Treating myself

My first year at Burning Man, I had pretty much nothing in the way of frills. Yes, I had a great tent, which was already part of my camping gear, and I bought a really cheap piece of unedged shadecloth, so I was comfortable. And I had a really nice bike, so I had to spend the few bucks I had on things like silicone and good chain lube to protect it. All I had to light up my bike and myself was a package of crappy glow sticks, an old bike taillight, and an old headlamp. I bought 4 really cheap solar lights for my camp. Three of them still work. I tied my camp together with old pieces of rope and a few old sheets. Those old ropes gave me fits and I vowed to buy myself good rope for the next time.

My second year, I was able to buy a really nice shadecloth, some paracord, some grommets for my unedged shadecloth, a strand of el wire for my bike, 2 hokeyspokes for my bike, a spare tube, a nice bike light, a combination lock, and a package of LED necklaces. Oh, and one package of tent nails to hold down my patio groundcloth. I thought all that was AWESOME, and of course I still have all that for this year.

This year, however, I’ve had a few extra bucks to spend on upgrading my stuff. That includes some LED fairy lights for my patio, some bungee balls to make my shade setup easier, plenty of paracord, lots more tent nails for my even bigger patio floor (with glow in the dark tops, lol), and a portable, battery-operated fan for afternoon naps. And I’ll have even more solar lights for my camp, because my husband keeps buying them for the field trips that are part of his job and then letting me use them. I’m also lucky that I always get to borrow a yeti from his work. All this makes me feel like I’m styling at a fancy condo.

I have one special desire I’m saving up for. I really want to rent a little (the smallest) cargo trailer to carry my bike and cooler. That would drastically reduce the time and effort it takes to pack, unpack, and repack my camp. Packing everything into my little Nissan truck can be a very tiresome game of Tetris, and I can’t really pre-pack a day before I leave Burning Man because everything has to fit in a certain place not related to when it has to be used last. The trailer would eliminate that. If I can save up another $200, I can get the trailer.

I can’t really afford to spend much on gifts, so I bring some extra beer, a few pocket rocks (I’m a geologist),  some extra dolls, and a willingness to do some volunteering (hoping to stop by lamplighters a few times this year). Last year I brought some extra canned food for the folks who stay and clean up the city, but I forgot to put it where I could get at it, and it ended up buried somewhere in Tetris Truck. I won’t make that mistake again.

I have a respirator, but last year I couldn’t afford to replace the used filters, so I left it home. This year I’ll get those filters and throw the respirator in. I really prefer just a bandanna, rather than masks or respirator, but it would be nice to have it if we get a really big dust storm.

Overall, I’m very pleased about what I have this year, and I’m looking forward to a fun and comfortable week in Black Rock City. See you in the dust!

My shadecloth and tarps

I got out all of my shade stuff the other day. I needed to put grommets on the black shadecloth, and I hadn’t actually gotten my aluminet/white shadecloth out of the box. I was missing two tarps, a green one I planned to use as the base for my patchwork patio floor, and a small silver one. Husband located both of them at work the next day. Yay! I’ll get out my new patio floor soon and take a picture. It is fun and goofy and I like it.

My black shadecloth is nice and big but lacked grommets. I bought some clip-on ones to try. I’m too lazy to measure and get them all just right, so I just slapped a bunch of the suckers all over the edges.

My pretty new shadecloth is aluminet on one side and white shadecloth on the other. It came with proper edging and grommets.

I’m pretty happy with my shade materials.  Since it will just be me and my little stepladder putting up all this stuff, it will most likely be crooked and askew, but there will be lots of shade. I’m into comfort. I may not be able to afford or build tent coolers or mister setups, but my little palace will be ultra-comfortable.

Hydration

Somebody posted this article on the BMP Facebook page.  It focuses on the misconceptions people have about hydration. This is particularly useful before people head out to Black Rock City. I touched briefly on problems with over-hydration and dehydration in another post, but this article gives more information.

I have never, in my entire life, been able to drink 8 glasses of water a day (except that time the ER made me drink a gallon of water before an ultrasound). I just can’t. Maybe if I didn’t drink beer or coffee, I could drink that much, but I would seriously have to work at it. Yes, I’m small, which is part of it. And my genetic code is mostly northern latitude (yes, your genetics do play a role in sweating and thirst). So I don’t need as much water as somebody larger than me who sweats a lot, and I don’t tend to crave it. I tend to drink coconut water every day to counteract my no-water genes.

The key points of the article are to listen to your body and use common sense.  It seems to me that aside from some people with health issues, the only population that is really at risk from dehydration in BRC is the heavy partying crazy crowd. The people who get so carried away that they never sober up enough to notice that they are thirsty. Sure, Burning Man is a hell of a party, but from what I’ve seen, most Burners getting ready for a day and night of craziness pack some common sense and moderation with their water bottles. Yes, a lot of them have to hydrate away the next-day headache, but that can happen after a Saturday night in your home town.

The article mentions that water can help reduce the chance of heat stroke, but that water is not the only factor. Heat stroke is about the body being too hot. Dehydration makes that worse, but dehydration and heat stroke are not the same thing.  If you are heading toward heat stroke, drinking more water while pedaling around in the sun is not really going to stop it. You need SHADE. Your body desperately needs to COOL DOWN. Plop yourself down in some shade NOW, mist yourself with your spray bottle, start sipping your water or electrolyte drink, and stay put. Have a light snack after you have brought your body temperature down.

