Mud, Mud and More Muds - share stories!

some seeing eye · Post by **some seeing eye** » Mon Aug 25, 2014 11:41 am

I am not there, so I think it is the best ever!

Some finest and intense memories was a rainstorm there, a yummy experience at the Petting Zoo, a mysterious and secretive theme camp with a huge tent structure and a changing room from boots to barefoot, playa mud platform boots and carrying my bike after the wheel jammed up with mud rolling. Wouldn't exchange for anything.

Someday this will happen at exodus, all global weirding and all.

What's your story?

vaktel · Post by **vaktel** » Mon Aug 25, 2014 5:56 pm

it was my first burn and on our first full day, it rained hard. i tried to walk and ended up with these crazy playa platform boots. i befriended a couple half-naked guys who were absolutely hilarious and a thrill. there was a double rainbow. i was grinning like a fool for hours. i tried to bike, with little success, and instead took to jumping around joyously shouting. and then, when the weather cleared a bit, some friends rolled in and we clung to each other like maniacs. welcome to the playa. (this is the first year i'm not there, since then, and it's killing me a little bit BUT ALSO making me stronger and extremely excited for next year when i get married on the playa.)

FIGJAM · Post by **FIGJAM** » Tue Sep 02, 2014 2:24 pm

Woke up to hail on Monday morning and the rain wouldn't let up most of the day.

Post by **AntiM** » Tue Sep 02, 2014 2:33 pm

I awoke to the sound of thunder, thought it was an art car sound effect. Hell no. we jumped up, set the rain walls and grabbed all the stuff which could get wet in the shade area, and tossed things under the carports. It rained long, hard and early; we huddled in camp around the stove, making hot coffee and sweet rolls, ducking when the thunder and lightning went off overhead. One side of our camp was isolated from the other, even the few steps over created playa platforms. The rain stopped just in time to dry up a tick, so I could go to the meeting several blocks away. I had to hop from one dry spot to the next. I had so wanted to ride my shiny new trike.

Huzzah for bucket potties.

VultureChow · Post by **VultureChow** » Tue Sep 02, 2014 3:00 pm

Thought the thunder was fly overs from Fallon NAS. Threw everything under the monkey hut and then sat on the porch and enjoyed the show. Duct taped someone's garbage bag gaiters for them. Some hot man action got going when a pool float was brought out and a parade of men in their underwear went sliding down our street. Shared my hut and food with a random guy in that last strong downpour.

And then I provided my own amusement for the camp. I very gently fell on a slick canvas tarp and tit-planted in front of Doc and the rest of camp. Left two perfect mud boobs on the front of my shirt which I refused to change for the rest of the day.

pink · Post by **pink** » Tue Sep 02, 2014 10:20 pm

We were trying to get the rain off the roof since it was threatening to tear the tarps (just how much weight can bungee balls take?) devised a method where with a carefully placed bucket & a broom we could get most of the water on each 10' square into the bucket; each square had about 4 gallons of water on it. We got all the way around the shade structure when it started raining again, & we were back to square 1 which again had about 4 gallons of water. Lascivious decided to just dump it, damn the buckets.

I never thought the dungeon would dry out. What a year to invest in nice rugs & big pillows in honor of canvasary?! Dry by the next day.....except under the floor tarps. The playa was still wet when we pulled up some of them today.

VultureChow · Post by **VultureChow** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 8:31 am

Well the dungeon was looking tiptop on Tuesday.

Thanks, Pink, for your hospitality and for letting me earn my certification. It's a great icebreaker.

Just_Joe · Post by **Just_Joe** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 9:44 am

I took four trips to the playa this year and was rained on at three of them.

chuckularone · Post by **chuckularone** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 11:28 am

Woke up at 04:45 by the patter of rain on the monkey hut. I got up and wandered out. It had just been a drizzle. I headed out on foot, toward the temple with my camera. Just as I arrived it started to rain again... HARD. I made my way slowly back to the 2 o'clock side of the city. I was working my way up D in the now drizzle.

