook/dore-96.html

http://www.castrostreetlive.com  (Once there click on "Dore Alley")

http://www.musclebearz.com/dore1.htm

Pushing my way through the beer guzzling crowd in the hot sun with the Boyz, I encountered a 55 year old man with blue eyes, a bald head, a goatee and head-to toe black leather who licked my boots. Nothing unusual about THAT, you say...at least, not in OUR community...right?

But he was not a man that day...he was a DOG!  He was on his hands and kness, on his master's leash, (http://www.carlsmen.com/Dore99/DA99-03.jpg) wearing knee pads and special leather glove-boots that allowed him to walk on all fours like a dog with some ease. He was sniffing feet, licking hands, humping legs, and eating dog food off the ground out of a dog bowl bearing his name. That's Dore!

There were people being whipped...that's Dore! There were people making and drinking their own beer (if you know what I mean)...that's Dore! There were people sucking and jerking and pinching and biting and poking and prodding and teasing and laughing...that's Dore.

There was a guy in a dumpster (see him at: http://www.carlsmen.com/Dore99/DA99-57.jpg). He was bearded and very hairy, wearing grey cut-offs, black leather boots, a black leather baseball cap, sunglasses, and smoking Phillies Titan cigars...all from a comfortable vantage point (http://www.carlsmen.com/Dore99/DA99-56.jpg) on top of the trash in a huge, stinky, filthy dumpster . Several guys stopped by to lick and kiss and stroke his boots and legs (http://www.carlsmen.com/Dore99/DA99-55.jpg).

Next to the dumpster on one side were hordes of men indulging in watersports (http://www.carlsmen.com/Dore99/DA99-60.jpg, and http://www.carlsmen.com/Dore99/DA99-15.jpg, but DON'T go there if you're faint of heart...you'll see crass photos of male body parts and urine!). Next to the dumpster on the other side was a crowd watching and photographing two women impersonate Monica Lewinski on a man who happily played the Bill Clinton role...cigar and all! That's Dore, too!

Passing folk, gasping upon unexpectedly spying a pair of booted feet extending from the garbage dumpster in between, and finding a lot of hairy naked skin at the top of them, repeated each other's remarks about trashy men, and trashy sex, and, of course, the classic "Look, someone threw out a perfectly good white boy!"

THAT'S Dore...in fact, THAT was yours truly, RJPupkin...in the dumpster...and on both sides.

Now, on Sunday, August 29th, the Boyz returned to their quiet, refelective, more characteristically social type of outing, as they went to beautiful Wohler Beach on the Russian River in Sonoma County. I'll tell you all about that outing next month in this column, as our Slant deadline is the 15th of the previous month, two weeks before our BITW outing.

But the last Sunday of THIS month is September 26th, and that's the date for Dore's big brother, the Folsom Street Fair, so, rather than try to compete, the BITWClub again will be heading en masse to that depraved section of town again for more queer, fun debauchery.

Last year it rained on the Folsom Street fair, but that didn't dampen our spirits. Thousands of people, dressed in leather and costumes and fetish attire spent a cool, breezy, rainy afternoon getting soaked to the skin...partially due to the rain. With any luck we'll have sunshine again this month as Folsom Street once again becomes the scene of the largest, best-known, outdoor SM/BD/leather/fetish event in the world!

For more information about the Folsom Street Fair, visit the official web site: http://www.FolsomStreetFair.com, and the picture galleries listed above for Dore (both fairs' official sites are run out of the same address, and the events are almost identical except for their sizes, so most of the fan sites and picture galleries for Dore and Folsom are similarly posted together, as well).

The BITWClub will be meeting again in San Francisco on Sunday, September 26th at a place where parking and carpooling may be arranged, as parking can be a hassle in the neighborhood of Folsom, especially after the fair's been open for an hour or so.

If you're an adult male and you'd like to join us for this event, join our roster, ask questions, make suggestions, or if you just want to know more, please e-mail us at BITWClub@aol.com or visit our website at: http://members.aol.com/BITWClub. Joining the roster is free, as are most of our outings (street fairs charge donations, but the BITWClub charges nothing for you to join us).

We'll see you at Folsom on Sunday, September 26th, and, in the meantime, "We'll see you in the Woodz!"

October 1999

Pigs and Poison Oak on the River

HELLO, BOYZ! In September the "Boyz in the Woodz" went to the fabulously kinky Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco, but I'll tell you all about that outing next month in this column, complete with pictures, as our Slant deadline is the 15th of the previous month, two weeks before our BITW outing. The Boyz headed back to the Woodz again on Sunday, August 29th, after making their July outing the Dore Alley Fair. In August we went to Wohler Beach on the beautiful Russian River.

The Russian River itself is a spectacular gift to all of us who love the outdoors. Pure eye candy, it is suitable for swimming and canoeing and kayaking and fishing (and, to some, gravel mining and drinking water and wastewater...but those are other articles) and is surrounded by sandy beaches and gorgeous hills shrouded in tall evergreen trees and full of birds and deer and foxes and wild boar (all of which you may encounter at Wohler...yes, I've seen wild boar AND a number of PIGS). And the best part is, that, in the warmest nine months of the year, when San Francisco is blanketed by afternoon fog, the River is sunny and warm.

Named after either the Russians who built nearby Fort Ross, or its "rushin'" behavior (depending upon whom you believe), the Russian River originates way up in the hills surrounding the Potter and Redwood Valleys nestled in between Willits to the west and the Mendocino National Forest to the east. It is theorized by some geologists that the River originally led directly to San Francisco Bay, but was diverted centuries ago by earthquakes. It snakes south along Highway 101 until Healdsburg, where it swings to the east around beautiful Fitch Mountain, crosses 101, and serpentines west of Windsor along River Road to the Pacific Ocean at Jenner.

My Russian ex-wife was enthralled by the River between Healdsburg and the ocean, as the thick, cool, moody redwood forests and small, dark, arboreal creeks and valleys reminded her of her family's summer mountain home in Xhuravli outside of Kemerovo in Siberia. She said that the canyons of Rio Nido and Guerneville and Monte Rio, and the "Bohemian Highway" hamlets of Occidental and Camp Meeker reminded her of the Black Forest of southwestern Germany and Carpathian Mountains of eastern Czechoslovakia. Such a beautiful, peaceful place...and just an hour and a half north of San Francisco!

To get to Wohler Road, you take Highway 101 north through and past Santa Rosa and exit and go west on River Road. After about 5 miles you'll pass Trenton-Healdsburg Road, which connects to Eastside Road, a beautiful, windy country drive north to Healdsburg through vineyards, and after almost another mile you'll note a bed and breakfast inn on the left, directly across from Wohler road to the right. Turn and head north over the little bridge, two or three 45 degree turns, and you come out in the Wohler valley, covered with vineyards.

The focal point of the valley is the impressive Raford Inn bed and breakfast at the intersection of Wohler and Eastside roads. In the summer you must park on the south side of Eastside Road and hike north on Wohler Road for 15 minutes until you reach Wohler Bridge, from which it's another 15 minutes to the beach. From October through April the county's convenient pay-lot is OPEN on the other side of the River at the intersection of Wohler and Westside roads, which cuts 15 minutes off the hike. They close it in the summer ostensibly to discourage bathers from mucking up the bottom close to county drinking water wells...but I'll tell you more about that in a few moments.

At the beginning of the bridge there is a huge, green metal gate that says "KEEP CLEAR"...you go over the gate and walk 15 minutes through the Sonoma County Water Agency's beautiful land, following the paved road to the Water Agency's fenced yard. Pass the yard and follow the trail down into the cool forest (heed the "No Trespassing" signs...they remind you to stay on the trail that is public access through the water agency's non-public access property). At the end of the forest, the trail splits into two directions...follow the arrows on the sign saying "Meadow" and "Beach" to the right and ignore the arrow down and to the left that says "River". Continue on through the meadow, and down into the trees on the other side to the intimate, bush-lined beach.

Now, about the county's pay-park lot...as I said, they close it in the summer (when most people most want to use it), ostensibly to discourage bathers from mucking up the bottom close to county drinking water wells, but we all suspect they're just trying to discourage the big crowds of nude sunbathers that have made Wohler's history.

And quite a history there is. I don't know how long Wohler Meadow has been used as a nude beach, but back in the 1970s, when I first went there, I'm told that the meadow was full of naked "hippies and homos"...supposedly, you could spot the groups of people, hidden by tall, dry meadow grasses, by the plumes of marijuana smoke rising above their "nests". The land, which is wedged in between the River to the northwest and a Native American reservation to the southeast, was once the property of the late actor Fred MacMurray, whose family sold the land to the Sonoma County Water Agency after his death.

Controversy over neighboring property owners' intolerance of nudity at Wohler eventually led the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to enact a county-wide anti-nudity ordinance, which is, as I have been told, one of the few such ordinances in the country that specifically makes it illegal for women to expose their nipples and for both sexes to expose their gentials or, for lack of a better expression, their butt cracks. (For more information about the legality of public nudity, visit: http://www.best.com/~pasco/ccr4322.html, and be sure to read "The Cahill Letter", which quite explicitly details the intent and enforcement of purposely-vague laws: http://www.best.com/~pasco/harrison.html.)

