What is your favorite camp infrastructure?

[bm_cricket]

What is the best "infrastructure" you've found on the playa? There are a million different ways to build an evap pond or a shower or a camp beacon for when you get lost at 4 am and you can't find your feet anymore.

Can you share your best photos or descriptions of "oh cool! Why didn't I think of that"!?

[bm_cricket]

Strong emphasis on:
1) Stuff that is easy to put up and take down.
2) Stuff that will serve a camp of about 30 active participants.
3) Stuff that is relatively Burn proof. (So it lasts a couple of years).

[Patsh]

I'm glad there are the high blue lights at the JOTS...

[bm_cricket]

I'm glad there are the high blue lights at the JOTS...

You mean those weird blue lights that are just on the edge of what I can and can't see? From 500 feet those things twinkle like they are just about, but not quite, ultra-violet. God, last year I remember having one of those panicked moments with several of my buddies trying to find one all at once.... I guess it's better than if they didn't have lights on at all.

[VultureChow]

Any tall beacon like structure that exists a)in or near your camp or b)near your radial street.

[bm_cricket]

Any tall beacon like structure that exists a)in or near your camp or b)near your radial street.

I consider a beacon to be one that exists after the man burns. Double bonus points if it is still there after the temple.

[BBadger]

Monkeyhut: because it's cheap, it's easy to assemble, it works, and anyone can make one. Shade for sleeping is the need of any and all attendees!

Sure, there are definitely more sophisticated and cool structures out there like hexyurts or domes, but they have a number of preconditions attached to them. Maybe there's a lot of labor involved, or some special transportation necessary (Monkeyhuts do have this property too), or maybe the structure just costs a lot.

I'd also suggest the Costco Carport. No, not innovative, but it's all in one, durable, and makes for a nice communal area no matter what size camp. We brought one, only use the canopy, and kept it apart from the main common area of our camp, and it seemed more people were hanging around with us than in the fully shaded and walled common areas. I made some plywood feet for the carport and we just directly staked the feet down instead of using guylines and it worked just fine.

Finally, having a shipping container is great. Sure you won't be sleeping in it, but the ability to store whatever big stuff you need means that any of the above can be brought in only once and brought back for far less effort (though with a slimmer wallet). It's like a camp infrastructure multiplier.

The beacon suggestions above are spot on. No use having camp infrastructure if you can't find camp!

[bm_cricket]

Monkeyhut: because it's cheap, it's easy to assemble, it works, and anyone can make one. Shade for sleeping is the need of any and all attendees!

I've never built a monkeyhut. What my camps have usually used are groups of costco barns as the communal structure. They are more waterproof, modular, and slightly more dust resistant. They are pretty easy to put together too.

I'd also suggest the Costco Carport. No, not innovative, but it's all in one, durable, and makes for a nice communal area no matter what size camp. We brought one, only use the canopy, and kept it apart from the main common area of our camp, and it seemed more people were hanging around with us than in the fully shaded and walled common areas. I made some plywood feet for the carport and we just directly staked the feet down instead of using guylines and it worked just fine.

Big rebar... That's my answer to everything. "Big rebar". I should put that on the back of my car, right next to the imaginary dangly balls on the trailer ball.

Finally, having a shipping container is great. Sure you won't be sleeping in it, but the ability to store whatever big stuff you need means that any of the above can be brought in only once and brought back for far less effort (though with a slimmer wallet). It's like a camp infrastructure multiplier.

I've slept in a shipping container. I was the first camp member on the playa and the container unit was delivered late. The container and I got to the playa at right about 2am and I had exactly enough energy to get in it, drag a few things from the door, and sleep on the floor. That turned out to be a really good freaking year! (But it started off kind of rough...)

The beacon suggestions above are spot on. No use having camp infrastructure if you can't find camp!

Last year I built an LED beacon. I guess I wonder if anybody else here has made a beacon before.


So... here are some shade structures I've built and their relative success or failure:
Aluminet shade cloth for flat topped open area. This was reasonably expensive but extremely easy. All you need are 4 to 6 long 4x4 posts, a bunch of special hardware for the shade cloth, and a friend in heavy equipment to dig your holes.

Domes (16ft, 20ft, 30ft, 36ft, and 40ft) with various coverings. Domes offer a lot of space and can make a whole new atmosphere inside if you do it right. They make you feel like you are in a little bubble world. They are really annoying to transport, assemble, and the covering doesn't usually last that long, especially if you have the wrong size cover, like a parachute.

Flat top mesh shade cloth with vertical poles, secured with 45 degree guide lines. This is reasonably cheap and easy to transport but very time consuming to assemble and it causes a lot of wasted space near the guide-lines.