Then the hail started.

I took refuge in the side of an open sided mutant vehicle and watched the hail fall. An F350 pulling a trailer violating the "Shelter in place" order came flying up D. He looked to be doing ~ 25 MPH. in about 50 feet there was so much goopy playa mud up under his wheel wells that he got well and truly stuck. The driver got out of the truck and started kicking at the fenders, wheels and mud. I couldn't help but laugh.

The hail stopped. The rain let up.

I walked back toward camp. At around 4 and E I saw two girls trying to ride their bikes. One gave up and locked hers to a post on the side of the road while her friend road on. After another 75-100 feet he wheels were so mucked up she had to stop. In the end she dragged her bike along the ground holding it by the front wheel and walking backwards.

Several times I had to stop to reduce the height of my platform shoes, but eventually I made it back to camp.

nilasnake · Post by **nilasnake** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 11:34 am

we created more 'characters' for sideshow by having a short ceramics class. we now had the first playa mud corndog, a shrunken head, a snowman, a playa bagel, a playa map, and more. THEN as people started leaving sunday/Monday, I scooped up chunks of dried mud to hand out at the 'black rock city gift shop' get your free souvenir here! grind it up this winter and relive the playa! it will easily pass TSA" ( I hope). hahaha, we gave away around 40 chunks!!!!!

Canoe · Post by **Canoe** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 12:47 pm

chuckularone wrote:..the temple with my camera.
...so much goopy playa mud up under his wheel wells that he got well and truly stuck.
...two girls trying to ride their bikes....wheels were so mucked up she had to stop...she dragged her bike along the ground
...had to stop to reduce the height of my platform shoes..

wow
photos?

Papa Bear · Post by **Papa Bear** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 1:31 pm

My wife and I got a lot of attention Monday morning walking to the portapotties. We had on our bright yellow $9 harbor freight rain suits, muck boots, and a trash bag over each foot to avoid the notorious playa platforms (works really well, by the way). Walking just from our camp (Astral Headwash) at 4:25 & E to the potties at 4:30 & D, we were videotaped by at least 3 different people, stopped for an interview, and had a handful of other folks come out to take pictures. I've never gotten so much attention for a "costume" in my life.

Monday was also my day to run the head washing. We'd only gotten one evap pond set up on Sunday (the rain thwarted setup plans for the second Monday morning) so we only had three working stations, the city seemed frozen, and we were all just hanging out in the back chatting. Shortly before our normal noon opening time, I remarked that we'd probably only see a handful of people, all of whom would be neighbors, but vowed that if somebody actually did trudge all the way in from 7 or 8 or farther to find us, I'd make sure we took care of them even if it was outside normal hours.

So not 5 minutes later, our first "customers" show up - three people who had been mud wrestling over at 7:00 and A and slogged on foot all the way over to us. They were nearly naked, caked head to toe in mud, chilled to the bone, and their requests for cleanup help had apparently been turned down flat by 4 or 5 different shower or misting camps before they stumbled on us (though some kind soul had at least let them use clean rainwater that had collected on a tarp to get some of the mud off).

True to my word, we took care of them - though we did have to put a 5 gallon bucket in the washing basin so that all that mud didn't permanently clog our drains. I'm glad we did. Despite being in serious need, they were all wonderfully positive about the whole experience, didn't act at all entitled, and provided a great start to the week.

My campmates will never let me live those words down, though.

maladroit · Post by **maladroit** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 5:33 pm

I spent about 20 hours on Gate Road after driving 18 hours to get there, so the mud was not silly or fun. I had to laugh when using the porta potty, standing on a foot of mud that had collected inside and preventing the door from closing. The door blew open and I was subjected to only the highest quality of heckling I've come to expect from you bastards.