As a result, Wohler has lost its hippie and family appeal, and has been left primarily to the gay men who are willing to hike 30 minutes and risk a citation for indecent exposure. But citations are rare, because the Sheriff's deputies cite only when there are complaints, and there is literally no one around to complain. When an occasional canoe drifts by the bush-lined beach, most of those without their Speedos discreetly head for the water or the bushes until the canoes pass by.

The best advice, if you enjoy skinnydipping and skinnysunning, is to respect the wishes of others you see (or, more importantly, those who may see you) and save the exhibitionism for the company of like-minded souls. If you want to get naked without fear of prosecution, head to one of the myriad legally-nude beaches and trails in the Bay Area on federal land (there are no federal laws against nudity).

For more information, check out the San Francisco Bay Guardian's annual nude beach guide, which this year boasts 133 nude spots in Northern California alone, and a total of 185 statewide. The guide is published in one of the weekly's mid-June editions, and the online edition is available year-round at http://www.sfbg.com/Nude. You might also check out my own gay nude beach guide at http://members.aol.com/RJPupkin/rjp4bech.htm and rjp7bch2.htm and my RJP Petaluma Gay Guide (which suggests gay things to do based upon their proximity from Petaluma) at rjp8gagd.htm.

During our trip to Wohler in August, we met at noon at the corner of Wohler and Eastside roads and casually walked together to the beach. After everyone was settled and had taken a cool, refreshing dip in the River, I led a group out for a 45 minute excursion to "The Spring", a fresh water tap out of the hills that entails a beautiful walk to see. We passed through another forest, through acres of Poison Oak, past a huge Water Agency lake, up a gorgeous and peaceful wooded creek, to the PVC pipe-fed concrete tub filled to the brim with ice-cool fresh water.

Later in the afternoon we enjoyed lunches, conversations, naps, and visiting with 4 members of the Boyz In The Woodz who stopped at Wohler on their day-long kayaking trip. We also journeyed in masse to nearby "Pebble Beach" and to the mysterious and elaborate split-level tree house inconspicuously hidden away 40 feet above the forest floor in a huge, towering, old tree...it seemed a worthy domicile for hobos, hermits, or even witches, elves, gremlins, and, uh, fairies. The day was so beautiful and the commeradery so enjoyable that we did not start back for the cars until well after 6pm.

Future BITWClub outings will certainly be scheduled for Wohler in the fall. As our outings are held on the last Sunday of each month, this month's outing falls on the 31st, which is Halloween. At press time a final decision on venue was not made, unfortunately, but members will be encouraged to wear costumes whether we head back to the Woodz, or go to another urban fair or festival.

We'll see you at noon on Sunday, October 31st, and, in the meantime, "We'll see you in the Woodz!"

November 1999

Leather and Lace and Boyz in Your Face

RJ is a trashy pig at the 1999 Folsom Street Fair

HELLO, BOYZ! In October the "Boyz in the Woodz" outing, held the last Sunday of each month, fell on Halloween! We went to Land's End, one of San Francisco's most picturesque and rugged hiking spots, in the afternoon, and then spent Halloween night in The Castro...but I'll tell you all about that outing next month in this column, complete with pictures, as our Slant deadline is the 15th of the previous month, two weeks before our BITWClub outing. But in this issue I'll tell you all about the Boyz' outing on Sunday, September 26th, at the fabulously fetished Folsom Street Fair.

In July the "Up Your (Dore) Alley Fair" attracted thousands of men to a very small section of San Francisco's SOMA district, centered at the corner of Folsom Street at Dore Alley. And while there were a few women in attendance, it was definitely a BOYS' event. Now Dore's big brother, the Folsom Street Fair, is many times larger with 300,000 attendees (according to the event web site), male AND female...and several other genders in-between! What is similar between the two events is that both are designed to allow a person to unleash his/her/its deepest, darkest fantasies in the sun on the street in front of a crowd.

Some of these fantasies involve accoutrements, such as: leather, lace, latex, rubber, chains, mail, whips, diapers, paddles, jockstraps, masks, clothespins, blindfolds, piercings, pumps, pumps (that's not a typo...one kind of pump you wear on your foot...), handcuffs, harnesses, hoods, dildoes, and ropes. Some involve other people: men, women, men with women, men with men, women with women, men dressed as women, women dressed as men, men not dressed, women not dressed, men dressed as boys, women dressed as girls, men dressed as girls, women dressed as boys, adults dressed as babies, people dressed as animals, animals dressed as people, and, yes, there were even adult men and women dressed as...adult men and women, respectively. Go figure!

The Folsom Street Fair, the third largest outdoor festival in the state (behind the Rose Bowl and the GLBT Freedom Parade, according to the California Office of Tourism), is a real slice of Americana, though not exactly what you'd call "old-fashioned". It's American to its core because it is all about what the country is all about: FREEDOM! This country was designed to be a safe haven for the free expression of one's inner self by the "Founding Fathers" (among them Thomas Jefferson, who is alleged to have done some of his "fathering" with his slaves, and Benjamin Franklin, who is alleged to have had fetishes and fantasies too numerous to discuss here).

There are many in this country who believe that FREEDOM was only intended for the expression of political views (as long as they're not too radical) and religious views (as long as they begin with the Old Testament). But I would venture to guess that most of those present at the Folsom Street Fair believe that FREEDOM should include the expression of sexual views, as well. Actually, sexual views are more closely held by some than political or religious views...in fact, I would argue that sexual views do run more deeply than either political OR religious views.

After all, political views regard the way you relate to other people, religious views often relate to the way you relate to a creator and/or to nature, but sexual views express how you relate to YOURSELF...they are your own, personal business...they may certainly involve other people, but, at the core, they are an expression of who you are. They spring from a primal instinct to reproduce, whether some of us choose to use them for that or not, and, as such, are closer to our core being than any other sorts of views.

Now, my grandmother would have argued that sex is just a base function of the human body, akin to growing, aging, consuming food, and expelling waste. That's why she believed that sex should be undertaken in the bedroom, under cover, in darkness, at night, while fully dressed, and for one reason and one reason only. My poor grandfather! The simple fact that so many of us were raised by people who believed that sex was filthy and unspeakable may well be why so many of us rejoice in the basest of activities.

Nevertheless, the point is that no society that restricts sexual expression can consider itself FREE. Freedom IS sexuality. So let's all rejoice in the fact that we live in a country, in a state, near a city in which 40,000 people are ALLOWED to get together on a city street on a Sunday afternoon and get completely naked and/or entirely fetished and show the rest of the world (or, at least, those who are interested) exactly what we are!

And, at Folsom, at least, and perhaps ONLY at Folsom, we can actually do whatever we want WITHOUT fear of being criticized. It's good that they stopped calling the GLBT "Pride" Parade the GLBT "Freedom" Parade, because FREEDOM would imply that you're allowed to do anything you want WITHOUT being criticized...while that parade is close, it is much too political and commercial and fashion-conscious to be considered FREE. At that event you feel as though you should dress to please others...at Folsom you dress to please yourself. That's what makes Folsom so very important! For more information about the fair, visit its website: http://www.FolsomStreetFair.com.

Well, this month we're heading back out to the great outdoors! As our outings are held on the last Sunday of each month, this month's BITWClub hike falls on November 28th. We'll be heading to pristine and beautiful Bass Lake in Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County; a fantastic hike, a legally nude swim, and a gorgeous waterfall cascading onto a glorious ocean beach...what a perfect place to take The Boyz!

We'll see you at noon on Sunday, November 28th, and, in the meantime, "We'll see you in the Woodz!"

December 1999

The Boyz Journey to Land's End

HELLO, BOYZ! In November the "Boyz in the Woodz" took their monthly outing, held the last Sunday of each month, to Marin County's spectacular, legally nude, best-kept secret, RCA Beach...but I'll tell you all about that outing next month in this column, complete with pictures, as our Slant deadline is the 15th of the previous month, two weeks before our BITWClub outing. But in this issue I'll tell you all about the Boyz' outing on Halloween at Land's End.

In the glory days of San Francisco's Victorian period, one of The City's prime attractions for tourists and locals alike was Point Lobos in what is now the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. To get there, follow Geary Boulevard west until it splits off slightly to the north at the old fire station and becomes Point Lobos Avenue, which runs right past Land's End, Sutro Heights Park, down around past the Cliff House, past the unmarked hole in the cliff to the left which is the site of the old "Playland at the Beach" amusement park, and then turns into The Great Highway heading south at Ocean Beach.

