Wednesday, September 13, 2023
Mike Lee called it "God's Judgment," but veteran Burners were prepared for a muddy Burning Man
Urban Living
Posted By Babs De Lay on September 13, 2023, 4:00 AM
I had to laugh—being a veteran "Burner" for almost two decades—at the social media and news posts about Burning Man this past Labor Day weekend, such as: Utah Sen. Mike Lee declaring the flood on the playa as "God's judgment" on us for "for engaging in lewd and sexually charged events at the festival"; hearing that all of us had Ebola; reading the National Guard had been called out to control the 72,000 of us stuck in the mud those days.
We got one inch of rain. And for an area that gets a total of six inches per year ... that was a lot in a short period of time.
The desert itself always has extreme weather and temps, as evidenced by 2022's "Burn With Heat" when we had 103 degrees in the afternoons along with high winds that caused white-out conditions and made the playa impassable. Most of us come equipped with extra tarps, water, food, spare tires, trailers, RVs and the like.
Newbies (we used to call them "virgins" before Burning Man got woke) often don't come prepared and bring tents without enough preparation for rain.
When it rains out there—and it does—Burners are told to stay in place and to find shelter as fast as possible. The playa, which is on BLM and Paiute lands, is like the Bonne-ville Salt Flats in that it's a really flat, hard, packed surface—most of the time. As the salt flats have salt as the base, the playa has alkaline dirt that acts like clay when wet.
Burning Man only provides port-a-potties to its citizens. And for those who didn't have a trailer or RV, you had to wear plastic bags on your feet and slide to the johns—or wear socks because the mud doesn't stick as much for some reason. But the sticky clay-like mud will accumulate between 4- and 6-inches thick on shoe soles, bike tires and car tires. And you can't move!
It took a few days for the desert to dry out, but we discovered the playa wasn't completely flat, as certain areas continued to be flooded lake-front property, even through the exodus.
You likely saw on social media the 10-lanes of vehicles leaving the playa, which for them took 6 to 12 hours to get from dirt to tarmac. We left at 4:30 a.m., and there was no wait line, because we know not to leave during the Burning Man rush hours.
Lots of other folks wanted to escape early, and there was evidence of cars stuck in the mud from too-early of a retreat home.
And, of course, you saw Diplo and Chris Rock, who had hiked 5 or 6 miles out to flag down a fan to get them home? They most likely flew into the playa, and with the mud, no planes were leaving our unique airport that was built from scratch and taken down just after the event.
About The Author
Babs De Lay
A full-time broker/owner of Urban Utah Homes and Estates, Babs De Lay serves on the Salt Lake City Historic Landmark Commission. A writer and golfer, you'll find them working as a staff guardian at the Temple at Burning Man each year.
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