A Trip to Burning Man, Part 1

Hi everyone

I went on another big trip, and I wrote another big email. I thought of you
when addressing this, and I hope you enjoy my story, odd as it may be. Feel
free to forward this to anyone I know who may also enjoy it. Read to the
very end to find out where you can see some pictures from the trip...

Love to all,
Cam




Before I went to Burning Man, I had a hard time describing it to people. Is
it an art festival? An experiment in non-commercial community? Radical
free self-expression? A huge party? An orgy? I'd heard all those and
more -- and to be honest, I didn't know what to expect. I had absorbed
everything I could find on it beforehand, reading the packing lists and
suggestions for how to get there and survive once you arrived, but really
nothing was the same as actually being there.

Now that I've been, I still find it hard to describe. The facts:
- 29,800 people attended this year
- Black Rock Desert becomes Black Rock City for a week
- It also becomes the fifth largest city in Nevada for a week
- As a city, it has many rules and regulations, though the apparent lack of
public safety laws would still make your mother choke on her coffee
- everyone who attends must bring everything they need to survive (water,
food, shelter) -- it is, after all, barren desert
- everyone who attends must remove everything they brought in, save for what
went in the porta-potties. Burning Man is a Leave No Trace event, so this
means cigarette butts, bits of string, feathers from feather boas, duct
tape, pop cans, and anything else that might be easily dropped. One motto:
"don't let it hit the ground."
- Burning Man volunteers are in the desert from for several months after the
event ends, cleaning up and ensuring that there is, in fact, no trace left.
- Every year, the US Bureau of Land Management demands in the event permit
that the playa (the hard-packed desert surface) be 99.997% free of debris
after the event -- and every year, Burning Man has achieved 99.999%.
- The city is a huge three-quarters circle, measuring 7800 feet (2.35 km)
across, and the area where art could be found in the empty playa extended
another half mile further, at least.
- people build camp from 2100-3900 feet away from the centre, along streets
measured by degree: from 60 degrees to 300 degrees.
- The Burning Man stands at the centre of this circle, the Temple of Joy
centred in the gap in the circle.
- The event has been happening for sixteen years.
- It was a challenge, an adventure, and an experience.
- I would attend again without any hesitation.

My trip began on a Friday, a week before the Labour Day long weekend. I
woke up at 4:00 AM, kissed Vinny goodbye (poor guy would be stuck in a
non-cluttered and clean apartment for two whole weeks without me!), and
hopped in the pimp-mobile cab of a guy who used to actually live in our
apartment. We think he ran an escort service, or at least, the woman
upstairs does. Nobody awake at the airport, everyone dozing through the
paces of getting started for the day. Quick flight to Toronto, change
planes and decide that if I ever am going to start drinking coffee, this
would probably be the time (but I didn't), and continue on to Edmonton.
Note to self: never order special low-cholesterol meal ever EVER again. All
the specialty meals are horrid. Elyse met me at the Edmonton airport, where
the ongoing construction makes it hard to find out where arrivals actually
are! Halifax is having the same diffculty.

I had no time to get used to the new time zone, partly because it would end
up changing again anyway, and partly because we still had a huge shopping
list. We didn't plan meals -- we correctly predicted that most people would
not have time or interest in proper meals, but we incorrectly predicted how
much food we would need. We were left with at least another week's worth of
food, which we donated to the

volunteers who stay behind. Shopping was challenging, as we really didn't
know what we would feel like eating, and we wanted to try to cover all the
major food groups (Canadian no-name brand canned foods, Canadian no-name
brand drinks, President's Choice brand crackers, and Tang).

Having an RV helped -- even though we had tons of extra food, there seemed
to be almost infinite cupboard space. Every time we turned around we found
another area to stuff with non-perishable high-fat snacks.

Elyse: hey, this thing comes off under the dash!
Cam: yeah, that's so you can access the transmission and stuff.
Elyse: Oh, it's not more closet space?

The RV layout is a little funny -- I spent a lot of time shoulder-checking
to make sure the bathroom was still there. The first day is understandable,
but we spent a full week driving and still did it!

Early (but late according to my Maritime internal clock) it was time to hit
the highway. We managed to depart at 9:30, which was 30 minutes earlier
than my absolute worst case scenario -- in other words, early. I quickly
decided that drivers are bad everywhere. I used to have theories about
which province's drivers were bad in which ways, but the job drain bringing
Maritimers to Alberta has muddled that all up: people stopping at Yield
signs left right and centre!