Now, I've never built a tensile structure and I really want to. I just don't know where to start. I don't know how to sew. That seems like a good place to start. What have you built and what do you think would be even better.

[Zhust]

The camp I was with last year took my advice and got rid of the evaporation pond. Instead, we used a couple 55 gallon plastic jugs to house gray water and had RV services pump it out. Between evaporation ponds and Evap-o-trons, I think the barrel is the least-gross, least-moopy way to go.

When I camp alone, I just minimize my gray water and can carry out less than a gallon (helpful tip: have no hair to wash; wash with a rag; don't use soap at all.)

[BoyScoutGirl]

(helpful tip: have no hair to wash...)

I'm fairly certain I'm going to shave my head for the next burn, this being just one of the reasons to do so.

[Lonesomebri]

This is for a much smaller outfit than 30 people. My shower/beacon using a ladder. I bring one of those extending ladders that also turns into a folding ladder. After setting up everything else, I set it up, it's 8 foot tall as an A frame, and attach a board across the top step, hook my solar water shower bag to it, with the hose hanging down between the ladders legs. At the bottom is a large black plastic dry wall pan and a chair. In the pan is old planks with an old bath mat on top, the rug gets tossed, the boards burned, and they help evaporate the water. Sometimes i hang an old tent rain fly around the ladder to provide privacy. At the top I tied on a 6 foot plank sticking up that had my camp name on it, and then wrapped cheap solar christmas tree lights around it. Also using the uhaul trailer as a viewing platform has been a huge success.

[VultureChow]

A floor. Made things so much easier for me. Easier to find and catch moop. Less dusty everything. Especially as I had some deep deep dust in my campsite. At the end of the week, what had been basically drifts of talcum powder was now hard packed playa.

Used a canvas tarp and just nailed it to the playa using these giant galvanized nails.

[Elliot]

I'm fairly certain I'm going to shave my head for the next burn, this being just one of the reasons to do so.

Ooops, thread drift. As you were.

[phil]

I consider a beacon to be one that exists after the man burns. Double bonus points if it is still there after the temple.

Well, that one's easy: make your own beacon. I've got an 18' collapsing pole (maybe for a pool cleaner or painters pole). I asked about such a beacon here on ePlaya, and someone recommended an airport taxiway light, so I bought one. It's up not only after the Burn but after the Temple, so long as I leave it there. Radical self-reliance? DIY.

[phil]

Louise and I use a shade structure similar to this:


Ours has a silver tarp roof and the white sides. We use only the end white side and one other on the east in the morning and move it to the west side after noon -- this keeps the breeze if any going through, and the shade doesn't become an oven.

When we bought ours, we got the joints, bungee cords, and the three tarps. We were told what length pipes to buy -- you go to the big box hardware and ask for the top rail of chain link fences and ask them to cut the lengths you need. Then you take them home without having to pay shipping for them, which is way cheaper.

The structures can be made any length you want. Ours is 10x10, but by having more joints you can make it 10x20 or x30 -- however long you need for the people in your camp. We drive rebar into the ground beside each leg and duct tape the rebar to the leg. Or the leg to the rebar. Your choice.

I've forgotten how many years we've used it, but maybe 5. Maybe more. It's still holding up fine. The bungees are gritty and showing wear, so I'll replace them this year. Here's a photo with the back flap up, with Louise's handmade fabric in front:


Bigger picture here http://civex.smugmug.com/Other/Playa-Vi ... Camp01.jpg if you want to see details. If you zoom into the big picture, you'll see some small blue boxes along the rail of the eaves and maybe some lines that run up to the peak. We run LED strings up from the eave to the peak and turn them on at night for light. Very nice and homey.

[Captain Goddammit]

I think the Costco 10x20 is the standard building block of Black Rock City.
Excellent thing!!
My favorite piece of good camp infrastructure is the couch! Real couches totally rule on the playa.
I even have one in my MV.

We did a beacon at my old now-defunct camp Johnny & the Playa Cruizers. It was a 40 foot radio antenna tower with a white strobe on top. We got the tower sections cheap from a ham radio guy.
You could see it almost all over the playa (not from the back streets but the open playa).

If I were gonna do another beacon I'd do that again, it worked great.
Guy the hell out of it if you do this!

[unjonharley]

phil is a ham.. He would be able to get hold of some type of tower.. He would know how to tie the thing down too.

[unjonharley]

I saw a shade on and over a campers flat bed trailer..Got him off the ground and lots to tie down to..

I have the frame of the first carport type shades.. The joints take 1/2 conduit. The year I went 6 X 8.. Thinking about cutting it to 4X8 mounted on the little trailer.. I could attach it to the trailer, Make the load trip and put the canvas on on the playa.. Would be enough room for some chairs and what not.. Close the front half way up and a cool Figjms cooler..