The Land's End trailhead is in the parking lot off Point Lobos Avenue, above the ruins of the old Sutro Baths. Don't go past the ruins, mind you...park in the very large dirt parking lot to the right (north...the lot is called "Merrie Way" on the map), above/east/BEFORE you pass the Sutro Baths ruins and the Cliff House Restaurant, if you want to see it all. However, if you're just planning on hiking directly to the beach, it's quicker to park in the parking lot of the USS San Francisco war memorial on the northern dead end of El Camino Del Mar just past Seal Rock Drive (Clement Avenue), and head east on the trail past the porta-potties.

Now that you've found the place, you should know its history. Both the famous original Cliff House and the Sutro Baths are gone today, but their spirits are fondly remembered by those of us who dearly love what has come to be known as Land's End.

The original Cliff House was a huge gothic castle piercing into the sky from its rocky perch towering above Seal Rock and Ocean Beach...it survived the earthquake of 1906, but burned down in the following year. Today, in its place, shamefully bearing the same name, are a low-slung, modern-style conglomeration of restaurants and tourist crap shops. Out front there are always huge tour buses, unloading throngs of happy visitors, who come to soak up the views, buy little plastic cable car rulers, and look through the Camera Obscura and Holograph Gallery.

The Sutro Baths, constructed in 1896 by San Francisco philanthropist Adolph Sutro, were nestled into a rocky berth facing the sea. The building was huge, three acres, with a tall, monstrous glass dome, covering a huge open space above three restaurants, six Olympian baths (bearing water of varying heat, including some flowing freely from the Pacific Ocean tides), and some 500 dressing rooms. The facility catered to thousands of San Franciscans each weekend, who flocked to the Point Lobos area for the baths, and Ocean Beach, and the historic "Playland at the Beach" amusement park that once sat between them. Just as the Cliff House, the Sutro Baths are gone now and the concrete pools (which are filled with a funky soup) and building foundations are all that remain of this popular family fun spot.

The area sports some incredible views (enumerated below), and today includes the Palace of the Legion of Honor (a world-class art museum housed in a fantastic marble palace featuring 3,000 drawings and 75,000 prints, a collection of sculptures by Rodin, and paintings by El Greco, Rubens, Rembrandt, van Gogh, Monet, and Picasso), the picturesque Lincoln Park Golf Course, the USS San Francisco War Memorial (featuring a shell-scarred piece of the bridge of that WWII ship), and Sutro Heights Park (featuring beautifully manicured gardens).

I mentioned views...get ready, the list of landmarks visible from Land's End is long...it includes (in clear weather): to the South, Ocean Beach, Golden Gate Park, and Fort Funston in the distance; to the West, the Pacific Ocean, the Farallon Islands (visible only in the clearest weather), passing ship traffic, and migrating whales (in season); to the North (in Marin), the Golden Gate, the Point Reyes National Seashore peninsula, Point Bonita, the three to six (depending upon the height of the tide) legally nude Bonita (AKA "Black Sand") Beaches, Mount Tamalpais, and the Marin Headlands' hillside bunkers of Fort Barry; to the Northeast, the Golden Gate Bridge; and, to the East, Fort Point, the four to seven legally nude and very gay (depending upon the height of the tide) Golden Gate Bridge (AKA "Nasty Boy") Beaches, the legally nude and very hippie/family Baker Beach, the cliffside palaces of the "Seacliff" district, and China Beach.

Whew! The incredible views comprise one of the reasons that Land's End is so popular with tourists. It's popular with gay men for a couple of other reasons, in addition to the views. Because it's on federal property, the small, rocky beach is legally nude (but don't get caught naked up on the trails or in the bushes...due to numerous tourist complaints of public sex, the park rangers have been extremely visible lately writing nasty tickets for sex...nudity away from the beach will still get you a strong warning at the least, and worse if you're actually touching yourself "there"). Land's End has historically been a very popular gay cruising area, along with the windmill section of Golden Gate Park, Collingwood Park in The Castro, Buena Vista Park in The Haight, and, my personal favorite, the Golden Gate Bridge Beaches and their surrounding area.

There are several reasons that Golden Gate Bridge Beach (GGBB) is my favorite spot for nude sunbathing and socializing (when I say that in print it means chatting). It's on federal property so nudity on the beach is legal, it's quicker to reach from its parking lot than Land's End is from its parking lot, and, because of an extremely strenuous, treacherous hike, there are few women, tourists, and children at GGBB. Also, the views are actually better from GGBB than they are from the beach at Land's End, which actually sits hidden in a cove, sheltered by cliffs, and facing only directly north. Furthermore, GGBB is huge, with several, sandy beaches, and plenty of relative privacy...Land's End's "beach", on the other hand, is rocky, small, and not very private, with an amphitheater of hillside forest on three sides from which voyeur/creeps, shocked straights, families, and tourists, and park rangers can secretly watch everything you do.

So, on Halloween afternoon, the Boyz met at the parking lot directly above the Sutro ruins, and headed en masse west-northwest on the trails on the top of the ridge just north of the ruins. The views are spectacular, and we paused to soak it all up on the paved concrete observation deck at the top of the cliff overlooking the crashing waves below.

We wound our way down the steps that are carved into the rock cliff to the south that lead to the funky landing below the cliff but just above the rocks and tide pools on the north end of the tiny, sandy, wave-swept Sutro Baths beach. The more adventuresome of us (two of the Boyz, my dog, and I) climbed over the three foot rock wall, down across the rocks, through the crashing waves, and along the old swimming pool walls to the sandy landing beneath the cliff. The rest of the group climbed back up the cliff and all the way down and around.

When we all met up again, we proceeded together through the spooky, damp, breezy tunnel-cave that bores through the bottom of the cliff. This area of the shoreline, as so much of the California coast, is clustered with rocks and blowholes and the surging of the tide into dark tidepools buried beneath hallowed boulders. Halfway through the tunnel there is a railing on the ocean side which bounds a twenty foot drop into a dark, mini-beach about eight feet wide, on which you expect to see James Bond sneaking out of the surf wearing scuba gear. The cave always makes me sing "Yo, ho, yo, ho, a pirate's life for me..." to the tune of that wonderfully incessant Disneyland "Pirates of the Caribbean" tune...singing and moaning and mad scientist laughs are ever-so-spooky in this echo chamber, in which I've frequently enjoyed predawn bonfires, clandestine kisses, and solitary reflection.

On the other side of the cave the two mile journey really began, as one of the Boyz' most strenuous hikes yet led the group up, through, across, and around a dizzying gauntlet of boulders, cliffs, and gravel that ended, after an exhausting but fun hour and a quarter, to the rocky Land's End beach digs of the two members of the group who had gone ahead before the group and set up a canopy, a delicious hors d'oeuvres buffet, and a beautiful harp, on which one of the Boyz played angelic music throughout the afternoon. Quite a soiree, indeed.

After about two hours the beach was slowly being shrouded by shadows as the fall sun seemingly sunk into the surrounding cliffs...so the Boyz reluctantly got dressed, packed up, and headed off. The group split, half heading to the house party to which one of the Boyz invited us all, and the other half making their way to the monster crowd at the Castro celebrating Halloween in costume. Tens of thousands of men and women, straight and gay alike, were there both Saturday and Sunday nights, most creatively costumed, many erotically, some rather scantily. The crowd was loud and boisterous, but reasonably well-behaved, with little discord, thanks perhaps to a very large and well-equipped police presence.

This month we're heading north to beautiful West Marin County. As our outings are held on the last Sunday of each month, this month's BITWClub hike falls on December 26th. In last month's SLANT column I mentioned that we'd be heading to Bass Lake, but that is a much better venue during warm, sunny weather, as Bass Lake is a fabulous place for skinny-dipping.

Instead we'll be heading to nearby RCA Beach. I say nearby because the parking area for RCA is also on Mesa Road, just a mile or two short of the Palomarin Trailhead, which is the parking lot for Bass Lake in Point Reyes National Seashore. RCA, like Bass Lake, is a fantastic hike and features a gorgeous waterfall at the hike turnaround. Unlike Bass, though, much of it is a beach hike, just a couple of miles south of the Bass Lake hike turnaround of Alamere Falls...I'll tell you all about it next month in THE SLANT.  We'll see you at noon on Sunday, December 26th, and, in the meantime, Happy Holidays, and "We'll see you in the Woodz!"

January 2000

Waterfalls & Hot Cocoa

HELLO, BOYZ! In December the "Boyz in the Woodz" took their monthly outing, held the last Sunday of each month, to beautiful Lake Ilsanjo in Annadel State Park in Santa Rosa...but I'll tell you all about that outing next month in this column, complete with pictures, as our Slant deadline is the 15th of the previous month, two weeks before our BITWClub outing. But in this issue I'll tell you all about the Boyz' outing on November 28th to RCA Beach.

If you want to spend a day on the beach away from civilization, RCA beach is the perfect place to go. Unlike most other Bay Area beaches, RCA frequently lies completely empty with nary a soul to spoil the view. Miles long, strewn with driftwood, windswept, barren, backed by tall, stoic cliffs, and facing the wide, blue Pacific, RCA Beach is legally nude, not well-known, and a long hike from the small, unmarked parking lot. In short, it's a must if you want a long, quiet walk all by yourself, OR if you want to introduce a timid partner to the joys of nude sunbathing.