During the first few hours, we had the adrenaline and excited energy to keep
us alert and happy (plus the nervous fear about driving a 21-foot-long and
11-foot-high top-heavy cube). After a few hours, we needed more, and road
signs were the answer. We saw plenty of funny (to us) road signs:
apparently stoned docile elk in BC, calmly waiting to cross the road
(compare to the prancing deer in most provinces). Another sign seen: Llamas
for Sale. Outside High River, Alberta, there's a large farmer's field
containing the following signs: "Crab, Pollock, Prawns, Cod for sale",
"Lobster tails, $1.99", "100 Big Shrimp, $9.99". Some confusing signs too:
Along the highway in Alberta, there's a sign that says "David Thompson
Tourist Zone." Apparently, he was a medium-famous explorer for the Hudson's

Bay Company when it was working it's way towards the west coast. We didn't
know this. As it turns out, we met a David Thompson from Memphis at Burning
Man (he had a block party at his camp) and we took some pictures with him --
small world!

Cam in BC: "Oh, they're *leaves*! I thought some kid was throwing tortilla
chips out the window."

We may have been somewhat sleep deprived by this point.

As we approached the US border, Elyse and I talked about the questions we
might be asked, and how we could make ourselves appear completely harmless
without actually lying in any way. Before the trip we had been careful to
ensure that nothing even a little risky accompanied us in the RV, whether it
was narcotics (not that anyone wanted us to bring any) or even brand new
camping equipment that wouldn't be returning. As it turns out, crossing the
border was very easy. In retrospect, Elyse and I looked like the cutest
twentysomething couple driving our RV for some camping, with no piercings,
blue hair, or big signs saying "Burning Man or Bust!"

The blue hair arrived on day two with Pete, and the sign was put up shortly
thereafter.

Before picking up Pete, we had to drive from the border through a few hours
of Idaho and Washington. Our plan was to stop right after the border, but
(FYI) northern Idaho is EMPTY. So we drove til about 10:00 or so, and
finally found an RV park that was mostly deserted, except for what appeared
to be several long term residents. We saw one RV that was at least 35 feet
long, plus an expensive truck, plus an SUV beside it, plus a motorcycle in
the back. It had a fence! So the vehicle part seemed to have lost the
battle with the home part. For those of you following along on your maps,
we were in Sandpoint, Idaho. Not recommended.

Our funniest Idaho story (again, "funny") is our time in the town of Athol.
Elyse was driving, and someone cut her off, someone else abruptly changed
lanes right in front of us. We quickly determined where the town's name had
come from.

Once Pete joined us, the number of funny things dropped markedly. Not due
to a lack of humour, but rather the fact that Elyse and I weren't reduced to
tears by completey unfunny things quite so much, having someone more rooted
in reality nearby.

Our plan, after picking up Pete, was to shop for anything left on the list,
since Spokane was the largest city we would see until our return to Spokane
in ten days. First stop, Costco. A word to the wise: don't go to Costco
with Pete. As mentioned, we didn't really know what to expect, so we bought
more than needed just to be safe. But I can say that fully a third of our
bill at Costco (you don't want to know what it was) was too much -- a lot of
it went right back to Canada with us, and is probably being gradually
consumed by Elyse. One case of Red Bull (high caffeine pop) came to
Halifax, and has been destroying Vinny's and my sleeping patterns ever
since. Next stop: Fred Meyer, sort

of an upscale Wal-Mart. We also bought some Costco gas, and bought a bunch
of pipes at Home Depot. It was a busy couple of hours, but we did actually
get back on the highway by 3pm, which was slightly ahead of schedule.

Most people (read: me) don't know this, but once you cross into
south-eastern Washington state, you enter an area that you would swear was
Death Valley. Very arid and desolate -- we knew that was what we were
heading towards in Nevada, but we hoped it wasn't going to be three days of
driving in it! Luckily, it wasn't. Oregon actually looked like I always
thought Washington did, with huge redwood trees and mountains everywhere.
We had decided to take highway 397, which was a shorter route through, and
in a car that would have been fine. In a top-heavy old RV though, it was a
little too scary. Often the highway dropped down to only a few spare inches
on our right and then sudden drops into chasms, and the highway was built
for higher speed cars, so every curve tilted enough that we got nervous. If
you've never driven an RV, just imagine sitting halfway up the CN Tower and
having it tilt. That's how it felt to us RV newbies.

