Spring Council/Counsel/Circle

Updated June 13 at 11:55 a.m. Eastern Time

Spring council is over and seed camp has started. For directions to the gathering, click here.

Spring Council/Counsel/Circle (spring ccc)is where the site for the 2018 gathering will be determined and gathering layout begins. There may be travel to see sites the scouts propose, lots of walking, discussion and/or consensus. All are welcome to participate in the process.

However, if you come, please be self sufficient. Bring clothes for warm, wet and cold weather, good boots/shoes. Water and Food to share, shelter (tent, sleeping bag, etc) your own cup bowl spoon, all the stuff you'd need for gathering & a sense of humor. 

Spring ccc is usually but not always in the area of where people who have been scouting feel the best sites are located. As information on spring ccc unfolds, I will update this post with the area and then eventually the exact directions.

As a refresher, the purpose of spring ccc is to determine where home is. The individuals who have been out to the potential sites will have information to share about the site(s) they found and the family on the land at spring ccc will have to reach consensus by silence or by foot on where we will be. 

Please be advised that from spring ccc, the gathering moves into Seed Camp.  Folks at seed camp find and develop water sources,set up the first kitchen and dig the first latrines, locate and mark out the parking lot, lay out trails and remove obstructions, locate Main Circle and dig the fire pit, and set up a welcoming entrance to the gathering.

This is a time when you can work intensely with a few other people and form some deep friendships.

From this seed grows the flower of our Gathering.

Just an FYI, early in the gathering is when law enforcement presence can be the most intense as ratio of cops to gatherers may be high. 


This is a great time to form relationships with the USFS resource personnel and set up a process by which the USFS personnel can meet with gatherers on-the-land to discuss issues of mutual concern. Some time the discussion of the operating plan starts at spring ccc and then continues into seed camp.  Having a  specific location and time for regular circles with the USFS is a really good strategy as then everyone in camp knows where/when to be if they want to meet or not meet with the forest service. It takes many voices to do this work.  If you are not sure what an operating plan is, check out the collection of past operating plans on-line.

For more information on how home is found, click here.

Spring ccc location:

The council will take place in southwestern North Carolina,  just north of Georgia. The location is in the Nantahala National Forest on Buck Creek Road, which is approximately 19 miles southwest from Franklin, North Carolina on Hwy 64 or approximately 18 miles northeast from Hayesville, North Carolina on Hwy 64.  You can google map Buck Creek Road or use these coordinates 35.076624, -83.610653



Buses are encouraged to park on the "wings" an abandoned section of 64 that provides an easy pull thru.  And for them to shuttle in to the right fork dead end road Forest Service Road 350-A past left fork Perry Gap/Forest Service Road 350.  Additional information may be available on the  Atlanta Lightline 770-662-6112.