To get there, take Highway 1 in Marin south from Point Reyes Station or north from Stinson Beach. Take the Bolinas turnoff west (which may or may not be marked...take a map...the Bolinas locals ain't too fond of tourists and their legendary, decades-long battle with CalTrans involves the latter replacing the "Bolinas" signs that the former keep tearing down), away from Bolinas Ridge, and toward the Pacific Ocean, veer left at the intersection of Horseshoe Hill Road and go south toward Bolinas, following Olema-Bolinas Road past the schoolhouse on the right.

Make a right hand turn up the wooded hill on Mesa Road (to go straight leads you to the tiny town of Bolinas with all them nasty locals!), following the signs toward the Point Reyes Bird Observatory. When you get out on the mesa, which is a wide, open plateau, you'll note a conglomeration of tall radio transmission towers.

Park just off the road in the lot at the head of the driveway at 451 Mesa Road which leads to the Commonwealth Health Center. DO NOT drive all the way down to the center. Park inside the fence just off the road, and hike west all the way down the driveway, take the path marked "Beach" through the chest-high bushes to the left after the trees, go past the big, white, abandoned building, turn left with the trail, go through the cattle gate, and follow the trail south across the ocean edge of the mesa, and down to the beach. Then hike north on the beach until you find the canyon that heads inland to the waterfall.

The Boyz met at noon at the parking lot and hiked together all the way to the waterfall. Although we passed a number of people on the trail on the mesa above, once on the beach we didn't see another soul all day. The tide was exceptionally high, and on several occasions there was no beach...just the cliff, the waves, and us, clinging to the former to avoid the latter.

Yes, we got our shoes wet, no we otherwise stayed dry...and covered. It was far too cold a day even for hard-core nudists. By the time we reached the creek in the canyon at the north end of our beach hike, I was warm enough to tuck my shirts and vest away behind a rocck on the cliff and hike up to and past the waterfall bare-chested...but I was the only one so brave...or so foolish.

The canyon is a crack carved into the 60-100 foot-high plateau by the beautiful freshwater creek which trickles to the beach from way up Lake Ranch Trail in the heart of the southern portion of Point Reyes National Seashore. The creek passes under a bridge on the Coast Trail which leads from the Palomarin Trailhead and parking lot which you traverse to reach Bass Lake and Alamere Falls farther north.

We wound our way through the endlessly snaking canyon, following the marshy creek bed until we finally dead-ended at the forty-foot waterfall. Up on the shale hillside flanking the waterfall were a doe and her fawn grazing peacefully. We approached quietly and respectfully from below, but at some point Mama decided we were close enough and she lurched up, leading her baby up, over the ridge and out of site.

At this point the Boyz split up...the more adventuresome of us, eager to explore the upper reaches of the creek, cautiously inched our way, one after another, up the deep pile of shale on the south side of the waterfall that buried each footstep to the shin. Even Cuthbert the Cocker made it up the hill, determined not be left with those staying behind.

Our group of three men and one dog wound our way up through the most incredible, peaceful, fern-shrouded waterway we'd ever seen. We each in turn slipped or misstepped at least once, so we each eventually proceeded with one boot caked with mud. We proceeded as far upstream as we could, which was past the boundary of Point Reyes National Park, I believe, and probably within shouting distance of the Point Reyes Bird Observatory. We could see nothing above the ridge, however, and there was no safe place to climb.

When we'd gone as far as we could go without wading, and had all hummed the theme from Deliverance, we decided we'd gone far enough, and returned to the top of the waterfall, from which vantage point we could snap photos of the Boyz below eating their packed lunches. We joined them, and started the long, conversation-filled journey back to our cars.

Once at the parking lot we all decided to go into the town of Bolinas and have a few cups of java. We parked in the cramped streets, fought our way past a number of stray dogs looking to bum morsels off passersby, and stopped at a quaint, yellow, dilapidated Victorian nestled off the street in a beautiful if unkempt garden. We snacked on huge, delicious, oddly shaped, decidedly homemade ginger cookies, sipped hot coffee and chocolate, and enjoyed raucous conversation until sunset.

The last of us headed for home at 520pm...tired, sore, wet, muddy, and very pleasantly satisfied with the camaraderie that was once again the hallmark of a "Boyz In The Woodz" Club outing! Please join us next time!

This month we're heading to Marin County's, beautiful, legally nude, Bass Lake, and then hiking on toward spectacular Alamere Falls, which spill right out onto the beach on Drake's Bay about 7.5 miles south of the Limantour Beach parking lot. It's very nearby our November venue, RCA Beach. Both are on Mesa Road, RCA just a mile or two short of the Palomarin Trailhead, which is the parking lot for Bass Lake in Point Reyes National Seashore. Bass Lake, like RCA, is a fantastic hike and features a gorgeous waterfall at the hike turnaround. As our outings are held on the last Sunday of each month, this month's BITWClub hike falls on January 30th. I'll tell you all about it next month in THE SLANT. We'll see you at noon on Sunday, January 30th, and, in the meantime, "We'll see you in the Woodz!"

February 2000

Three Lakes, Six Men, and a Dog

HELLO, BOYZ! It was the day after Christmas, and the Boyz met at noon at the tennis courts at Howarth Park on Santa Rosa’s Summerfield Road, poised to take what I call The Three Park Hike, through Santa Rosa’s Howarth Park, Sonoma County’s Spring Lake Park, and California’s Annadel Park, which together compose more than 5000 acres of fabulously lush parkland, complete with 35 miles of trails for hiking, biking, jogging, and horseback riding.

Howarth Memorial park was named after an English bank teller who made a fortune in lumber and donated $75,000 to create the park. It is built around Lake Ralphine, which was constructed by developer Mike MacDonald (and named after his wife) to supply Santa Rosa with water. The 152 acre park features tennis, softball, soccer, fishing, barbecues, two expansive playgrounds, pony rides, boat rentals, a carousel, petting zoo, miniature train, and refreshment stand.

We hiked around the west end of the softball field, up around the north side of Lake Ralphine, and into Spring Lake Park, a 320 acres with a huge, spring-fed swimming lagoon, 3 acres of sandy beach, bathrooms and showers, a refreshment stand, boat rentals and a launch dock, 200 barbecue-equipped picnic tables, and 35 campsites, including one for 100 people.

Spring Lake itself is 72 acres and full of bluegill, bass, and trout. At the visitor’s center we viewed exhibits of park flora and fauna, and a bit of history about the area and its original residents, the Wappo and Pomo Indians. Then we headed all the way up the hill into Annadel State Park, a glorious wilderness of volcanic soil, redwoods, Douglas Firs, California black oaks, live oaks, and Oregon Oaks...not to mention Poison Oak.

We saw deer, and many of the 130 species of birds said to frequent the Ledson Marsh, but none of the wild pigs that supposedly forage for food when no one is around. Little evidence of prior industry spoiled the view...orchards, vineyards, hop fields were once planted in this park, but we saw nothing of these; nor did we see evidence of the dairy ranches and men’s hunting and riding club that once were here. However, upon returning to Howarth Park, we did stumble through an overgrown basalt quarry worked by Italian stonemasons and Chinese laborers to create paving stones for the streets of San Francisco.

Annadel was saved from industrial and residential development by Henry Trione, founder of Santa Rosa’s Luther Burbank Savings, who arranged the financing. After an arduous hike under bright, hot, sunny skies, we took our mid-way lunch break on the dam of 25 acre Lake Ilsanjo, which was named after Ilsa and Jo Coney, who made their money in real estate and mining.

By 450pm we had returned to our cars and crossed Summerfield Road to Clo’s Ice Creamery, where we munched on onion rings and sipped hot cocoa and laughed and talked until the last of us left at 545pm.

This month, because the last Sunday, January 30th, is Superbowl Sunday, we’re going to meet at noon, hike to the Wohler Spring on the Russian River, and then go to the Russian River Resort in Guerneville to watch the Superbowl at 3pm. I'll tell you all about it next month in THE SLANT.  We'll see you at noon on Sunday, February 27th, and, in the meantime, "We'll see you in the Woodz!"

March 2000

Soggy Solitude at Wohler

HELLO, BOYZ! Our January hike on the Russian River on Superbowl Sunday was soggy and solitary as I hiked alone from the Wohler Bridge parking lot to The Spring. It was pouring rain most of the afternoon, and, while there were plenty of men cruising the trails on the parking lot side of the River, none of them identified themselves as Boyz, and I was the only human being on the trails to The Spring.

Undaunted by cold wind and horizontal rain, I wore my wet weather leather gear and slogged through the mud for two and a half hours. The Russian River is a beautiful place in fair weather, with tall evergreen trees, chirping birds, sweet, pungent smells, and the cool, clear water winding along through dark, wooded canyons and past hot, humid beaches.