Karma · Post by **Karma** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 6:17 am

We spent 24 or so hours in gate line. we were only about 200 yds from gate when the Thunder and lightning started and I knew what was coming next. I pulled out a roll of large contractor trash bags and some gorilla tape and started offering it to cars with exposed luggage on the roof of their cars. most ppl declined thinking it wasn't going to rain or that we were almost in and if it did rain, things would dry out once inside. I tried to explain at that point what would happen if it did rain. That no one would be going anywhere anytime soon as they would close the gate until the Playa dried out from under our feet. Many ppl didn't believe that either. They somehow believed that if they shut the gate they would turn us back to the asphalt and wait it out in Gerlach or Empire. It got a bit comical. The rains came, the gates were closed and there began our 24 or so hours of sitting. To be honest, though I would've rather been inside, if you trap thousands of Burners in a small space and tell them they cant move, theyre gonna do what you would expect. Random partys started breaking out all up and down the lanes. Ez ups went up, chairs came out, DJs started setting up their rigs on top of RVs and buses and everyone started socializing. It was hardest on ppl who had no real food supplies on them because theyre camp inside had transported it all for them. So Monday morning I went into the toy hauler (did I mention we had a 27' toy hauler with $1400.oo of food and drink inside) fired up the stove and started making quesadillas and passing them out to all the ppl around us. It was pretty fun walking up to a car and handing them a hot buttery cheese quesadilla out of the blue.

The sun started to come out around noon and by 4, rumors started circulating that they were gonna open the gates between 6 and 8pm IF no more rain fell. The Playa was drying out nicely around us and around 7pm, a ranger started walking thru the line telling everyone to clean up and get ready to move. This was about the time we noticed the massive will call line was starting to move pretty quickly. A cheer went thru the crowd as RVs at the front of the line started to move and we were at Gate in about 30 min.
They're intent was obviously to get ppl OFF gate road and in the city asap. This was most obvious in the fact they they were doing NO vehicle or RV searches. Scan the ticked, scan the vehicle pass and Go.

Got to our camp and met all our friends who were stuck in tents for a day (I carry all the main camp infrastructure in my toy hauler), drank beers and decided to wait til morning to set up camp. Shade, tables and chairs were up in a couple hours and our (now shortened) week in BRC began.

And our time on gate road became just another "this one time at Burning Man story".

tamarakay · Post by **tamarakay** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 7:12 am

We had a great road on 630 before the rain. Hard packed, easy to bike, walk etc. after the rain and all those people who walked around the road was a solid mass of bumps.

Please people if you must walk in the mud, put plastic bags on your feet. With the plastic you sorta slide on top and you don't screw up the roads for everyone else. Empty ice bags work great.

And yes antim, bucket toilets for the win.

lucky420 · Post by **lucky420** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 9:16 am

tamarakay wrote:We had a great road on 630 before the rain. Hard packed, easy to bike, walk etc. after the rain and all those people who walked around the road was a solid mass of bumps.

Please people if you must walk in the mud, put plastic bags on your feet. With the plastic you sorta slide on top and you don't screw up the roads for everyone else. Empty ice bags work great.

And yes antim, bucket toilets for the win.

Yes we had a cobblestone road the rest of the week

Elorrum · Post by **Elorrum** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 9:27 am

This rain caused me to try the tent pee bottle for the first time. I woke up, decided to keep sleeping. If it was going to stay dry, no problem. If it was going to get wet, so be it. Then, what to do about the potty issue. I had an empty two liter water bottle and a pocket knife. made do. Revelation. Getting dressed and ready to go in the morning without that urgency to get out quickly was a welcome new wrinkle.

Then the 12 feet to the shade shelter, and the mud just started getting everywhere. Next year, plastic bags, or a roll up runner to create a gangplank over the mud. Having a puddle to sort of try and get the mud off, didn't even start to remove the huge amount of mud a few steps will accumulate. I might make a shoe scraper for coming into the shade shelter for next year just in case.

FIGJAM · Post by **FIGJAM** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 1:36 pm

I bring a rake in case I need to smooth some playa.

This year it made a handy portable shoe scraper.

Holding the handle for balance and scraping my shoes on the brackets that support the tines.