We were driving along this dangerous twisty highway, and people would
occasionally pass our big, slow, motorhome. One car tailgated us for a few
minutes, so we prepared to stop at an upcoming turnout to let them pass.
Before we reached it, they started to pass us, pulled alongside, and yelled
for us to stop -- we realized that they too were going to Burning Man! We
stopped, and they jumped out of their SUV and ran to us, hugged us, and gave
us Burning Man gifts! We told them it was our first time, and they told us
it was going to be so amazing -- it was a wonderful way to be introduced to
the non-commercial non-cynical non-judgemental event, and left us smiling
the rest of the day. It's really hard to describe this to anyone who hasn't
been to Burning Man and make them understand -- most people I've tried it
with just get this blank look, not understanding why people would act this
way. It's all about stripping away the masks we hide behind all our lives,
when we hurry to do things that don't matter, and we fight with strangers
over parking spaces or whatever. Imagine if you could just be

yourself, do anything you wanted, and no one else around you cared? The
gift economy that Burning Man promotes is very foreign to all us wasteful
westerners, but we really could benefit from it.

Our last night in the RV before arriving at Burning Man was spent in
Lakeview, Oregon, right at the California border. There was a geyser there,
Old Perpetua, and hot springs, and we were very excited to see these sights.
Unfortunately, the water table was too low, and the geyser wasn't geysing.
Another downside was that Elyse had to shower with a frog. But there are
worse things. Being in the middle of nowhere, we got an amazing view of the
stars, much better even than we would have for most of Burning Man, since
all these normal people went to sleep at night, unlike most Burners.

In the morning we woke very early, eager to get on the road. We also knew
that we had about 200 miles to cover through hot and unforgiving highways
before we got to the hot unforgiving desert, and we wanted to be done with
it as early in the day as possible. Our only hiccup was Elyse's decision to
have a coffee in the morning, which as all drivers know, means bathroom
pitstop an hour later. Except that an hour later we were precisely 50 miles
from the nearest bathroom, and we couldn't use the RV's toilet since it
wouldn't be emptied until after BM was over. So Elyse daintily used a
nearby bush. Now all the Canadians are saying "oh yeah, I'd pee in the
forest, no big deal" except it wasn't the forest. Or even some bushes. It
was A bush.

We arrived successfully, as is now obvious. I had printed out many sets of
directions, again not knowing what to expect. As it turns out, there were
large, obvious signs pointing the way, so we just followed them. On the 12
miles of driving on a dead-end road, we passed a surprising number of people
leaving. We expected none, so any were surprising. Once we arrived at the
first gate we tried to tune in the Burning Man radio station, but we
couldn't find it. Not that there was nothing, quite the contrary: there are
radio stations at almost every stop on the dial at Burning Man, easily 30+
stations. We just couldn't get the one we wanted!

At this point we were now travelling on actual playa (dry, brittle desert).
Burning Man has hundreds of volunteers, many of whom arrive early in the
summer to start staking out the locations of important landmarks like the
actual Burning Man itself, along with roads and such. These people are the
Department of Public Works (DPW). They also mark the entranceway that
everyone drives, leading people to the gate. At the gate, the first words
we heard were "Welcome Home." It is a neat feeling to hear those words
spoken in such a place. We handed over our tickets, were given welcome
kits, and from the gleam in our eyes we were immediately identified as BM
virgins. We were commanded to exit the vehicle, and either a) roll in the
dust, b) get spanked with a stick, or c) something else I can't remember. I
chose to roll in the dirt, and everyone followed. We got MUCH more dirty
than at any later point in the trip, which was actually a good thing. My
black runners never did get their colour back, even now, a month later.

After our gate adventure, we drove the long mile or two into the actual
camping and parking areas. To keep everyone going slow (and thereby keep
the dust down), the DPW had placed interesting and amusing signage all along
the road, with lots of text that you could only read at about 2 miles per
hour. Obscure quotes tangentially related to this year's theme (The
Floating World), funny quotes related to saving the planet and being smarter
than dolphins, and just neat stuff. Several times while writing this I've
been forced to just stop, because I don't know enough words to describe the
things I've seen.

We pulled up to a general camping area, knowing that we'd have to find the
other three guys before we got too comfortable. Elyse and Pete started to
clean up a bit (a futile effort we quickly realized) while I ran in to
Center Camp to see if I could track them down. We had made plans to meet on
the hour in front of the camp, facing the Man, but no one was there. As it
turned out, BM maintains a messaging service, so all we had to do was ask
for messages under Elyse's name, and there was our note! It gave an
address, 120 degrees and Wheelhouse, and a description of Chris' car.
Amusingly, Chris described his car as "metallic beige and kind of dirty,"
which as you can guess was incredibly helpful in narrowing down the cars we
encountered! We arrived near noon, and they were all asleep, trying to
escape the heat. We woke them up, parked the RV, and deployed our magical
shade structure. We instantly became more popular because of it.