But the winter gives the River an entirely different character...especially when there's no one around. Native oak and other trees and bushes stand naked, brown, and dry above the lush, green carpet that seasonal rains and intermittent sunshine create on and low to the ground. The surrounding forests remain green, though, with a healthy mix of stately redwoods.

While much of the flora remains visibly vibrant, the fauna is all but forgotten, as birds and insects and small mammals hide from the elements (some mammals don't have the sense to come in out of the rain, though...ahem). The land surrounding the River seems very quiet, except for the driving whine of the wind and the steady roar of the elevated river flow.

As I sloshed along the muddy trail, occasionally detouring through the brush over rocks and fallen trees and tall grass to avoid huge puddles in the road swallowing every drop of rain water, I noticed how quiet and peaceful my surroundings seemed in contrast to the activity of Spring and Summer.

I visited the small beach that, during warm weather, is packed full of brown naked bodies. On this day, the sand has taken on the consistency of milk-soaked Malt-O-Meal. The chocolate-brown river water is flowing freely, while its edges lap at the shore several feet higher than it can manage the other half of the year.

I continued around the far edge of the meadow, which is normally shoulder-high, a perfect setting for private, sunny rendezvous. Today, though, the meadow is stripped and brown down to the ankle-deep grass. I headed off toward the redwood forest that conceals the old tree house that stands 40 feet above the dark, poison oak-strewn floor. From that plywood perch way up in the forest canopy, you could silently spy on passersby. But on this day I was unable to find the treehouse at first...the trunk of the massive tree bearing the treehouse had cracked in the rain and wind, the tree had fallen to the tangled forest floor, and the treehouse is now just so much scrap wood.

I continued on through the forest, past the rock dam and the huge gravel mining lake and up into the wooded canyon surrounding the creek which is fed by the spring above. This was certainly the highlight of my journey, as the babbling creek and pouring rain provided a haunting rhythm to my solitude.

After my hike, I drove in to Guerneville to join the Superbowl festivities at the Bull Pen and Russian River Resort, and, by about 3pm, the clouds had broken, the rain subsided, and gorgeous sunlight streamed through the clouds and made for a truly memorable afternoon.  The Boyz hike next on Sunday, March 26th, rain or shine, and, in the meantime, "We'll see you in the Woodz!"

April 2000

Boyz Now Meet Trice Weekly!

HELLO, BOYZ! Our outing for February had to be canceled because I had to be out of town on the last Sunday of the month. But the Boyz have hiked, and dined, and met since then, anyway, and we've made some changes. After more than 30 monthly and bi-monthly hikes over the course of two years, I decided that instead of ONLY having ONE, free, MONTHLY hike, the BITW should now have THREE free activities EACH WEEK! And here they are:

1) SUNDAY BOYZ BRUNCH (SBBR)- Each Sunday at 11am the Boyz meet at IHOP in San Rafael (1825 Fourth Street, 415-485-0870) for a Dutch-treat brunch. During brunch we decide where we're going to hike, and then we're off to a Marin or Sonoma or San Francisco or East Bay nude beach, lake, trail, or river, or some other sort of venue, such as a museum, park, attraction, festival, street fair, or special event. IHOP Proprietor Jeff Escobar saves us a table or two...ask where the Boyz are sitting, or just look for RJ, wearing his BITWClub t-shirt, at 11am.

2) BOYZ OUT FOR LAUGHS (BO4L)- Each Monday evening at 8pm the Boyz meet upstairs at Kimo's in San Francisco (1351 Polk at Pine, 415-885-4535) for comedy! "Christopher & Co. Celebrity Impersonations" and guest stand-up comedians entertain with a $5 cover charge.

3) BOYZ NIGHT AT THE MOVIES (BN@M)- Each Wednesday at 6pm the Boyz meet at the Food Court at the Northgate Mall in Terre Linda (7000 Northgate Drive), where we'll have a bite to eat, peruse the movie listings, and then see a movie either at the mall, or at one of the other Marin theaters, all Dutch-treat. After the movie, those interested may carpool with RJ down to San Francisco to go to Blow Buddies. Look for RJ, wearing his BITWClub t-shirt, at 6pm.

Our very first SBBR, which was on March 12th, came before my Slant deadline for this issue. Despite the fact that it was the first such event, and with only two days' notice, five other Boyz turned out at 11am sharp, beating me to the punch, as I arrived shamefully and characteristically late. We chatted for about 30 minutes, and then the six of us were seated in one of IHOP'S big 6-seater booths, a perfect fit. We chatted during breakfast about the long and illustrious history of gay nightlife in Marin (of which IHOP has become a part of late, what with hosting "Club Vagabound" on Valentine's Eve), and then discussed our hiking venue.

Perhaps five other Boyz turned out for the first SBBR because of the incredible weather on Sunday, March 12th. It was the first really perfect day this year, with no wind, no clouds, glorious sunshine, and warm, spring-like temperatures! We decided to hike go to Marin's premier legally nude destination: Hagmire Pond.

With the demise of Marin's only remaining gay bar, and as it was the only permanent vestige of gay nightlife, several organizations have been scrambling to recreate community for us. However, the very popular Fridays After Five mixers have ended because of troubles with both of their venues, and the Marin AIDS Project's Man 2 Man Marin Monday Mixers are only monthly events...if we can't have our own bar, then, dammit, we've got to have other stuff happening weekly.

Personally, being a non-drinker and non-dancer who hates loud music and has to watch his budget, I don't like hanging out in bars...I much meeting guys on the trail during the day than in stuffy bars at night, so I created the BITWClub to provide myself with FREE regular social outings in the great outdoors. Weekly brunch/hikes and dinner/movie outings will cost me a few more bucks, but they will also give me the opportunity to spend more time out making friends. And isn't THAT what life's all about?

Join is Sunday mornings at 11 at IHOP, Monday evenings at 8 Kimo's, and Wednesday evenings at 6 at the Northgate Food Court, and, in the meantime, "We'll see you in the Woodz!"

May 2000

Naked Joggers and Cheaper Flicks

HELLO, BOYZ! We've had great success with our new, weekly events! More and more Boyz are turning out to meet each other and have a good time! In fact, we've had so many Boyz outings this past month that I haven't seen my cats in almost a month!

There is some relief for me, though, in this busy schedule, as we've had to cancel one of our weekly outings. Unfortunately, the BO4L comedy night has been canceled by Kimo's...they just weren't selling enough drinks...we Californians don't guzzle the way we used to (that's a GOOD thing)! We had a great time, though, with as many as 10 of us showing up one week. A big thank you, though, to the Boyz who came and had a few laughs over the past few weeks!

And we've made a change to the Wednesday BN@M...it has MOVED and gotten a LOT CHEAPER! With mall food costing as much as $15 for a full meal, and the damned tickets at Northgate Cinema costing a whopping $7.75 (I know it's even more at some theaters), Wednesdays got to be expensive outings, especially when you fell into the unavoidable popcorn - soda - candy bar trap (add another $10)! SO, we've moved to the Washington Square Shopping Center in Petaluma where you can see a movie for just $3! Here are all the updated details of our 2 weekly, ongoing BITW Club outings:

1) SUNDAY BOYZ BRUNCH & HIKE (SBBH)- Each Sunday at 11am the Boyz meet at IHOP in San Rafael (1825 Fourth Street, 415-485-0870) for a Dutch-treat brunch. During brunch we decide where we're going to hike, and then we're off to a Marin or Sonoma or San Francisco or East Bay nude beach, lake, trail, or river, or some other sort of venue, such as a museum, park, attraction, festival, street fair, or special event. IHOP Proprietor Jeff Escabar saves us a table or two...ask where the Boyz are sitting, or just look for RJ, wearing his BITWClub t-shirt, at 11:00AM. If you'd rather skip brunch, meet us at the door at NOON!

2) BOYZ NIGHT AT THE MOVIES (BN@M)- Each Wednesday at 6 - 630pm (time is flexible...RJ is there at 6, we won't leave 'til 630) the Boyz meet at Pueblo Del Sol Mexican Restaurant in the Washington Square Shopping Center at the southeast corner of E Washington St and N McDowell Bl in Petaluma (Take the E Washington Street exit off 101, head east to the big intersection at McDowell, and go straight [east] or right [south] and enter the Washington Square Shopping Center and look for Pueblo Del Sol at 235 S McDowell Bl.). We'll have a bite to eat (The food at Pueblo is delicious and you can eat a complete dinner for as little as $6, salad and beverage included!) and then we go see a movie next door at the fabulous, multi-screen Washington Square Cinemas, at which ALL movies are ALWAYS $3! Look for RJ in his BITWClub t-shirt at Pueblo between 6 and 630pm each Wednesday!

Also, this month is Bay to Breakers month in San Francisco! It's a fun event to join, but much easier to simply watch from the sidelines...as you can see above, tens of thousands march by in full costume (and some in NO costume, if you know what I mean)! There's always a party atmosphere on the street and on the sidewalks, as well, as all the residents along the route come out to cheer on the racers and spray water on the nudies! If you'd like to join the Boyz, we'll car pool down to the Golden Gate Park Panhandle and watch the race, and then be back in time for our SBBH at 11am at IHOP in San Rafael. E-mail us at BITWClub@aol.com for information about where and when The Boyz will meet on Bay to Breaker day to carpool to the race.

