San Diego burners,

Here’s everything I’ve posted to the group over the years about getting ready for the burn, sorted by subject instead of by date, and folded together so each topic reads as one list instead of a dozen separate posts.

Camp

  • Tent, trailer, truck camper, motorhome — all a tradeoff of cost, comfort, storage, and how much you actually use it the other 50 weeks a year.
  • Set up and actually check your tent before you go — poles, tears, missing pieces, whatever got left inside last year. Hose it down after, and camp out in it for a night if you can — keeps it rain-repellent and surfaces problems before playa does.
  • Even a tent that survives fine can lose its shade structure to the wind. Plan for that separately.
  • Any and all devices in a camper — heat, power, AC, propane, water, gray or brown water, axles, generator, etc — may not work. They may work fine at home and then quit on the desert. Try them all out at home first anyway.
  • For most tents, lag bolts are great. 10" to 14" depending on the size of the tent. Bring a battery impact wrench and the correct size socket.
  • EZ-Ups are a real gamble — staked hard with ratchet straps added, they’re still basically a kite waiting for its moment. They’re harder to bring home once they’re mangled.
  • Heavy-duty EZ-Ups beat big-box ones. Pulling the cover to run shade cloth or camo net instead cuts your sail area a lot.
  • Carports are wind magnets, especially if the sides aren’t attached or they aren’t strapped down well. All sides should be attached — use more ratchet straps than you think you need, into long lag bolts, and consider straps over the top as well.
  • EMT-conduit (Black Rock Hardware style) with a flat roof lets wind pass instead of catching it, but isn’t great in rain. Nothing survives both at once except an enclosed trailer or motorhome.
  • Playa wind reports run “absurdly strong” more mornings than not. Stake like you mean it. You never know when a windstorm is going to come along when you’re on the other side of the city.
  • Aluminet over the top of a shelter helps - helps more if there’s a foot or two of space in between. Attach it with clamps rather than straps that can wreck it.
  • When you get home, hose the dust off everything and put it away. Use vinegar spray if needed. Try Calgon too.

Sleep

  • Sleep-mask trick for staying asleep past sunrise: a cup-shaped mask that keeps pressure off your eyes. Cheap, not washable, beats wrapping a t-shirt around your head.
  • Set your car up so you can actually sleep in it if you have to — you got tired driving, there’s an accident up ahead, the gate’s closed, a dust storm hits right as you pull in. Better to have a plan than not.
  • Cot rec: REI Kingdom Cot. Comfortable, doubles as a lounge chair, folds up (though not exactly small). About $60.
  • Other cot rec: Teton XXL.
  • Don’t forget the air mattress inflator.

Cook

  • Shelf-stable is the way to go if you’re out there a while — dry/canned/just-add-water lasts the week, sometimes years.
    • Favorites: bacon jerky, nori, Tasty Bites, V8, canned corn, beans, tuna, Spam (single-serve, cooked is better), soups, shrink-wrapped carne asada, small bags of cookies.
  • Avoid glass, avoid packages too big to finish in one sitting, avoid anything that’ll make a stink once it’s open.
  • Bread/crackers/tortillas dry out fast once opened — plan around that rather than fight it.
  • Set up your camp stove and cook a few things outdoors before you go, and check the cooler too — same logic as the tent: better to find out it’s dead in the driveway.
  • Dishwashing: pick your effort level.
    • Full three-bucket Boy Scout method (wash, rinse, sanitize) if you’re cooking for a crowd — but dishwater is MOOP too, so you’re hauling all three buckets back out with you.
    • One bucket, a little biodegradable soap, a scrubber, wipe the worst off before it dries on — the realistic middle ground.
    • Easier: one pot, one plate, one cup per person, wiped clean before anything cakes on, then spray washed and rinsed. You basically never need a real wash.
    • Cheapest: open a can, eat with the spoon, lick the spoon.

Bathe

  • Effort level:
    • Easy: Baby wipes
    • Simple: Garden sprayer or bag shower
    • Overland: Box shower, water port or RinseKit
    • Luxe: Actual set up shower with frame or shower tent, curtains, drain pan and evap pond and carry any remaining water home
  • Shower water is moop. In some cases, nasty icky moop.
  • For evap, the less water you use the less you need to evap.
    • I use a concrete mixing pan to stand in, with a doormat, and try for 1g of water or less.
  • Mo hair mo problems.