A word about shade. Those of us who grew up away from the ocean know that
shade is nice, but really not terribly relevant when the humidity keeps the
sweat from even evaporating. Summers in Ottawa could leave you immobile and
crying out for winter, and then the winters made you eat your words and wish
it was summer again. But in Black Rock Desert, there's no humidity at all.
Less than none. If you have shade, you can survive any temperature there
(well, approximately). Accordingly, shade is a must. We quickly learned
that our shade, while large and inviting, was location-of-sun-dependent, as
it was attached to one side of the RV. Next time, we need another shade
provider, so that we're good all day.

Another important concept at Burning Man (or any week-long event in the
desert) is "Piss Clear." All the time people say to each other "piss
clear", the idea being that you should be drinking enough water that you pee
clear. There's even a newspaper at the event called Piss Clear. If you're
not drinking enough water, you'll dehydrate, get headaches, be unhappy, and
eventually very sick. Pete gave us some basic first aid lessons on
dehydration on the drive down, but I know they just went in one ear and out
the other (sorry Pete) due to our excitement level. At least we knew we'd
be camping with two first aid instructors, which upped our comfort level
significantly.

Our first night there, we were taken by Chris, Evan and Justin over to the
LampLighters' area. They had been there since Sunday, and recommended this
as a great activity to partake in. Basically what happens is that hundreds
or kerosene lanterns are disassembled, cleaned, refilled, and lit, and then
places on large yokes which get carried by the lamplighters out into Black
Rock City. Light poles are spread throughout the main roads, allowing for
some night-time light. This is not an official Burning Man thing, it's just
become a tradition and is carried on by anyone who wants to be involved. We
all helped clean and set them up, and then dressed up in the special robes
they provide, and then carried the lamps out and hung them. The lamps are
hung using ten-foot poles, as the light-poles are about 14 feet high. Our
arms were sore by the end (the entire process takes at least 3 hours), but
we got an amazing view of major sections of the city, we felt welcomed and
involved immediately, and they even fed us pasta afterwards as a thank you!

The next day I was fighting a nasty headache, mostly due to too much sun and
not enough water. I had been drinking lots, but I had to learn the hard way
that you must drink what feels like too much, and being all
formerly-blond-hair-blue-eyed I needed to dodge the sun a bit too. Relaxing
in the shade from about 10 AM until 5 PM ended up being the perfect solution
for me. Rough life, I know.

We had been planning our trip for months, and we had all sorts of ideas
tossed around for ways we could participate (one of BM's slogans is "No
Spectators"), but none really came together until just a month before, when
Evan suggested Tibetan Prayer Flags. Basically, these are large flags
adorned with a simple phrase or idea (usually in Japanese or some other
non-western language, of course) which the wind picks up and carries to the
rest of the world. We all jumped at this idea, as it sounded simple but
elegant, and our other ideas were all proving too complex and/or expensive.
We ended up with eight prayer flags, each with a single Japanese character
on them: sky, fire, sea, sun, heaven, dreams, spirit, and journey. We put
them up in a line in front of our camp, where they proved to be quite the
conversation starter and visitor attractor -- especially to the young
Japanese woman who wanted to know who thought up this idea, as she surveyed
our completely non-Asian crowd!

On our second night at Burning Man, we all attended the Canadian Cocktail
Party -- one theme village called Chillage decided to hold a big party for
all the Canadians at Burning Man. What an event! Only there could you hear
people using Nunavut as the punchline to a joke, complaining that the Swedes
stole the hockey gold medal in 1994, and singing Spirit Of The West! We met
lots of fun people, including a few clueless Americans who just happened to
be there and ended up honourary Canadians. I also met one guy who played an
unusual instrument called the sound can, which is a speaker in a tin can
swung over his head in varying circles, while a computer-altered dial tone
was played through it. Sounds much cooler than I could ever describe.

Along the outer edges of the circle of camps is where you can find the
louder camps, people who truck in speaker systems larger than our RV just
for fun. We attended a couple night-clubs that people had built in the
desert a few nights, and there is nothing more fun than dancing to amazing
music under the stars in the desert! It's impossible to describe the
feeling I got from this. One such place we went was Illuminaughty, which
was defined mostly by the excellent music and occasional lasers emanating
from the DJ booth.

