Carry everything for the week on the Burner Express Bus?

[paul_bennett]

Hello there people!

I'm wondering if it is possible to carry all your stuff for the week on the bus (including tent, food, bike, clothes, water, lights and few extras).

Has anyone here done that? - carry ALL your things, with your own hands, without depending on anyone else or any other resource but the Burner Express Bus itself?

[Chowski]

Someone on here already posted a really long and detailed explanation of how to do this. using google, search for "eplaya Burner Express"

[paul_bennett]

Someone on here already posted a really long and detailed explanation of how to do this. using google, search for "eplaya Burner Express"

Thanks! After a better search (shame on me), I found out that it is possible for one human to bring (alone) enough for one week, including a bike and a tent BUT:

- No way to deal with gray water (so, only tooth brush and wet wipes).
- No large cooler, maybe a small bag cooler.
- Very limited clothes, all will end up dirty.
- You may have to walk a lot.
- You may have deal with Taxi/Hotel in Reno or San Francisco.
- You're going to have to bring your trash back with you.
- No way to bring art to the Playa. Unless it's really small.

If anyone wants to see the beautiful post from the user spacetime from 2014 (with good pictures included!) you can reach:
viewtopic.php?t=71830#p1043968

[sadie]

We all have to bring our trash back with us. A good way to deal with it is to unwrap,
unbox, and get rid of the extra packaging before you pack it.
I believe they added a bike shuttle for burner express riders. The bikes follow the bus
in a box truck.

[Popeye]

As others have said, you can do it.
You will be able to bring everything you need, but, depending on how needie you are you can't bring everything you want. I know, this will be my fifth year on the bus, camping solo with bike, tent, shade, whatever. It just takes planning and forethought. Of course you need to buy extra baggage and bike space or make arrangements with one of the bike camps to borrow one. (Thanks Eliot ) I can get everything in three extra large bags.
Large cooler is ok. If it fits on an airplane it will fit on the bus.
What do you need clothes for? Unless it rains of course.
If you are spending time in Reno you need a hotel anyway. Use the hotel limo and tip the Bellman early. Reno cabs are pretty small and may not take all your stuff.
You're alone so won't generate much gray water. A towel in a bucket to absorb the water and hang the towel up on your shade. Don't cook anything that requires water to be tossed.
You're right about large art. If you are bringing large art you need a large art truck. And probably some other artists.

It's Burning Man. No hotels no Sherpa's.

[Chowski]

If it helps, there are several large, established camps which give out free clothing/costuming. I donate a large bag of things I don't use anymore every year. One could, in theory, pack bare essentials (socks, pants, shorts, a coat a few tank tops) and then go to one of these camps and get some costumy pieces to add to what you have. My first burn, I met a friend who had only one pair of pants, one shirt, a hat, a sheet he used as a cape, and a blazer for nighttime. He not only survived, he had the burn of his life. While it is not realistic to rely on others to provide for you, you can confidently pack very little and scavenge an amazing wardrobe once you get there.

[Kelsier]

If it helps, there are several large, established camps which give out free clothing/costuming. I donate a large bag of things I don't use anymore every year...

May I ask which camp you donate your old clothes to? I would very much like to riffle through your things.

[Ratty]

And now you can buy your water in advance and pick it up on the playa. (Only for burner bus riders.) You just bring collapsible water holders.

Kostume Kult will take your old costumes. Black Rock boutique may or may not want them. Plus about 100 other small costume stops.

[VultureChow]

-Big cooler can be a piece of luggage.
-Giant ziploc baggies are your friend if you want to save a set of dust free clothes for the flight home (don't wear on the bus, change in airport or hotel). Yes, all your other clothes will be filthy. The instagram posts of clean burners are fake.
Also, lots of us bring a bunch of clothes only to wear the same skirt for 5 days straight
-Hotels in reno are cheap.
-Small art is the best art. Also wall hangings fold up nicely. You shade can be your art

[BBadger]

- No way to deal with gray water (so, only tooth brush and wet wipes).
- No large cooler, maybe a small bag cooler.
- Very limited clothes, all will end up dirty.
- You may have to walk a lot.
- You may have deal with Taxi/Hotel in Reno or San Francisco.
- You're going to have to bring your trash back with you.
- No way to bring art to the Playa. Unless it's really small.

I really don't know what you expect, man. You're a passenger on a fucking bus. This is really uncharted territory for this event. People really aren't supposed to attend in this manner. Normally, people drive motor vehicles to this event with all their stuff, not hop on a bus with their roller bag in the overhead bin and one personal item you can fit under the seat in front of you. I'm surprised they even have room for your bike or something like a cooler.

If you want to bring more costume changes, a shower, an evapotron, a monkey hut, large steel art sculptures, mutant vehicles, etc. you're probably going to have to drive your own stuff in or pay someone at a camp to do it for you. The Burner Express is essentially for people who have their accommodations already planned out for them, and who aren't expecting to bring much materiel of their own.

And yeah, you have to bring your trash back out, and you may have to walk a bit. Deal with it.

[maladroit]

My suggestion is to use UberPool from Reno to get to your camp rather than UberX. Sure, you might have to share the car with someone, but often they never even pick someone else up. and it'll save you some cash.

[dragonpilot]

If it helps, there are several large, established camps which give out free clothing/costuming. I donate a large bag of things I don't use anymore every year...

May I ask which camp you donate your old clothes to? I would very much like to riffle through your things.

Several places at BRC offer donated/scrounged clothing: Black Rock Boutique, Kostume Kloset, Sex Filth Avenue, and...someone else chime in here....

