Burning Man

Day 138 - "Excuse me, do you know anyone going to Burning Man?" "Excuse me, do you know anyone going to Burning Man?" "Excuse me, do you know anyone going to Burning Man?" After a morning stroll along the beach (where we saw more sea lions than people) and through the Redwoods, we hitched back to Arcata. Since then, I've been trying non-stop to hustle a ride to Burning Man. No small feat since school starts this week and everyone is coming into town, not leaving. - Staggerin' Willie

8/27-
Day 139 - Today is Sunday, tomorow is Burning Man, and we have found our hero. After hitting up half of the population of Arcata for a ride to Nevada, I found Mark Goldhawk, who is leaving early Monday morning and has room for all three of us! Not only do we have a ride, but we got to spend an entire unhurried day strolling around town buying food and trinkets. Now it is Sunday night, I have just shaved off most of my hair and beard, and Rachel is dying her hair blue. Bring on Burning Man! Thanks, Mark for the ride and hospitality!! - Staggerin' Willie

Day 139 - Two days of off-trail magic. Pickle and I came into Seiad Valley expecting to hitch hike up to Ashland, Oregon and try to arrange for rides to Burning Man for all five Vegetables and our packs. Both of those tasks turned out to be nearly impossible and also unnecessary. We met two thru-hikers this week, Black Bear and Sparrowhawk, and they met a friend named John in Seiad Valley. During lunch we realized that John was hiking to Ashland with them and then hitching back for his car. Generous and trusting soul that he is, he let us thake his car up to Ashland and leave it for him. As we drove out to Route 5 we realized that the hitch would have been highly unlikely. Thanks, John.
When we got to Ashland (much earlier than we expected) we started asking the interesting-looking people if they knew anyone going to Burning Man. We immediately got connected with a woman named Asha Deliverance. Asha owns a company called Pacific Domes that builds geodesic domes. People buy these domes to live in, but some people bring them out to Burning Man. Her son had left the night before with a 60 ft. diameter dome, but she gave us the names of other people in Ashland going to Burning Man. She also invited us to her house to spend the night and have dinner (and a birthday celebration for a friend) with her family. We all even went down to the High School to hear Winona LaDuke speak. These people (and the domes they build) are amazing. Very generous souls. Thank you so much Asha.
In Seiad we had recieved a message from the other three Veggies that they would not be in Ashland and would see us at Burning Man. This was a good thing, because everyone going to Burning Man has extremely full vehicles and no extra room. We were getting worried after 24 hours in Ashland until we met a yound woman named Mia. Mia was part of a caravan, but had one spare seat in her Honda Civic. Her friend, Rylan volunteered to tie a backpack to his roof, she said she could tie the other to her roof, and Pickle and I could share the one seat. I'm sure this sounds uncomfortable (and it was until we got the positioning right) but we got to Black Rock City 6 hours later on Sunday night, a day earlier than we had even hoped. We had a great time talking with Mia and set up camp with her crew for the night since our crew had not yet arrived. Thank you, Mia, and welcome to Burning Man. - Squirrelfight

8/28-
Day 140 - Jeezus nothing is ever easy is it? We're not at Burning Man. We are camped in the dirt by the side of the road in the utter middle of absolute nowhere beside Mark's truck. Which has a flat tire, a flat spare tire, and a broken brake cable. I'm not in a very good mood right now. - Staggerin' Willie

It is probably not something we have mentioned on the laptop before, but we pee outside. All the time. The rule is to stay 200+ feet from water. I've been to Burning Man for three years and, like in the wild, I pee outside, everyone does. This is a barren alakli flat and with 90+ degree desert temperatures, urin evaporates quickly.
Today when nature called, a Bureau of Land Management officer got all over my case and gave me a $50 ticket. In an environment so full of community and friendlinedd this woman was especially mean. It took me about five minutes of peaceful conversation before she warmed up and began to treat me like a fellow human being (she still gave me the ticket). I talked to her about the etiquitte of "depositing human waste" in the outdoors and I learned a few things about Nevada law. We all know that gambling is legal here. She told me if I did not have my ID she would bring me to jail (for peeing without ID?). She also told me they could give me a much larger ticket for "smoking outside of a closed vehicle." Smoking outdoors. She also told me that prostitution is legal. Burning Man is a strange place, but Nevada is twisted. - Squirrelfight
p.s. Even the Burning Man officials were unaware of this law. It is posted now here.