Oh, and it was good for "raking" the ponds off the shade tarps!!!

spacetime · Post by **spacetime** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 8:48 am

NBD, but should be under 2014 Stories forum? Anywhoo, here's my experience.

I rode in Sunday evening late and setup my tent and shade from about 11pm-1:30am. After, I took a hike to PBR and back (attempting to retrieve my bike) and felt foolish wasting good sleeping time as they were zonked out by then.

I woke up from the thunder and rain when it started, I estimate this was around 4am. I woke up with a major start and immediately reached up and touched the top of my tent to see if it was soaked. It was not. Then I felt around the sides of my tent, they were dry. Then I wanted to get out of my tent and inspect my setup again to see if it was holding up.

I unzipped just a bit of one of the window covers and saw immediately there was no practical way to get out there without getting soaked and standing in serious mud. (I was essentially in pajamas in my sleeping bag). I went back to bed and was woken about 3 more times over the course of the storm. Each time I leapt into action mode, my heart rate up and wanting to fight the weather. Each time I talked myself down.

When things finally settled down, I got out and inspected my setup and the surrounding area.

These photos were taken between 6 and 6:15 on i at 10am:
Here you can see camp Boush on the right (looking toward 6)

And here is toward 6:15. You can see Pope's tent in the distance. (opposite direction)

Note how empty the area was. This meant (at least our area) of the city was pretty lightly inhabited all day Monday and still even through Tuesday and early Wednesday.

I asked one of the Red Dave Larry guys if I could get a photo of his shoes:

These four guys were carrying an otherwise useless cart across the city. (10:50am)

Some folks came by in these wrapped shoes, which turned out to be _the_ way to get around in after rain conditions:

Here's my camp at 1:30pm, you can see how much water pooled off the corner of my tarp as there is still a puddle.

And an obligatory photo of my boot caked in mud. I was randomly offered a boot cleaning by a guy and his pal who had a big spoon and a sharp wit for gifting

I have a little bit of video of the rain through my mesh window around 9:30am if anyone is very interested. All images here are available in high resolution, just remove the final "l" from the file name. License is Creative Commons sharealike noncommercial attribution to Spacetime.

It was quite an experience for the first morning of my first day at Burning Man.

some seeing eye · Post by **some seeing eye** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 10:04 am

Great photographs, Spacetime!

Post by **AntiM** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 11:57 am

A River Runs Through It.

Post by **trilobyte** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 1:23 pm

I'm giving this a nudge over to the 2014 Stories board - now that we've got that place, it seems like a better fit.

I've not yet had a chance to go through my pics, but in theory I've got a great one of the totally free pair of playa platforms I got this year. Burning Man 2014 was filled with added value like that!

Fortunately our camp was 95% done when the rain came in, and all my electrical cord connections were already up off the ground. Other than periodically rolling the water off the flat-roofed tarps during the squalls, we were fine.

I had a great conversation (and a bit of people-watching) with a friend on Monday about the various ways people were dealing with the mud. Barefoot, sandals/flip-flops, boots, wearing a bag, bag on shoes, etc... All were fun to watch, I don't know that there was any clear "best" way. I chose to take my mantra of "embrace the playa" to mean exactly that... even when it's muddy. So I wound up with awesome platforms, and then later used a tent stake to chip it off.

If you've not seen David C Hill's Burning Man is Closed - check it out...

Part 1

[media]

Part 2

[media]

lucky420 · Post by **lucky420** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 1:28 pm

spacetime wrote:NBD, but should be under 2014 Stories forum? Anywhoo, here's my experience.

I rode in Sunday evening late and setup my tent and shade from about 11pm-1:30am. After, I took a hike to PBR and back (attempting to retrieve my bike) and felt foolish wasting good sleeping time as they were zonked out by then.

I woke up from the thunder and rain when it started, I estimate this was around 4am. I woke up with a major start and immediately reached up and touched the top of my tent to see if it was soaked. It was not. Then I felt around the sides of my tent, they were dry. Then I wanted to get out of my tent and inspect my setup again to see if it was holding up.