At one point Pete and I wandered over to the nearest porta-potties, and we
passed a bunch of plywood standing straight up in the road. We got closer
and Pete shone his flashlight on it -- a camp had left the plywood, a
camera, and pens here so that you could take a Polaroid of yourself, stick
it to the board, and then write a caption. We tried, but this Polaroid
didn't work in the dark. So we stuck our blank picture to the wood and
explained our situation!

Further on this same trek we found a trampoline, so we stopped and jumped on
it for a while. Many trampolines make it to the desert, and one sign sums
up the attitude: "for christ's sake of course you can jump on it." I guess
people bringing it as a gift got tired of answering that one.

My biggest surprise: finding life on the playa!! We were sitting in the
shade one morning and to our utter shock a cockroach wandered over to visit!
I still don't know if it was a local or if it hithched a ride to burning
man. In one issue of the Black Rock Gazette there was an article about 4
mice that hitched a ride in a rolled up carpet all the way from Denver --
sadly, only one survived, but it was well cared for and the plan was for it
to be returned to Denver after Burning Man was over -- 'Leave No Trace'
means mice too!

...to be continued...

A Trip to Burning Man, Part 2

For the first few days at Burning Man, I'd heard from several people that I
should visit the temple, as it was just incredible to see. I knew very
little at this point, but I've learned more since. In 2001, a close friend
of artist David Best's died in a car accident, shortly before Burning Man.
He considered not going at all, but in the end decided to go and build
something to help work out the grief. The built the Temple of Tears. This
year he came back and built the Temple of Joy.

Picture those little dinosaur skeletons you buy at museums, the ones made
out of balsa wood. now imagine that they were built out of pieces of thick
plywood, still in those funny randomish shapes. Now imagine that instead of
a small dinosaur, it was a seventy-foot-high building, with 2nd-story
walkways, a towering steeple, and completely symmetrical construction. That
is what the Temple looks like. It's very hard to describe how incredible it
was to see, I stood for several minutes just staring, and even now I still
can't fully grasp it, the enormity is too much. I get bogged down in ten
different ways trying to understand how it was planned, how the pieces got
to the desert, how it was put together so quickly...

Almost everyone who sees it is struck by its beauty and emotion. The artist
leaves pens and pencils inside (you can walk right through it) and people
write messages to loved ones. There's a central altar dedicated to those
lost to suicide, and there are messages all over it and elsewhere
apologizing, professing, asking, telling. It will rank forever as one of
the most beautiful and moving things I have ever seen in my life.

After such a sight, we needed a bit of a breather. The Temple is located
diametrically opposite Centre Camp, in theory where the art and action stops
and just empty playa continues, but this is not in fact the case. There are
works of art scattered all over the area, some designed for day and some for
night, we saw so many things I can only remember a few:

- a few sequences of fluorescent lights (like in office ceilings) standing
on their ends in a line, lit up in patterns all night long
- a Buddhist-style shelter/temple on the very edge of the playa we inhabit
for Burning Man, with reflective symbols at the top and some figurines
facing out into nothingness
- one hundred photographs of nuclear explosions, annotated with details of
date and place, and the code name given to it, entitled "one hundred suns"
- a spinning wheel about 30 feet across, with plaster casts of the upper
torso of a man swimming on it, evenly spaced, with each cast representing a
different frame of the movement. The only light source on this was a strobe
light hooked up to the wheel, so that no matter what speed the wheel turned,
it appeared as if the man was swimming towards you
- a box roughly the size of a spare bathroom, with no walls, and with
curtains of laser light shining down on each side instead. When you broke
the laser beams with your hand, the computer hidden away would play a
specific sound sample, leaving you to create your own music
- a full size jazz lounge, complete with bar, sultry-voiced singer, coat
check booth and casino tables. All contained within a giant rubber duck.
Seriously.

Not all of Burning Man is random art though, the pleasures of the flesh
appear as well. Many opinions of Burning Man include things like "orgy" and
"drug paradise". There is sex, there are drugs, but by no means are these
the driving force behind the event. I think they just appear because some
people feel free to be themselves in whatever way they want, leading to free
love (insert 60's-70's hippie reference here) and chemical enhancement. For
most of us, just being there and seeing all this amazing creation was more
than enough sensory overload.