In the meantime, join is Sunday mornings at 11-12 at IHOP in San Rafael, and Wednesday evenings at 6-630 at Pueblo Del Sol in Petaluma, and, in the meantime, "We'll see you in the Woodz!"

June 2000

Hike with Pride

HELLO, BOYZ! Spring has sprung and summer begins this month and the Boyz have a whole summer full of activities planned! Yes, we are mainly about hiking, and that's what we do each Sunday afternoon...hike to nude beaches, lakes, and rivers. But Man can not live on hiking alone. On Sunday, May 21st we went to watch the 75,000 people in the San Francisco Bay To Breakers Race in the morning BEFORE our weekly brunch and hike. You see, on special Sunday afternoons we deviate from our back-to-nature roots and head to the Big City.

Later this summer the Boyz will carpool again and again en masse to San Francisco on Sunday afternoons after our weekly IHOP brunch in San Rafael, as each month is something special! The Castro Street Fair is October 1st, the Folsom Street Fair is September 24th, the Up Your (Dore) Alley Fair is July 30th, and THIS month the Boyz will join the festivities at both the San Francisco Gay Pride Festival on the weekend of the 24th & 25th AND the 11th Annual Sonoma County Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade and Celebration on Sunday, June 4th.

We will march with the parade from Santa Rosa's Courthouse Square to Santa Rosa Junior College on June 4th, and take the ferry to San Francisco on the 25th for the parade down there. E-mail to be placed on the free, confidential mailing list, so that you can get the details of our special events, in addition to changes to our two regular weekly activities:

1) SUNDAY BOYZ BRUNCH & HIKE (SBBH)- Each Sunday at 11am the Boyz meet at IHOP in San Rafael (1825 Fourth Street, 415-485-0870) for a Dutch-treat brunch. During brunch we decide where we're going to hike, and then we're off to a Marin or Sonoma or San Francisco or East Bay nude beach, lake, trail, or river, or some other sort of venue, such as a museum, park, attraction, festival, street fair, or special event. IHOP Proprietor Jeff Escabar saves us a table or two...ask where the Boyz are sitting, or just look for RJ, wearing his BITWClub t-shirt, at 11:00am. If you'd rather skip brunch, meet us at the door at NOON!

2) BOYZ NIGHT AT THE MOVIES (BN@M)- Each Wednesday from 6 - 630pm (the time is flexible...RJ is there at 545pm, we don't leave 'til 630pm) the Boyz meet at Pueblo Del Sol Mexican Restaurant in the Washington Square Shopping Center at the southeast corner of E Washington St and N McDowell Bl in Petaluma (Take the E Washington Street exit off 101, head east to the big intersection at McDowell, and go straight [east] or right [south] and enter the Washington Square Shopping Center and look for Pueblo Del Sol at 235 S McDowell Bl.). We'll have a bite to eat (The food at Pueblo is delicious and you can eat a complete dinner for as little as $6, salad and beverage included!) and then we go see a movie next door at the fabulous, multi-screen Washington Square Cinemas, at which ALL movies are ALWAYS $3! Look for RJ in his BITWClub t-shirt at Pueblo between 545 and 630pm each Wednesday!

Our movie nights have been a lot of fun, and our club IS about socializing, but being in the out-of-doors is really what we're really all about. There's nothing more fun that joining the Boyz on a sunny afternoon at Golden Gate Bridge Beach in San Francisco, or Hagmire Pond in Marin, or Wohler Beach on the Russian River in Sonoma County! We've also journeyed to such picturesque locations as Cataract Falls, Bonita (Black Sands) Beach, Land's End, RCA Beach, Bass Lake, and long and lovely Limantour Beach in the Point Reyes National Seashore. Most of our venues are legally nude, but if you wanna keep your clothes on you won't feel uncomfortable...all men are welcome...we talk and laugh and relax...you'll have a great time!

Join is Sunday mornings at 11am-12pm at IHOP in San Rafael, and Wednesday evenings at 545-630pm at Pueblo Del Sol in Petaluma, and, in the meantime, "We'll see you in the Woodz!"

The following news items are taken from our weekly

Friday morning e-mails, beginning in July of 2000.

Subj: FIREWORKS and MUSIC and PARADES and CONDOMS!

Date: 06/30/2000

CLUB NEWS:

1) IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T HEARD...the Bay Area media are jumping all over the newly released statistics for new HIV infection reported in SF, which are not good. The number of new HIV infections have DOUBLED in the past year! Health officials believe that we're becoming complacent, and not viewing HIV as a death penalty. But just because you can stay alive but sick longer doesn't mean you won't die eventually...and you and your family will never pay off the medical debt you'll accrue for medicine that makes you puke all the time!

Not only are NEW INFECTIONS on the rise, surveys of those tested show that most of them became HIV+ through UNSAFE SEX. DUH! OK, so it's hard to get most other ways, guys, but I have seen lots of barebaking everywhere...in the clubs, in the bushes, and on the beach...and remember, there is one surefire way of DYING: having someone shoot a load up your ass! Just behave as if EVERYONE HAS IT, and ALWAYS USE A SKIN BEFORE YOU CUM IN!

2) Now, on a happier note, a reminder about the 3 new pages on our web site...they are:

The Boyz' GALLERY (http://members.aol.com/BITWClub/P05pix01.htm)

The Boyz' CALENDAR (http://members.aol.com/BITWClub/P07clndr.htm)

On our CALENDAR page you'll find our regular, ongoing events, and several fun events we'll be attending in the coming months, including:

the Dore Alley Fair in July,

the Russian River Jazz Festival and Folsom Street Fair in September,

the Castro Street Fair and Halloween in October, and

New Year's Eve in the Castro in December.

AND

The Boyz' PERSONALS (http://members.aol.com/BITWClub/P06prs01.htm)

They're our OWN, free, online personals! Send us the following:

A) your e-mail address,

B) your name

C) your city of residence,

D) a link to your online photo,

E) and the text of your ad...write something under each of the following headings:

"Who I Am",

"My Stats & Vitals",

"My Favorite Activities",

"What I'm Looking For", and

"Quote"

E-mail the above information to: BITWClub@aol.com, and your ad will be up shortly!

2) And the BITWClub now has T-SHIRTS!

Due to popular request, and the fact that certain members just went out and bought t-shirts and transfers so that I couldn't procrastinate any longer, we now have available a short supply of plain white crew neck t-shirts and transfers bearing the BITWClub, both yours to iron on and wear with "pride" for just $10.

E-mail your order, telling us your size and at which BITWClub event you'll be present to pick up and pay for your t-shirt and transfer ($10 cash only). Alternately, you can simply right-click the logo from our web site (http://members.aol.com/BITWClub), save it as a file, print it out, take it to Kinko's, have them make a transfer, and then iron it onto your t-shirt yourself! Simple!

3) BITWClub SB&H this Sunday: IHOP, Hagmire, MarinFairBluesFest, Fireworks

This Sunday after our IHOP brunch beginning at 11am, the Boyz will be heading off for another sunny, enjoyable afternoon in Starlight Meadow above Hagmire Pond on Highway 1 in Marin County between Olema and Bolinas (check the directions at the bottom of this e-mail under heading "H"). Afterwards we'll head back to San Rafael for a quick bite, and then over to the Marin County Fair at the Civic Center to enjoy the annual Blues Festival which concludes at 9pm with fireworks over the lake!

By the way, some of us are on a budget and have been to the fair before, so we will actually NOT PAY to go IN to the fair, we'll sit on the lawn on the other side of the island in the lagoon which hosts the Blues Festival...you can still listen to the music (even though the stage and audience are hidden in a huge tent), and you have the best possible seat for the fireworks...and all for FREE!

SO, meet us at IHOP at 11am to eat, OR at IHOP at noon to carpool, or at 130pm at Hagmire, OR at 7pm at southwestern corner of the lawn surrounding the tented island in the lake in front of the Marin County Fair! Look for me, RJ Pupkin, 40ish, balding, bearded, trim and devilishly handsome (ahem), wearing a BITWClub t-shirt and always smoking a cheap Phillies Titan cigar.

Subj: WOHLER & ZYDECO on SUNDAY...& shorter mailings!

Date: 07/07/2000

CLUB NEWS:

Our weekly mailings have become so long that they're hard to read, hard to print, and hard to store. From now on the ongoing BITWClub activities AND the other ongoing activities will be listed ONLY on our CALENDAR Page (http://members.aol.com/ bitwclub/P07clndr.htm), NOT in these weekly e-mails...don't forget that they're there! All I'll be listing in the regular e-mails will be our SB&Hike venue and weekend events...and those will be severely abbreviated...they're just taking me too long each week (4-5 hours, and I'm not making a dime on this shit, you know).

