When to arrive

[Eric]

It's like turning google up to 11, isn't it?

[DerbyDave 18]

I think I'm getting used to how it is here. Take Maladroit for instance. I would have let his comment hurt my feelings but now I can just say fuck him, he doesn't know how much work and research I've put into this. Yes, I can definitely be oversensitive in new or unknown situations and I'm working on that. I will though stand up to anyone who says I'm not doing my research and work well enough for this. Just because I ask a lot of questions and I may miss some things that have been said doesn't mean I'm slacking off. I know absolutely nothing about camping or dealing with things in the outdoors. I'm a total city guy doing something i've never done before and basically doing it alone so yeah, I'm freaking out some. In spite of that I do think this is going to be the best experience of my life.

[maladroit]

Fuck you too, buddy....fuck you too



Seeing them grow up and leave the nest ::sniffle::

[tamarakay]

Good for you! Really! Now, you might want to take a trial run at camping. Find a local state or national park, pitch your tent, cook on a stove and live out of your cooler. Kinda test the waters and see what you need to tweak.

Maladroit, kinda chokes me up too.

[FIGJAM]

Practice breeds confidence!!!!

[Zubeneschamali]

Derby Dave,

Traffic is a bitch. 447 is full of fucking asshats driving slow RV's with trailers, and douchetards in Hondas passing them on hills. I'm one of those fucking asshats.

Gate road is a mind fuck. Last year it took me 8 hours for the 360 miles from the Bay Area to Gerlach. And 7 hours for the 20 miles from Gerlach to my camp.

I'm also an impatient fuck but you gotta find your happy place. Otherwise you're fucked. So get there when you get there and recognize you are on a journey. The destination is at home a week later.

[ygmir]

Practice breeds confidence!!!!

confidently, practice breeding.......I see what you did.

[mooserider]

Good for you! Really! Now, you might want to take a trial run at camping. Find a local state or national park, pitch your tent, cook on a stove and live out of your cooler. Kinda test the waters and see what you need to tweak.

Dave,

Tamara's suggestion to do a trial run before the big event is spot-on. If you've never camped away from utility services (water, electricity, Internet, etc.), you should try it first while you're still close enough to civilization to fix any problems. Although I'm a Burning Man virgin, too, I just came back from probably my 30th trip into the Canadian wilderness (nearest village 40 miles away, cellphone service quit 35 miles before camp, etc.). I have checklists pages long of all the supplies to bring and systems to test, because it's a real hassle when you find you forgot something and it's 5 hours each way to go get it. And I still use the checklists after all these years, because I don't want to count on my fallible memory before I get out there. Heck, any time my father had any major work done on his travel trailer or motor home, he did a nearby test trip before the main trip for a system test (just in case).

Things that might happen in camp (but definitely not all-inclusive) could be:

1. Your cooler isn't good enough quality and all your food warms up, or the cooler drain leaks and soaks your stuff (some klutz soaked my sleeping bag one year).
2. Your stove doesn't work, or the fuel tank leaked and let out most or all of the gas before you got to camp.
3. You forgot some important kitchen utensil like a kitchen knife, tongs (long enough so you don't burn your hand in the fire), matches (to light the stove or fire), or a cutting board.
4. Your air mattress isn't thick enough to keep the rocks out of your back while sleeping.
5. You forgot to pack a pillow (I actually did this once; very uncomfortable sleeping).
6. You get a flat tire.
7. You forgot to store your food properly and a bear smells it and comes wandering into camp to eat it (maybe not at Burning Man, but there's plenty of sparkle ponies to replace the bears).
8. It rains, you didn't properly set up drainage around your tent, and now you have an indoor swimming pool (I got assigned a lousy camping spot in a hollow once, and exactly this happened).

Seriously, go get a copy of the Boy Scout handbook and the Camping merit badge book. They summarize all the important points.

Good luck learning the ways of the wild. And read Patrick McManus (the humor columnist for Field & Stream magazine).

Andrew

[Zubeneschamali]

Wholeheartedly agreed on field testing and practice. I do dry runs in the backyard too. Really helpful after a major reorg, like a kitchen reconfiguration or adding a new component to the mix. Set up your tent and unpack your things inside and sleep in it a night. Cook your meals for a day and eat in your camp. Hop on your bike and go to the store to grab a bag of ice. These are the things you'll be doing every day on the playa so get to know your gear and how to efficiently run your camp. You'll find you are missing the simple things, a hammer, a bikelock, a pillow, or salt. Adapt and make corrections, pack it up, repeat.

It also allows a longer test period as you can set up and leave it up for a week +. Something like a shade structure shouldn't be unpacked the first time on the playa. You need to know how it works and the weak points (Everything has a weak point). Get that shade structure up and give it a stress test. Create a weak area and attack it over a period of time. What does it do to the rest of the system and what can you do to make it better?

Testing in a closed environment won't guarantee success but it will help you to develop a system of checkpoints and redundancy. Shit is going to fail on the playa, but it doesn't have to ruin your trip.