8/29-
Day 141 - Tuesday morning. We are in Gerlach, Nevada now. Burning man is minutes away. Just past dawn, we were saved by a road crew foreman named Daryl (thankyouthankyouthankyou) who threw all of our stuff in his truck and drove us the 50-odd miles to town. Now my "satan hair" is fully activated, and we are ready to make that final hitch. Waa-Hoo!!!! - Staggerin' Willie

Day 141 - Yipee! Reunited with the rest of the Vegetables! After a trying journey we have finally made it to Burning Man. After leaving the Redwoods, Rachel, Ezra and I hitched into Arcata. While Rachel and I indulged ourselves in the comforts of civilization, Ezra hit the streets circulating fliers and talking to everyone in search of a ride to the festival. We were certain that someone must be going, and lo and behold, one person was, and he had ample room in his truck. Mark was incredibly generous, letting us use his bathroom for weird haircuts and dye jobs and his backyard for sleeping. And yesterday morning the four of us headed off for Nevada, expecting to be at Burning Man that night. All went very smoothly until we decided to take the shortcut (40 miles of twisty dirt roads through about as nowhere as a road can get) and sure enough, 20 miles in we blew a tire. And sure enough, as soon as we lowered the truck onto the spare, it blew too. We went to sleep that night about as stuck as I've ever been. But the world provides, and the next morning at dawn I heard a truck rumbling towards us. He dropped off a bicycle tire that had flown from ours and when he heard our woeful tale, gave us a ride to Gerlach, just outside of Burning Man. These things always seem to work out in the end. - Kaptain Krumholz

Day 141 - The Menaging Vegetables reunited today after nearly a week and a half. Ben, Rachel and Ezra arrived in Black Rock City this morning and found us setting up our camp for the week. The city is the fastest growing city in the world and by mid week it becomes the third largest city in Nevada. I feel very far from the trail here. - Jonny

"'And now,' cried Max,'let the wild rumpus start'" - Maurice Sendak

Day 140-147 - Burning Man - Most valuable Commodity on the Playa: Toilet Paper

Similarities between the PCT and Burning Man
- Both are outside
- You have to walk everywhere
- Everyone is dirty
- LEAVE NO TRACE
- There is a lot to see
- People are generally friendly and a bit strange
- Water is very important
- We wish Tanner was here
- Most people have never heard of it
- It is not for everyone

9/5-
Day 48 - It's Tuesday and I'm at a giant hotel in Reno, more exhausted than I can remember being in a long time. A week of total overload has left all of my senses short-circuited and buzzing, my mind a smoking ruin. What an event! What a party! What an incomparable concentration of art and artists, of music and musicians, of bright lights and wild outfits and fecund creativity in all of its forms. In the past week, I have been more out of touch with the "real world" than at any point on the PCT. Burning Man truly is an alternate reality - 20,000+ people surviving a week on a remote, utterly barren desert playa, thowing art into the face of dust, wind, and rain storms, then throwing all that is left into giant bonfires on the last day. I found the event incredibly artistically inspiring, although coming straight off the trail, I was unable to properly prepare. I am full of ideas for my next visit. And there definitely will be a next visit. - Staggerin' Willie

Day 148 - Yep, it's another transportation miracle. Now woefully without my sweetie, Rachel, the Menacing Vegetables have made it to Seattle. We're staying here for a few days to recover from Burning Man (where we slept little) and prepare for our final month on the trail. - Kaptain Krumholz

Day 148 - I can't write about Burning Man. It was fun. As always it is too difficult to explain. We met some interesting people. A lot of very beautiful people. We saw some creative art. We endured some harsh weather, laughed a lot, and slept very little. It was fun to go with friends who had never been and we missed the friends who could not return from last year. I took some pictures and will leave it ti Tanner to pick a few for the site. If you want some details on The Burning Man event, there is a lot of information on BurningMan.com
Hitching into Reno was easy. The craziness of Black Rock city had adequately prepared us for the bright lights and casino culture of Reno. The Vegetables got a hotel room, showered, slept ni clean sheets, and saw many other Burning People and the casino buffets.
Today we rented a car and drove 16 hours to Seattle, arriving at 5am. Will spend a couple days here visiting friends and preparing for the last leg of our hike. - Jonny

Day 148 - Scott Williamson update: We believe Scott is headed south through Oregon but has not yet made it to the California border. He's still got 1700+ miles to walk. That's a long ways.

This week's ask Squirrelfight-
Tommy Flanagan of New Jersey wonders:
Dear Squirrelfight,
"I have been following your column closely, and frankly, I find a lot of it is a bit hard to swallow. Are these cold, hard facts, or are you just shoving it to us?"

Dear Tommy,
Thanks for writing. - Squirrelfight

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