I visited a tent known as "Jiffy Lube." For years, Burning Man has had a
tent called Bianca's Smut Shack, which basically existed as a pick-up joint
for straight men and women to find love and/or just some "action". A few
years back, Jiffy Lube was created as the gay equivalent. It has two tents,
the dance bar and the actual "action" tent. I only visited the first one,
but I was there on "New Meat Night" during an Amateur Strip Contest. It was
highly amusing, if only for the fact that everyone felt less pressure to be
as beautiful as an Abercrombie & Fitch model, so people who wanted to dance
around (some remained somewhat clothed) could. Despite it being an almost
99% gay male crowd, the best cheers of the night went to a young woman who
danced very well -- and poured red wine on herself! I won't spoil my story
by telling you who won, except to say that they were forced to have the last
few people have a bit of a dance-off to decide, and the cheers just got
louder and louder... :-)

One night I was wandering and I came across two different rollercoaster type
rides that had been assembled in the desert. It still amazes me what some
people (usually those living closer than I) will do to create an interesting
experience for others. Another popular spot was the Thunderdome, a huge
geodesic dome which hosted nightly battles (such as in giant sumo suits, or
hanging from wires and using Nerf foam bats), while the crowd climbed the
outside to cheer and jeer the combatants.

I've mentioned that Burning Man was non-commercial -- you're not supposed to
sell or buy anything there. It's not entirely true, as you can buy ice and
cappuccino (what can I say, this thing was started by people from
California!), and additionally a barter economy has sprung up, with people
often trading liquor for food, toys for liquor, or whathaveyou. Often when
we offered gifts to people, they would quickly say "wait, I'm sure I can
trade something," which always struck us as odd. I guess we had just
adopted the non-commercial idea fully, and were totally comfortable with
just giving things away, while others had learned about the way things
worked a little differently.

What did we give away? We had candy of many stripes, pre-stamped postcards
(that could be mailed at the Burning Man post office!), and glow sticks, and
towards the end we had tons of water and food as well. Tim Horton's coffee
also made a good impression on our neighbours! Two mornings we hosted
pancake parties, serving them up until everyone was full. We'll definitely
repeat that next year, though Chris will be bringing his own syrup
apparently.

At this year's Burning Man there was a built-in scavenger hunt to keep
everyone more involved. We were supposed to visit several different theme
camps (larger camps pre-registered and given prime real estate to use for
their art/activities) and collect different coloured beads. Once we had all
five, we would be given a secret time and location, when we could find a
mysterious supplier of golden doubloons. These specially minted coins (with
the Burning Man on them) would then allow us entry into the lighthouse that
the Man stood on, and to its observation deck 30 feet above the ground.
There were rules around this though, since BM is a gift economy -- adding
value to an item might commoditize it, and people might start collecting
them or selling them. So the rules were that you couldn't buy or sell the
doubloons, and you could only have one. Pete and I didn't get a chance to
collect beads for ourselves, but we did receive doubloons as gifts, which
was excellent. Pete and I stood in line for nearly an hour for this, and it
was worth it -- we were high enough to see an excellent view of the entire
city, and we could look up (there was no ceiling at all) right into the Man!

Travel at Black Rock City was fantastically diverse. Many (MANY) people
create "art cars", vehicles decorated (or perhaps taken over by) whatever
theme or idea they wish. The lack of public safety rules also made for
interesting cars: you would never see pickup truck with large propane tanks
in the back, all of which were spewing 30 feet of fire into the air at
random intervals. You just don't see that these days. We saw ride-on
lawnmowers mated with couches (now that's a comfortable ride), bicycles with
large (10 feet) bunny slippers encasing them, a beautiful decorated carriage
pulled by seahorses, several huge pirate ships (easily 100 feet), and more.
Many people create art cars and even buses for the express purpose of
transporting others, providing taxi services of an irregular and
unpredictable kind -- just like real taxis! Bikes were a real necessity.
We figured that out too late, and had only brought two for the six of us.
In future, we will bring one bike per person. Remember, this city is
several miles worth of things to see and do, and we always wanted to be in
different places at the same time.

Many people decorate their smaller transportation devices as well -- I saw a
bike with an electric-light-tubing animated bird "flying" above it, which
looked amazing at night. Another person had a 4 foot butterfly on his
backpack, also animated and flying. One of the most intricate designs I saw
involved a body suit that had blue and red blood vessels glowing all over
it. Seeing all these things made it quite the visual playground!

