Eclipse at Burning Man

In the month leading up to Burning Man I was excited yet a bit concerned about getting everything we needed to survive comfortably for a week in the desert. I'd already been living out of my Saturn for over a month and there wasn't all that much extra space for Ju-Hui, her gear and a week's worth of food and water for both of us. I tried to find someone online who could haul in water and a pair of bikes for us but none of the leads panned out. Eventually I gave up on the idea of bikes and resigned myself to leaving Burning Man mid-week to restock on water.

We stopped at one of the recommended water sellers in Reno on the way to BM. We started stuffing gallon jugs into nooks and crannies until, much to my suprise we got up to 22 gallons. At 1.5 gallons per person per day, we had the water thing covered. The Saturn was working hard under the load of all our gear, but didn't let us down. We just had to save A/C for when we happened to be going downhill.

After Reno we drove another two hours North, passing only a few very small towns. Some residents in the last town (ten or so miles short of the event) had a trailer full of used bikes left over after last year. What a good idea! For $70 we picked up both Ed and Ju-Hui sized bikes...now how to get them inside? I scribbled out a homemade sign and held it up for the incoming parade of Burners but after fifteen minutes and scores of vehicles, no luck. Ju-Hui took the sign from me and in about a minute had landed a nice couple with a big trailer who agreed to haul in our bikes. And that's how we met Watermelon and Cherubic.

Travelling always takes longer than one expects and by the time we dealt with traffic and got our tickets at Will Call it was nighttime. We wanted to set up camp somewhat close to where Watermelon and Cherubic said they'd be so we could retrieve our bikes, yet far enough away so as to be in a relatively quite section of the newly minted Black Rock City. Between the darkness, chaos and people trying to reserve vast tracts of land with a single traffic pylon, it took us a while to find a place to call home. Soon enough, though, we had our rebar-staked tent pitched and ventured out into the world.

Black Rock City is organized in a circular grid with the Man in the center. (PDF map) Radial streets go from 2:00 to 10:00 at :30 increments and cross streets go up alphabetically the further from the Man you get. Our home was at 8:40 between G(rassland) and H(abitat). Between 10:00 and 2:00 is the open playa, home to various large and small art installations as well as touring art cars just about anything you can imagine.

On our way out to the playa we met a camp of Hari Krishnas who were laying out lumber for a huge human powered cart they were building. They told us about its religious significance to them and how much they really identify with the idea of Burning Man. We intended to come back and help them build it but never made it back there. Between the heat, chaos and occasional sandstorms, things fall through the cracks for everyone at BM.

Continuing on to the playa we just walked around and soaked in as much as we could, noting places to come back to during the daytime. Around 2 AM, thousands of people stopped what they were doing to applaud a total lunar eclipse of a full moon. Some even shot of fireworks. On our way back we stopped by W&C's place and got our bikes. Just as we're drifting off to sleep we hear some people exclaim, "The Man is Burning!" but we were too tired to take them seriously.