Not sure at this early date of any or all of these will be on the playa for 2017, so ask around when you get there.

[Kelsier]

If it helps, there are several large, established camps which give out free clothing/costuming. I donate a large bag of things I don't use anymore every year...

May I ask which camp you donate your old clothes to? I would very much like to riffle through your things.

Several places at BRC offer donated/scrounged clothing: Black Rock Boutique, Kostume Kloset, Sex Filth Avenue, and...someone else chime in here....

Not sure at this early date of any or all of these will be on the playa for 2017, so ask around when you get there.

Oh I certainly will. But I also want to go SPECIFICALLY through Chowski's things.

[BurningBee]

I just bought a Burner Express Plus event ticket, so I'll be trying this out this year. I disagree with the earlier comment that people aren't supposed to attend in this manner. This is backpacking camping compared with car camping. I am totally excited about the challenges and I'm just starting to wrap my head around all the new possibilities. Jaded no-more.

All of my previous burns have been with one other person in a van. Even though we brought bikes, we also always walked a lot. You see more that way. The gray water that we packed out was typically less than a gallon. We typically had one small bag of trash to pack out. I'm pretty confident about my leave-no-trace presence as a backpacking camper. Obviously, my shade structure will have to be a lot different. And I won't be able to bring a weeks worth of booze and cold beer for me and my neighbors. I also won't be able to pack out random other people's trash like we've done in the past.

[lucky420]

I'm trying to find the link to just buy a damn bus ticket. I've looked hi and low, can someone hook me up please?

[Popeye]

Lucky: It should be here tomorrow https://burnerexpress.burningman.org/bu ... s-tickets/

They shut it down until the Burner Express Plus sale has finished

[lucky420]

Thank you Popeye! I was getting seriously frustrated.

Thanks again, much love

[lvictory23]

I just bought a Burner Express Plus event ticket, so I'll be trying this out this year. I disagree with the earlier comment that people aren't supposed to attend in this manner. This is backpacking camping compared with car camping. I am totally excited about the challenges and I'm just starting to wrap my head around all the new possibilities. Jaded no-more.

All of my previous burns have been with one other person in a van. Even though we brought bikes, we also always walked a lot. You see more that way. The gray water that we packed out was typically less than a gallon. We typically had one small bag of trash to pack out. I'm pretty confident about my leave-no-trace presence as a backpacking camper. Obviously, my shade structure will have to be a lot different. And I won't be able to bring a weeks worth of booze and cold beer for me and my neighbors. I also won't be able to pack out random other people's trash like we've done in the past.

I'm doing the same thing for the first time. I'm excited for the new challenge. I have never produced more then to grocery bags worth of trash on the playa and less then a gallon of grey water. I've always had extra clothes and food.

[Popeye]

I'm doing the same thing for the first time. I'm excited for the new challenge. I have never produced more then to grocery bags worth of trash on the playa and less then a gallon of grey water. I've always had extra clothes and food.

Hi Ivictory23 and welcome. Your attitude is great and you have the start of a great camp. But please know that, as pictured, your shade will not last a day at Burning Man. You have a good start with materials and the shade cloth will decrease wind load but the uprights will not hold. Suggest you start a new thread and ask some of the vets here to comment. Repost your picture too.

[lvictory23]

Hi Ivictory23 and welcome. Your attitude is great and you have the start of a great camp. But please know that, as pictured, your shade will not last a day at Burning Man. You have a good start with materials and the shade cloth will decrease wind load but the uprights will not hold. Suggest you start a new thread and ask some of the vets here to comment. Repost your picture too.

Thanks Popeye. And I know, each upright will have at least two guidelines coming off of them. The bottoms of the poles will be slid over rebar that has been pounded into the ground. I used the same poles but way more aluminet over my larger set up last year
I'm also camped next to other people with larger setups/wind breaks. I was just messing around to see how much shade my smallest aluminet would give.

[Popeye]

Ok, good. When you said "I'm doing the same thing for the first time." I thought this was your first year.

[nothing500]

- No way to deal with gray water (so, only tooth brush and wet wipes).
- No large cooler, maybe a small bag cooler.
- Very limited clothes, all will end up dirty.
- You may have to walk a lot.
- You may have deal with Taxi/Hotel in Reno or San Francisco.
- You're going to have to bring your trash back with you.
- No way to bring art to the Playa. Unless it's really small.

I really don't know what you expect, man. You're a passenger on a fucking bus. This is really uncharted territory for this event. People really aren't supposed to attend in this manner. Normally, people drive motor vehicles to this event with all their stuff, not hop on a bus with their roller bag in the overhead bin and one personal item you can fit under the seat in front of you. I'm surprised they even have room for your bike or something like a cooler.

If you want to bring more costume changes, a shower, an evapotron, a monkey hut, large steel art sculptures, mutant vehicles, etc. you're probably going to have to drive your own stuff in or pay someone at a camp to do it for you. The Burner Express is essentially for people who have their accommodations already planned out for them, and who aren't expecting to bring much materiel of their own.

And yeah, you have to bring your trash back out, and you may have to walk a bit. Deal with it.

Your response is obnoxious because it sounds like you've assumed the person asking expects things to be easy. I saw no indication of that. I value your contributions to this forum and understand you've probably developed a sensitivity to topics you've seen come up repeatedly. I just don't like seeing the "Radical Self-Reliance" principal becoming inflated to the degree that it eclipses some of the other principals, which in this case could include: "Radical Inclusion", "Communal Effort", and "Participation".