I was once on a field trip to the Grand Canyon, in August (eyeroll, don’t ask). The group had planned to spend the day at the river after hiking down the Lava Falls trail near Vulcan’s Throne. That trail is brutal. Straight up and down on black lava rock. The ranger made a point of telling our group NOT to be on that hill in the middle of the day. But we had an idiot in the group who was also a control freak. And I was new to the group and new to Arizona, so I was trying to get along. This idiot decided, after we were all happily ensconced along the river, that we all needed to hike back up right then (why everybody went along with this I don’t know). I was well hydrated and in good physical shape, but I had just moved there from the coast and was not used to the heat.  I started developing heat exhaustion/heat stroke symptoms within a half hour of starting the return climb. I was shivering and having tunnel vision. It didn’t take me long to realize what was happening, and I STOPPED. I found a patch of shade and spent the next 4 hours sitting in that shade waiting for the sun to get off the slope. I drank every bit of water I had, drank a whole gallon of the emergency water the ranger had on the trail (oops, there’s another time in my life when I had more than 8 glasses of water), and was bored stiff with the view when I finally headed up the hill. But I was alive, and no helicopters had to be called. And I never spoke to that idiot again. AND I stopped assuming that other people had common sense. Never go against your gut.

Anyway, here is the link to the hydration article. Use it to examine your own water-drinking habits and misconceptions, and let’s get together on the playa, in the shade, for a cold beer.

http://www.runnersworld.com/drinks-hydration/8-hydration-myths-busted?cm_mmc=Facebook-_-RunnersWorld-_-Content-Nutrition-_-8HydrationMyths

Information about Lava Falls Trail:

http://www.ohranger.com/grand-canyon/poi/lava-falls-trail

Here is a description of somebody hiking the Lava Falls Trail:

Toroweap Grand Canyon National Park April 21/22, 2001

Lava Falls Route

This trip began with a trip down the Lava Falls Route at the terminus of the Toroweap Valley. The Lava Falls Route is oftentimes referred to as a “trail” but it is not. Although it is only 1.5 miles from the trailhead to the Colorado River, the descent is an amazing 2,500’. Legend says that the NPS ranger at Toroweap from 1942-1980, John Riffey, built the trail down the crumbly ancient lava flow, but it is probably an ancient Anasazi route.

I drove my little Neon to just past the Toroweap Lake before I was forced to park and walk the rest of the way. I signed the register and started down about 7:30 am. There is not much of a view unless you stop to rest and look around. I spent most of my time looking just ahead of my feet! The cinders are slippery, and the rocks all loose. Although really well marked, the route required rough scrambling.

Just before the final descent down the chute with extremely loose scree and cinders I saw my first Rattlesnake of the year, a Great Basin Rattler. A real beauty, light brown with dark well defined splotches, about 18 inches long! She never even rattled, just calmly moved away out of the path of my big Solomon hiking boot. I saw my only Pink on this route in the eighties. The meanest snake I have ever seen, it was at eye level and hissing and rattling to beat the band!

It was impossible to move down the scree with out sending rocks and cinders sliding down below. Be very careful with other hikers below on this section.

I arrived above Lava Falls in at 9:00 am. John Riffey said an average hiker should take 2 hours down to the river. Harvey says it took him 67 minutes on a “warm day in August”, so I guess my 1.5 hours means I’m a bit above average. In 2000 they had to rescue 12 hikers off the Lava Falls Route with the helicopter! I suspect most people should spend the entire day making the round trip! Don’t be deceived by the short length of the route.

Many plants were in still in bloom. Hedgehog Cactus, Indian Paintbrush, and creosote to name just a few. It was fun to see many big Barrel Cactus standing guard over the great Chasm!

The return is slow and steep. Please fill up with water at the river and rest in the shade. It will take at least twice as long to return to the rim.

http://www.grandcanyontreks.org/torowea2.htm

Staying cool

Having spent much of my adult life camping or living in desert conditions, my idea of staying cool is pretty much sitting in the shade  drinking a cold beer. For traveling coolness, I keep a spray bottle in my car (no AC in my old car). That’s about as high tech as I get when it comes to temperature comfort.

We did end up with an old truck we use for road trips that just happens to have AC. VERY nice. I can remember one summer in Nevada when my hair was permanently windblown from driving back and forth across the state with all of my windows down (you have to turn your tape deck way up too).

So I certainly have some interest when I see all of these Burning Man conversations about ways to stay cool. Most of them involve some type of AC, be it regular, swamp cooler, or some home-built cooler. I see lots of talk about misting systems too. The misting talks spurred me to add my garden sprayer to my packing list. I can wet down my shade cloth with that.

As for the AC setups, maybe one of these days I’ll finally have that little camper to take to BRC and then I’ll really be interested in the possibility of AC. Until then, I’ve got my shade, my garden sprayer, my assortment of spray bottles, my cold beer, and my deep appreciation of shade.

Shade

My economy piece of black shadecloth worked just fine in 2011, but it was a very mild year. This year I’m hoping to upgrade to better shadecloth, as well as adding some grommets to my black shadecloth. I came across a great site for buying shadecloth at very reasonable prices.

http://www.catalogclearance.com/products/burningmanshadecloth__knittedshadecloth.html

Check out the desert festival shadecloth. It’s a combination of white shadecloth and Aluminet. There are several variations to fit different budgets. I just earned a little extra money, so I’m going to invest in shadecloth.

I bought the 12 by 12 desert festival shadecloth. I’m thrilled. It should last a few years if I treat it well. It cost me $154 including shipping.