I unzipped just a bit of one of the window covers and saw immediately there was no practical way to get out there without getting soaked and standing in serious mud. (I was essentially in pajamas in my sleeping bag). I went back to bed and was woken about 3 more times over the course of the storm. Each time I leapt into action mode, my heart rate up and wanting to fight the weather. Each time I talked myself down.

When things finally settled down, I got out and inspected my setup and the surrounding area.

These photos were taken between 6 and 6:15 on i at 10am:
Here you can see camp Boush on the right (looking toward 6)

And here is toward 6:15. You can see Pope's tent in the distance. (opposite direction)

Note how empty the area was. This meant (at least our area) of the city was pretty lightly inhabited all day Monday and still even through Tuesday and early Wednesday.

I asked one of the Red Dave Larry guys if I could get a photo of his shoes:

These four guys were carrying an otherwise useless cart across the city. (10:50am)

Some folks came by in these wrapped shoes, which turned out to be _the_ way to get around in after rain conditions:

Here's my camp at 1:30pm, you can see how much water pooled off the corner of my tarp as there is still a puddle.

And an obligatory photo of my boot caked in mud. I was randomly offered a boot cleaning by a guy and his pal who had a big spoon and a sharp wit for gifting

I have a little bit of video of the rain through my mesh window around 9:30am if anyone is very interested. All images here are available in high resolution, just remove the final "l" from the file name. License is Creative Commons sharealike noncommercial attribution to Spacetime.

It was quite an experience for the first morning of my first day at Burning Man.

Boot scraper spoon guy & his lady came by our camp too. He scraped my birks! Was a sweetheart and a good gesture!

Post by **trilobyte** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 2:49 pm

Here's that pic I snapped... free playa platforms!

pink · Post by **pink** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 7:05 pm

Wow, videos that didn't feature even one dance camp or party barge! I like it.

Jovankat · Post by **Jovankat** » Tue Sep 09, 2014 3:57 pm

One of the girls in my camp went barefoot and her boyfriend scraped the muck off for her with a knife after. The rest of us we're sure if we should laugh at or feel uncomfortable at watching was was a very delicate, intimate and perhaps slightly sexual procedure.

Drawingablank · Post by **Drawingablank** » Tue Sep 09, 2014 4:17 pm

When leaving Tuesday I noticed at least one intact mud sculpture and several broken ones on gate road. Sorry I couldn't get a photo of it. I assume that they were made during the shut down.

Jovankat · Post by **Jovankat** » Tue Sep 09, 2014 4:19 pm

Oh I saw that too! It was kinda creepy but impressive too.

oscillator · Post by **oscillator** » Tue Sep 09, 2014 10:15 pm

Spent Monday AM in Tarp Jail.

-OSC

Molotov · Post by **Molotov** » Tue Sep 09, 2014 11:11 pm

I had a group meeting at ESD Station 3 to attend, so I squished in my Crocs from the trailer to the truck and dug out my firefighter gear-got out my fire boots and slogged my way down D to Station 3. I got a lot of envious looks and comments at my fine yellow striped boots-like I knew it was going to rain or something. I told them "No, it's just part of my required gear."

As it turned out-the group meting was canceled and I never got the word. So I slogged back to camp, ditched the now-heavy boots into the back of the truck and changed back to Crocs and settled in for some chilling with my campmates under the shelter. The mud on the boots dried after about 24 hrs. and I was able to scrape/beat the accumulation away on the bumper of my truck the next day.

If you have room, I recommend everybody pack a pair of rubber muck boots for just this eventuality.

Mud, Mud and More Muds - share stories!

Mud, Mud and More Muds - share stories!

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Re: Mud, Mud and More Muds - share stories!

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Re: Mud, Mud and More Muds - share stories!

Re: Mud, Mud and More Muds - share stories!

Re: Mud, Mud and More Muds - share stories!

Re: Mud, Mud and More Muds - share stories!

Re: Mud, Mud and More Muds - share stories!

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