Food was always an adventure at Burning Man: we had purchased way too much,
and ended up eating much different meals than we thought we would. Chris
had planned carefully and decided that one large can of chili would make
more sense than several smaller ones, and he found one which he thought
would be perfect. One afternoon he started cooking it... and cooking it...
and cooking it... it never seemed to be ready. Finally, he decided it was
hot enough, though he said it tasted a little odd. Well, first reason: it
was 2 kilograms or so of beef chili, but it included no beans! It was 2
kilograms of chili powder and low-quality beef! Or possibly "beef" !
Second reason: the can had decided it didn't like this game, and was
actually releasing something into the chili... everyone trying it mentioned
an aluminum taste! Better safe than sorry (and man was Chris sorry once his
system was done with it) we all took a pass. In future, no more cooking
huge tins of anything... I'll be lucky if I ever eat chili again!

One day Justin volunteered for the Earth Guardians, a group at Burning Man
that specifically focuses on protecting the environment in and near the
Black Rock Desert, which is one of the most fragile ecosystems around. He
and a couple other people were driven several miles to Double Hot Springs
(and later Black Rock Springs, home of THE Black Rock!), where they educated
anyone who came to visit, and requested that they not actually swim in the
springs, to avoid damaging them. He was most impressed with his day at the
springs.

Black Rock City for the first time had an actual post office, where mail
could be posted for the rest of the world. It had its own postmark and
everything -- I remembered to send postcards to Vinny from inside Black Rock
City to make sure we got to see the postmark. The gimmick for this post
office was that the workers were rude, prone to random acts of violence, and
worked much better when bribed. Hmmm.

Finally, it was Saturday -- the day they burn the Man. Everyone was very
excited, even the people who were on their fourth or twelfth burn. We
quickly realized that there was no way to predict what it would be like: for
five days 29,083 people had been communing in many different ways, in
different areas of the city, but tonight we would all be doing the SAME
THING! That just got us more excited. We left for the Man about an hour
early, as dusk was falling. The crowds were huge -- thousands of people had
been there most of the day, I think. We paid close attention to the wind,
and chose a spot where we could see even if there was a lot of smoke. This
turned out to be a good choice. We managed to sit just a few feet from the
front, and were amazed at how many people were actually sitting so the
people behind could see. Apparently, it wasn't that amazing, because a
Black Rock Ranger (the BRC volunteer policing group, just there for safety
and information more than anything else) came over and told us that we would
show up the group to our left if we all sat down -- and several people
behind and beside us did! Neat dynamic, all these people willingly sitting
and just relaxing.

We had read in the events guide (received at the gate) that the Burn
happened at 9 pm. Shortly before 9, the parade of fire began. I'm not sure
if that's what it was called, but since it consisted of hundreds of people
doing fire dances and swinging "poi" (little balls on the end of chains or
ropes) set on fire, tossing large sticks set on fire, wearing gloves set on
fire, or breathing fire, along with several DPW vehicles spouting flame
(including an upside down octopus that spat fire out its tentacles), I
figured it was a good name. They all spread out to match the huge circle we
all sat in, and began dancing for us. Near us. The best description of
things at Burning Man actually came from my cousin Alex who's (I think)
never been: "people creating, desperately creating art, defining what is is
to be human." The fire dancers all were giving everything they had not for
us, but for themselves and for their art. I've read great descriptions of
art at Burning Man, of how people do things not to entertain, but rather to
be entertained by those who gather to watch them.

The firedancers gradually burned out, and they drew away, and a tension
gathered in the crowd: we all knew what was next. The Man is always burned
in some spectacular way, and this year (being my first time here) seemed
incredible. First, the Man raised his arms -- until now, he had been
passively standing, waiting and watching over us. Now his arms were raised
high, drawing us towards him to share in this experience. Fireworks began
setting off from within the lighthouse itself, shooting high into the sky or
sparking intensely beside the Man, and then after many minutes of that the
flames themselves appeared. The lighthouse was the source, and it quickly
began to smoke heavily and burn, until flames began to lick the legs of the
Man. The whole structure was wood (with a little neon), so it all happened
very quickly, but I still remember many tiny details as if they took hours
to occur. The flames were unbelievable, and quick. The Man fell after the
structure that held his support wires was compromised, and the cheers were
huge. It's hard to describe now, but it was very freeing to just emote with
the many thousands, free of all cares of the outside world for just this
short time. At this point the Rangers, who up until now had been
maintaining a safety distance for everyone, basically gave in and let
everyone through. The burning coals and last few pieces of wood were all on
the ground now, meaning that unless someone ran in, it was safe to approach.
Many people began to dance and run around the coals, playing drums and
singing and watching and praying and talking and just trying to drink it all
in for one more minute one more second.