SO, from now on, the only events I'll be listing will be those that I'M planning on attending. Self-centered? Perhaps, but I founded this club so that I could make friends, not necessarily to find you all shit to do! Haha! In all seriousness, I want you to come to the events I'm attending, anyway, so, until you guys wanna pay me to do all that work every week (or thank me, at least!), I'm just listing the events the events that my friends and I are attending. JOIN US!

BITWClub SB&H this Sunday: IHOP, WOHLER, ART in SRA's Julliard PARK

This Sunday after our IHOP brunch beginning at 11am, the Boyz will be heading off for another sunny, enjoyable afternoon at WOHLER BEACH on the beautiful Russian River. It's always sunny and warm there, and nude and very cruisy! Afterwards we'll head back to SANTA ROSA to enjoy the free weekly concert at Julliard Park from 5-7pm...this week the guest musicians will be the "Cajun Coyotes", playing Louisiana dance music!

SO, meet us at IHOP at 11am to eat, OR at IHOP at noon to carpool, or at about 2pm at Wohler, OR at about 6pm at Julliard Park! Look for me, RJ Pupkin, 40ish, balding, bearded, trim and devilishly handsome (ahem), wearing a BITWClub t-shirt and always smoking a cheap Phillies Titan cigar.

Subj: BITWClub at GGBBeach after SNR IHOP brunch on 7/16

Date: 07/14/2000

CLUB NEWS:

Just a quick reminder: the BITWClub now has T-SHIRTS!

Plain white crew neck t-shirts bearing the BITWClub logo on the front, yours for just $10. E-mail your order, telling us your size and at which BITWClub event you'll be present to pick up and pay for your t-shirt ($10 cash only).

Alternately, you can simply right-click the logo from our web site (http://members.aol.com/BITWClub), save it as a file, print it out, take it to Kinko's, have them make a transfer, and then iron it onto your t-shirt yourself! Simple! And FREE!

AND, don't forget that the BITWClub will be going to the DORE "Up Your" ALLEY FAIR on Sunday, July 30th...we'll IHOP EARLY and carpool down...for more info, visit: http://FolsomStreetFair.com

C) BITWClub SB&H this Sunday: GGBB under sunny skies,

OR, under fog, the AIDS Walk Festival then STERN GROVE

This Sunday after our IHOP brunch beginning at 11am, the Boyz will be heading off for an unusual sunny, enjoyable afternoon at GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE BEACH...yes, GGBB! I know it's hard to believe, because GGBB is seemingly ALWAYS shrouded in fog, as it was when I went Tuesday, but yesterday it was sunny and warm until 730pm! And the forecast is for the clearing to the coast through Sunday.

I'm always reluctant to schedule the BITWClub hike for GGBB (for pictures and directions, visit: http://members.aol.com/rjpupkin/rjp4bech.htm) because of the fog, and, just in case it does unexpectedly fog up, we'll alternately go to the AIDS Walk festival at Sharon Meadow in Golden Gate Park, and then to the weekly FREE Stern Grove Concert at 19th @ Sloat (this Sunday featuring Cassandra Wilson).

SO, meet us at IHOP at 11am to eat, OR at IHOP at noon to carpool, or at about 1pm at Langdon Court, the parking lot in the Presidio overlooking GGBB (if there's fog, we'll go from there to GGP and then Stern Grove). Look for me, RJ Pupkin, 40ish, balding, bearded, trim and devilishly handsome (ahem), wearing a BITWClub t-shirt and always smoking a cheap Phillies Titan cigar!

Subj: SB&H venue TBD @ IHOP, Polk St Fstvl, DORE nxt wknd!

Date: 07/21/2000

CLUB NEWS:

1) Originally I announced a HIKE VENUE each month (when we were meeting monthly and bimonthly) via e-mail...when we began the weekly brunches I decided to leave it up to a vote of those present to decide where to go, based upon their whims and the weather (that was easier for me because in the Bay Area, deciding on Friday whether or not the beach will be sunny and warm on Sunday is purely a guessing game).

I received complaints from members who didn't want to join us for brunch that they'd like to know beforehand where we're going so they could A) plan ahead, and B) meet us at the venue instead of driving to the San Rafael IHOP first. Unfortunately, those who've been on the hikes since have all been to the brunch first...i.e., those who complained never showed up anyway.

Furthermore, those who regularly come to brunch complain that we should have the flexibility to decide where we're going, instead of being bound to the possibly foggy venue I had to decide on Friday in the hopes that a couple of guys are meeting us there. So, at least a couple of times, some of the Boyz have skipped the hike or gone somewhere else, and that's dopey, because the regular group that comes to the brunches each week are the ones I want to accommodate.

Therefore, I, RJPupkin, BITWClub Founder, HAVE DECIDED in all my Almighty wisdom and my dictatorial power over all 733 of you (ahem) that I will no longer announce a hike venue for Sunday on Friday. FROM NOW ON, if you want to go on the hike, meet us at IHOP at 11am to EAT or 12pm to CARPOOL...we'll decide where we're going based upon the vote of those present. In most cases, anyway! ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS, such as next week, I will announce our venue ahead of time.

2) Now, just a quick note on our BITWClub T-SHIRTS...they're ON SALE...kinda...

The plain white crew neck T-shirts bearing the BITWClub logo on the front that BITWClub members Tommy & Howard created for us were originally priced $10, reflecting their cost, but it has all come out cheaper than expected, with the T-shirts costing just $2 each, the transfers a whopping $3, and the printing about $1. Therefore, a BITWClub T-shirt can be yours for just $6! E-mail your order, telling us your size and at which BITWClub event you'll be present to pick up and pay for your T-shirt ($6 cash only).

Alternately, you can simply right-click the logo from our web site (http://members.aol.com/BITWClub), save it as a file, print it out, take it to Kinko's, have them make a transfer, and then iron it onto your T-shirt yourself! Simple! And FREE!

Subj: DORE Sunday - IHOP at 10, FREE CAMPING coming up!

Date: 07/28/2000

CLUB NEWS:

1) THIS Sunday, July 30th, is the fabulously kinky, leather fetished, incredibly fun and well-attended DORE "Up Your" ALLEY FAIR! Last year I and the other BITWClub members were the center of attraction as we sat atop and around a dumpster. Visit the following to see pictures of RJ atop his "White Trash Throne", etal, at Dore '99:

http://www.carlsmen.com/Dore99/DA99-56.jpg

http://www.carlsmen.com/Dore99/DA99-57.jpg

http://www.slip.net/~wjr/whiterats/scrapbook/dore-96.html

http://www.musclebearz.com/dore1.htm

http://www.blowbuddies.com/GDgal/gregday2.html

And visit the official site of the Dore Alley and Folsom Street Fairs:

http://www.folsomstreetfair.com

NOTE that the fair runs from 11am-6pm, so we will meet for brunch at IHOP at 10am, one hour EARLY...that way we should find parking and be at the fair by Noon. Bring warm clothes to wear over your leather bare minimum, as it is usually foggy 'til early afternoon, but when the sun comes out it beats down hot on us scantily clad fetish freaks packed into the redbrick-lined Dore Alley. You don't wanna be carrying your coat all afternoon, trust me!

After the fair we'll head down a couple of blocks to the Eagle. The weekend will be a kick, and if you're queer and kinky you don't wanna miss it! So, to reiterate briefly:

SUNDAY is DORE, meet at IHOP at 10 to EAT or 11 to CARPOOL to DORE at NOON!

Subj: Sunday: IHOP Brnch / Nike Missile Base / Bonita Nude Bch

Date: 08/04/2000

CLUB NEWS:

1) Our SB&H is a special event this Sunday, as, after our IHOP brunch at 11am, we're carpooling over to the NIKE MISSILE BASE in the Marin Headlands for their first-Sunday-of-the-month open house from 1230-330pm...it's a kick, you'll love it. The base was used during the cold war to defend the bay area, and it hosted nuclear ICBMs for a time, as well. You get to tour the base, sit where the button-pushers sat, and see how the missiles were handled and launched. It's FREE, I believe, but someone is bound to shove a coffee can in your face at some point. After we check out the base, we're off to hike down to beautiful nearby BONITA (Black Sands) BEACH, which is legally nude, very gay, and very cruisy!

2) RJ has to MISS our Tuesday evening BN@Movies THIS WEEK ONLY...gotta work! It's back on for next Tuesday, 8/15, though!

Subj: BIG WKND: Gay Canoe, RAM Bowl, Spanish Cowboys!

Date: 08/11/2000

CLUB NEWS:

1) SB&H SPECIAL EVENT: This Sunday we're going to do something really out of the ordinary for our post-brunch outing. Instead of going on a hike, we're going to journey up to the historic Victorian riverfront town of Petaluma (visit the town web site: http://www.PetalumaNet.org) and join the fun at the PETALUMA ADOBE (at 3925 Adobe Road at Casa Grande Road, east of Petaluma) as it hosts the 39th Annual LIVING HISTORY DAY!