Bike

  • Don’t have a bike yet? Start shopping used. A 20-year-old bike out of a dry garage is often good to go with a tube and some chain lube. Heavier, sure, and the components aren’t great — but it’s not a budget-breaker when it gets destroyed, stolen, or borrowed and never returned, which happens.
  • Ride the actual bike you’re taking, every weekend if you can, starting now — not just the week before. Wash, lube, and tune it while you’re at it — don’t let playa be the first stress test.
  • Electric bikes:
    • Dust and electronics don’t mix well — battery contacts and connectors are worth sealing or covering.
    • Figure out charging before you go (solar, generator, or a fully-charged spare battery) — there’s no outlet out there.
    • Heavier and a bigger theft target than a regular bike, so lock it like you mean it.
  • Trikes:
    • Great seating position, terrible to carry on a bike rack.
    • Recumbent doubles as a playa lounge chair.
  • Lights:
    • Buy a package of them and attach them all over.
    • Some require batteries, some require charging - plan ahead
    • Spoke lights look cool but are some work to attach.
  • Packing bikes: pull the pedals and turn the handlebars sideways so multiple bikes lay flatter together.
  • Lock every bike to the rack, hitch, or trailer — they get stolen en route, not just on playa. Bring two keys if you can, to everything.

Gear

  • The month before, organize a local “gear swap”
  • Curb season overlaps prep season. Rugs, chairs, sofas, umbrellas, scrap wood people are throwing out are all fair game for camp.
  • Pallets and scrap lumber will “playa” fine if you’re willing to haul them — just plan to burn them when you’re done, don’t haul them home.
  • Don’t store batteries inside devices between burns. If the device is going in a bin till next year, pull the batteries too.
  • Corroded battery contacts aren’t a reason to toss the flashlight. Pull the batteries (careful with the gunk), dunk the corroded holder in vinegar. Wait for the bubbling to stop, rinse, and let it dry overnight before new batteries go in.
  • Empty and bleach your water containers before you refill them for the season.
  • Label everything
    • Most missing stuff isn’t stolen, it’s just lost. A name on it is your only real shot at getting it back.
    • Name, nickname, phone, email, camp if you know it.
    • Marker, labelmaker, engraver, whatever works.
    • Notebook, camera, water bottle, backpack, phone, bike, medications — anything you don’t want to lose.

Drive

  • Get the car checked out well before you leave, not the week of.
    • Priority: tires, cooling system, belts and hoses, AC, battery.
    • Skip washing and the air filter unless they really need it — that can wait till you’re home.
    • For trailers: check tire pressure (often higher than car tires) and grease the wheel bearings — cheap to maintain, catastrophic when they fail.
  • It’s hot the whole way and it matters.
    • Get the cooling system serviced, hydrate for the month before (not just the drive), keep water and shade accessible.
    • Know what you’d actually do if you broke down on the Spooky Desert route specifically — there’s real nothing out there.
  • The Victorville-to-Olancha stretch is the worst of it.
    • Check your coolant before you leave and bring an extra bottle.
    • Slow down on the grades, don’t push the AC and the engine at the same time.
    • Crossing early morning or after dark beats crossing at 2pm every time.
  • Manzanar is worth the stop if you have the time, before more of that history gets erased. If you don’t have time, at least take in the eastern Sierra scenery.
  • Country Meat Store in Bishop is another good stop, along with a burger at Schatt’s Roadhouse and jalapeno cheese bread at the Bakkery.
  • Wave at other burners as you pass — permastare or not.
  • Stopping at Home Depot in Reno during burn week is its own special kind of chaos. “One does not simply walk in.”
  • The car maintenance you’re avoiding when you get home is still owed. Pop the hood, wash it out.

Pack

  • There’s the omnibus list — everything you might conceivably want, across every trip you’ve ever taken — and there’s the minimal list. Aim for as little as you think you NEED, and leave the rest of the room for costumes and fun stuff.
  • Two months out, start opening the dusty bins. You’ll find stuff you don’t need anymore and get a head start on remembering what you actually own.
  • Sort your gear, resist buying more just because it’s cheap or convenient, and figure out what you genuinely don’t need to bring this year.
  • Three weekends out, run the category checklist: clothes, camp, personal gear, bike, food, travel plans, camp plans.
  • Make a new checklist every year and compare it against last year’s — don’t trust memory alone.
  • Even after doing this a bunch of times, the struggle doesn’t fully go away — how many outfits for ten days, are all the trailer lights working, is there a spare bike tube, a spare chair, extra ratchet straps.
  • Much of what you bring won’t get used, and most of what you forget, someone else will have or you’ll live without. That’s fine.

Play

  • Photographers: carry business cards with your photo site on them to hand out — after you’ve gotten permission — so people can find their photos later.
  • Carry a notepad too, since not everyone out there has pockets, and jot down playa names and contact info on the spot.