[FossaFerox]

Flat top mesh shade cloth with vertical poles, secured with 45 degree guide lines. This is reasonably cheap and easy to transport but very time consuming to assemble and it causes a lot of wasted space near the guide-lines.

Put that space to use!

For a structure 7-8 feet tall, get some 12 foot tarp or shade-cloth sections that you secure parallel to the guylines. This does three awesome things.

1) Guylines are no longer a snag hazard at night since the tarps run along them.
2) Wind deflection to keep dust out of the center or your camp while funneling breezes through the angled spaces if you leave the corners open.
3) Usable space! Like I said, the whole idea is to make space that can be used. We used our "porch" sections for everything from bike storage to hang out space. We had a couple of old rugs and mattresses that we threw down there and they were the perfect place to nap during the heat of the day.

Here's a shot a stranger took of our setup from this year that I stumbled upon on Flickr.



You can see some bikes stashed under the angled tarps, past those was comfy lounge space that funneled the wind in nicely since the corners were open. Especially when we troubled to drag our couch over there.



These also make the structure more secure since the rebar you use to stake out the tarps adds support, and the tarps deflect wind over the top of your structure so it's less inclined to be a kite.

[danibel]

I know I post about the compost bucket a lot, but it really is my favorite camp infrastructure item. I bought a new 5 gallon bucket from a hardware store, made sure it had a SUPER tight fitting lid, and I bring it every year and put it in the kitchen near the coffee making supplies. The only paper items I allow in are coffee filters. Anything else that is food is fine. Egg shells, rinds, veggie odds and ends from making dinner, whatever. It keeps our trash bags a lot less messy and more of my campmates are willing to take the big bags because they know they aren't going to leak food wetness all over the place.

My black rock city shade structure is running as my second favorite from last year. Only took about 45 minutes to set up and kept the van so well shaded in the morning I could sleep until noon! Packs small and was easy to take down.

[Elliot]

Construction scaffolding might deserve a mention here. I don't know if you noticed, Cricket, but that's what was holding up my big shade tarp (besides the bus). Scaffolding is not light, nor cheap, but very sturdy. The big Mal-mart (sp?) structure is all scaffolding. And I put the tie-downs inside the footprint of the scaffold, so no trip hazard. I've seen reasonably priced used scaffolding on Craigslist. It can also be rented.

[phil]

I think this will be my next piece of camp infrastructure:



There are soooo many things I could do with that.

[unjonharley]

I think this will be my next piece of camp infrastructure:





There are soooo many things I could do with that.

steam punk heaven

[theCryptofishist]

phil is a ham.. He would be able to get hold of some type of tower.. He would know how to tie the thing down too.

It took me a couple of minutes of head-scratching to figure out what Phil's bad acting had to do with tying things down.

[danibel]

I think this will be my next piece of camp infrastructure:



There are soooo many things I could do with that.

Where do you find things like that? It's awesome!

[Captain Goddammit]

it's, uh, something alright.

[The Rod]

Construction scaffolding might deserve a mention here. I don't know if you noticed, Cricket, but that's what was holding up my big shade tarp (besides the bus). Scaffolding is not light, nor cheap, but very sturdy. The big Mal-mart (sp?) structure is all scaffolding. And I put the tie-downs inside the footprint of the scaffold, so no trip hazard. I've seen reasonably priced used scaffolding on Craigslist. It can also be rented.

I think it deserves another mention.

We had 3 levels of basic construction scaffolding this year we borrowed from a construction friend, for a tower 15 feet tall, I think the platform we stood on was about 11 feet or so off the ground. Was awesome. Having a tower in camp felt like graduation from a small camp to a slightly bigger one! I'm definitely keeping an eye out for some scaffolding to purchase as my own and be able to expand the tower next year. This year we just zip tied some flags to some 10 ft pvc we had laying around extra from some MH's and zipped those to the top of the scaffold with some solar lights for a beacon.

We had guylines coming off the corners, how would one go about guying it in the footprint?

[Elliot]

.
Now I wish I had taken photos.

First of all, I place "feet" under each scaffold leg so they cannot sink into the ground. Just stout plywood with a big bolt in the middle, up thru the leg, so they cannot slide apart.

I drive two anchors into the ground inside the footprint. Stout ones -- 1" and 3/4" steel rods, 30 to 36 inches long. Where? If you divide the 5 x 10 rectangle into two squares; one anchor in the middle of each square, angled toward each other. To these I attach ratchet straps, at least 1 1/2 inch. On the scaffolding, they go in the middle of the upper end bars. YMMV.