Everything at the Adobe will be representative of the 1830s & 40s, from costumed docents to food, music, and arts and crafts of the period. $4 admission is a real bargain, and you can compete in costume contests and the world-famous Wiskerino contest for men with distinctive facial hair (RJ received an honorable mention in 1994, so you know it can't be too difficult). Brunch at IHOP at 11, meet at Noon to carpool at 1230p and arrive at 1p.

2) On top of clear skies and a full moon, this weekend we'll also have a METEOR SHOWER! This weekend our planet will pass through a stream of debris from periodic Comet Swift-Tuttle, sparking a flurry of shooting stars that will be most intense during the hours before dawn on Saturday morning, August 12th. Don't look for them before 2am...wait until the moon sets at 330am...the best viewing time is 4-6am, and be sure to find a place on top of a hill way away from city lights! For complete information visit: http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast08aug_1.htm

Subj: FREE CAMPING TONIGHT & SAT, Sunday COMEDY, etc!

Date: 08/18/2000

CLUB NEWS:

1) This weekend is a BITWClub SPECIAL FREE CAMPOUT in Olema on Highway 1 in Marin County! Join BITWClub members Howard & Tommy & RJ, et al, for a FREE CAMPOUT at the Olema Ranch Campground! Howard Hixson has kindly invited any Boyz who want to stop by or spend the night or spend the weekend...he's already generously paid for a campsite "in the back in the corner in the dark", and he has the approval of the management to have "a few friends" join him...first come first serve, though, as beggars can't be choosers (if it turns out to be a mob scene don't blame me...and remember that you are Howard's guest and HE is the BOSS).

Howard will be camping there beginning this afternoon, tonight, through Saturday, Saturday night, and then packing up in time to head to San Rafael for the SBBH at IHOP at 11am. I can't make it Friday, but am planning to be spending Saturday night with them. Look for The Boyz around the campground...Howard is a skinny 40ish white guy with a grizzly beard, Tommy is tall, thin, and handsome with long brown hair (he looks like Jesus), and RJ you can smell a mile away (cigars)! BYOEverything: sleeping bag, tent, food, firewood, marshmallows, etc....whatever you can think of to improve the quality of the Boyz' camping experience!

2) SB&H SPECIAL EVENT: This Sunday, after our camp-out is finished, we're going to do something really out of the ordinary for our post-brunch outing. Instead of going on a hike (it's gonna be foggy at the beach, anyway), we're going to the 20th ANNUAL COMEDY DAY CELEBRATION at Sharon Meadow in Golden Gate Park...4 hours of laughs by a huge, impressive slate of nationally famous stand-up comedians! Bring your lawn chairs, sun block, hats, and food...Noon-4pm, FREE, http://www.ComedyDay.com, 415-437-4999

3) This week is also MARIN PRIDE, and there are a variety of activities that I have not otherwise mentioned in this mailing because I can't make any of them (except for M2MMarin's TBIMonday), including a mixer tonight, a concert tonight, a teen dance and a seminar tomorrow, and the usual softball tournament/picnic and evening drag show on Sunday...there's also the bi-monthly TBIM at the Panama Hotel (details below listed under "MONDAY"), AND a dance party finale on Saturday, 8/26...you can learn about all these by visiting: http://www.SpectrumMarin.org and http://www.TheSlant.org

4) This weekend is also RUSSIAN RIVER CAMPOUT WEEKEND, with all sorts of gay shit to do (coupled, yuppie, and aloof, though, as usual, probably), but again, I'm not going, so this is the only place in this mailing where's it's mentioned...for info visit: http://www.GayRussianRiver.com, and RussianRiver.org, AND RussianRiver.COM.

5) Our final piece of news is the fact that THIS FRIDAY, 8/25 is the deadline for buying your tickets for the fabulous, nude, erotic BURNING MAN festival in the Nevada desert...you can buy them through Friday ONLY for just $200 online at http://www.BurningMan.com (after that you can buy them at the gate, but only through 8/31, and at a higher price each day). RJ is planning on going to Burning Man on Thursday morning, 8/31, and leaving immediately after the man burrns on Saturday night...would you like to join me? E-mail! How about a Boyz contingent?

6) There is a memorial service for relatives and friends and acquaintances of Steve Kastner, who died suddenly last week...it will be at Lone Star on Saturday at Noon.

Subj: Burning Man, Marin Pride, Russian River, NO MOVIES!

Date: 08/24/2000

CLUB NEWS:

1) I learned some bad news on Tuesday evening at Pueblo Del Sol during our BN@Movies...Pueblo proprietor Chris told me that he believes that the Washington Square Cinemas are CLOSING in the first week of September, which means NO MORE $3 MOVIES! Well, I knew it couldn't last forever...that's why I go every chance I can!

Chris said that the landlord has been pressuring HIM to close, too, or at least move over next to Supercuts between Safeway and the north corner. Pueblo Del Sol has been serving the same ample, delicious, cheap Mexican dinners in the same place since I worked there in high school in the late 1970s, and NOW the Washington Square wants to put a Staples or Office Depot or some such fucked up chain retailer in their spot!

Even BURRITOS are being GENTRIFIED! YIKES! Call Willie Brown!

SO, to make a long story even longer, Boyz Night @ the Movies is hereby DISCONTINUED! Thank you to those few who attended (I kept running it despite little response because I LOVED going for Pueblo dinner and a movie for $8...we had a lot more guys when BN@M was located more central to most of our members at Northgate Mall in San Rafael, but I can't afford $10 for friggin' pizza and $8 for a movie each week), and sorry to those who "kept meaning" to go but never got around to it.

My next thought is to try out the drive-in theater in Concord, which, according to anchor Tori Campbell of "Mornings On 2" (she's the perky strawberry blonde who could straighten out ANY gay man), allows "all you can fit in a car load for just $3.50"! Sounds like a bargain to me...and it COULD be very cruisy, if we announced it in the gay media! Just think about it: GAY MEN together in their cars at a DRIVE-IN...hell, it could be a suburban version of San Francisco's Collingwood Park! HAHA! But I'm gonna hold off on that idea that until I can get confirmation on the details.

2) REMINDER: TODAY is the LAST DAY to buy tickets for only $200 for the fabulous, nude, erotic BURNING MAN festival in the Nevada desert...you can buy them TODAY ONLY for just $200 online at http://www.BurningMan.com (after that you can buy them at the gate, but only through 8/31, and at a higher price each day).

Also, as I'M going to BURNING MAN from Thursday through Saturday, there will be no e-mail next week...I'll see you as usual at our SB&H at IHOP in San Rafael on 9/3.

The Boyz Meet Weekly!

The "BOYZ IN THE WOODZ" Online SF Bay Area Gay & Bi Men's Hiking & Social Club meets at least WEEKLY at a different time and place each week. We sometimes have brunch in the morning, spend the afternoon hiking in the woods, sunning at a clothing-optional recreation spot, or attending some fun festival, fair, or show, and then we often spend the evening together laughing and cruising at the nearest gay watering hole.  Every Thursday or Friday morning, club founder RJ Pupkin sends to the members an e-mail packed full of club news, interesting web links and resources, and a comprehensive list of fun, free, and/or gay events in the Bay Area. We are guys who get together to have FUN!

Membership costs just $20/year, and you'll receive our weekly e-mail.  Visit our club website at: BWClub.net, or, if you have questions, or would like to join the club, e-mail RJ at: RJ@BWClub.net and he'll tell you where to send your check.  Or, to use PayPal.com to pay with your credit card, debit card, or bank account, just click on this handy button: 

Would you like a BWClub T-SHIRT?  Just right-click, download, and save the logo at the top of this page, then just print it out, take it to Kinko's, have them make a transfer, and then iron it onto your t-shirt all by yourself!  Simple!  And FREE!

Wanna trade links?  Right-click the handy banner below, paste it into your website, and then e-mail RJ@BWClub.net with the address of the page; we'll do the same for you!

.

For more information, or to join the club

e-mail: RJ@BWClub.net.

Follow these links to pictures and info about our club, its history, its upcoming activities, and its members.

BWClub HOME Page

BWClub HISTORY Page * BWClub GALLERY Page

BWClub NETWORK Page * BWClub LINKS Page

BWClub PERSONALS Page * BWClub CALENDAR Page

BWClub ANTHEM Page

.

Follow THESE links to pictures and info about

BWClub Founder RJPupkin:

 RJ's Home Page * The Cigars * The Leather

The Hiking * The Beach * Other Beaches * The Activities

RJ and his Husband, Magic Juan

and

RJP: SF Virgin Queen 2000 1st Runner-Up.

And, check out:

RJPupkin's Petaluma Gay Guide.

All content, graphics and images contained throughout are property of

and Copyright (C)2003 by RJ Pupkin

and are protected by United States and International copyright laws.

No text, graphic, or image may be used, in whole or in part, individually,

or as part of a derivative work, without express written permission.

All photographs contained herein depict consenting adults over 18.