Burning Man - Post Event

I stayed for nine days after the event to help clean up the desert. Cleaning up the desert involves removing all traces of the event. First the participants go. The responsible ones do a fine job of leaving no trace. The irresponsible ones leave behind their garbage knowing that 'someone will take care of it'. What gets left behind is sometimes more than just a bag of garbage. Bicycles by the hundreds are left. There was even an abandoned vehicle - the engine was blown - and a camper was left as well at another location. All this stuff has to be removed somehow.

After all the participants have gone it's up to the remaining staff to remove all structures - trailers, small wooden buildings, all vehicles, container units, and massive generators. In addition all the cable that's been buried needs to be hauled back to the surface. Posts that were once a part of larger structures need to be pulled up. And of course there's the 17 miles of fence that needs to go.

While all that is going on there's another part of the clean up going on as well. Every little piece of MOOP (Matter Out Of Place) needs to be lifted from the dirt and removed. This is a meticulous job and has to be done over several square miles. I participated in doing this combing for debris over the area where we camped and I picked up even individual strands of hair at times. Nothing is felt if it is seen. The trouble often arises with all the shifting wind and dust we had that can bury things under a light layer. So we even raked the ground to help us find things that may have been missed the first time over.

After nine days, I decided it was time for me to hit the road. There was a staff that would stay til the beginning of October. But I'd been there for 5 weeks already. I'd been traveling since early April. I hit my wall and needed a change of scenery.