granola munching hippies unite! (actually I prefer whole oats, but...)
I didn't attend Reed but several of my close friends have, and I've hung out on the campus quite a bit. So here's my two cents: Reed is an intense place any way you look at it. Academically it's simply nuts; your classwork will be as hard, or harder, than at any college or university in the world. I've heard some gnarly stats about how many students take a year off after their freshman year at Reed. You cannot underestimate how intense the academic environment there is.
Consequently, people at Reed are usually a bit off the deep end- intellectually, artistically, and of course in terms of drugs. Everybody's brilliant, most people are very interesting, but for me there has always been a holy-than-thou vibe in the air at Reed; a lot of self-consciousness and self-centeredness; a lot of veiled snootiness; etc. As a self-described "hippie" you might be surprised that you probably wouldn't fit in at Reed as well as one would think, as the trend there is predominantly "hipster": fashion obsessiveness (of course, with an affected air of total nonchalance), cigarettes and worst of all, a blasé, "post-everything" attitude. (That last one I picked up straight out of the Reed newspaper.)
I don't mean to burst your bubble; Reed is an absolutely amazing place for people who feel comfortable there, but it's definitely not for everybody. I highly recommend that you visit and check it out for yourself!
On the good side: they do have a nice ski cabin in Govy that you can stay at whenever you want! (I've crashed it before pretending to be a Reedie.)