As you can imagine it was a challenge to control one's own destination in a
crowd of 29000 in such a small area, so Pete, Elyse and I were quickly split
up. I tried to find them but our plan of meeting afterwards had not been
exact enough, so I ended up just wandering by myself for a while, then
heading back to camp. Most people were partying and dancing and enjoying
themselves quite intensely, but as I was by myself I felt much more the
observer, and soon I actually felt like I needed to be away from the
excitement for a while. At camp I found no one, but very soon Elyse, then
everyone else, returned. We all talked about going out again, but most of
us decided that we were actually too drained to really enjoy anything else
that night, and so we relaxed, and then headed for bed.

Sunday was a quiet day. Many people due to other commitments actually leave
on Sunday, which we had considered before getting there. But we learned
after arriving that the Temple is actually burned on Sunday night, and we
resolved to stay for that. Chris, Evan and Justin all decided to go, as
they already had other plans on the rest of their mini-vacation they wanted
to enjoy. Hopefully they can take my notes and the pictures and get some
semblance of what happened -- the burning of the Temple was even more
intensely moving than the burning of the Man.

It felt like a sad day too. People were leaving, roadsigns were
disappearing (people like taking souvenirs -- sadly, theft turned into a
serious problem this year), and we started to find a different atmosphere.
A relaxed one, but also... different. People were starting to think about
home, school, work, bills, and other such horrible (!) things. We tried our
hardest to just relax, though with half our team missing we felt it too. As
we were leaving the next morning, we naturally started to clean up and
organize, and we tried to give away as much food and candy as we could. We
also had uncovered by this point that we had plenty of water left to share
and waste, s several water fights ensued. Tres fun.

As the evening approached we ate a bit of supper and then headed to the
temple. Our bikes had left with the guys, so we grabbed all our wonderful
fun neighbours and practically demanded that they hang out with us for the
evening -- no one seemed too put out by this. We walked to the temple, all
the while feeling the changes in the air. More dust from people leaving,
actual garbage on the playa from careless burners. We got close to the
temple and again a huge circle was marked out by Rangers, keeping everyone
safe. The Temple of Joy was actually much larger than the Man, at least
60-70 feet in height and much wider and more solid, so safety precautions
were definitely warranted. We again found great seats near the front, and
settled ourselves. At this point we noticed something different: everyone
was completely quiet. Where 29,000 people last night were cheering,
talking, sharing, and celebrating, tonight the remaining 20,000 (guessing)
were silent. Not quiet, but almost completely silent.

Close to the time, we started hearing singing filtering across the emptiness
towards us. We were on the opposite side from the "front" of the temple,
where any ceremonies might be happening, but we could see right through the
centre of the temple and could tell something was happening. We saw what
looked like a small burn, possibly of the large temple accessory-piece on
the ground, and we heard an operatic voice singing Amazing Grace. Remember,
the Temple is often called the Mausoleum, and was primarily for remembrance.
During the entire song, the only thing we could hear was several thousand
people breathing, and the occasional voice singing softly along.

It's very hard to describe this scene, because I've never before been in one
place with 20,000 people and had it be so quiet. The flames started to
spread in the structure -- again, it was all plywood, and it caught quickly.
The flames at their peak reached over 150 feet into the sky, and though we
were at least 500 metres from the temple we felt much too close and could
barely keep our eyes towards it. The heat was both unbearable and
absolutely bearable, almost needed. Still, silence.

We watched the structure burn for what seemed like hours, days -- strong
wood takes a while to burn, and we had nowhere else to be. Finally the
structure started to falter, and the upper floors of the building fell in,
and shortly after the last piece upright toppled. It was only at this point
that noise began, a gentle cheer that grew in volume, accompanied by
whistles and clapping. It was very much a release.

The crowd moved in towards the fire, with some dancing, singing, praying,
watching. Several people just kneeled in front of the fire and watched.
No, witnessed is a better word.

The next morning we departed very early, beating the traffic handily. We
stayed at a cushy KOA campground on the way home, indulging ourselves with
multiple hot showers and a dip in the pool. We also visited an amazing
steak restaurant where we stuffed ourselves silly -- and where we plan to do
so again next time! We made excellent time, and Pete got home a day early.
Elyse and I tried to do the same trick, but our attempt was blown out of the
water by that damned Sanford Fleming and his standard time -- we were right
on schedule, but then suddenly an hour behind schedule!! So we drove to
Banff and enjoyed the park (with bear tracks!) before getting back to
Edmonton.

Having been, I have a completely different way of thinking about Burning
Man, and I regret not one second of my time getting there or experiencing
it. Would I go back? In a second. Will I go back? Regularly. Will you
come with me? I hope you will.

Cam