A Burning Man Blog by Mike

For detailed pics of our Burning Man adventure go here.

Below are pics of the Yurt as it was installed and our journey to Burning Man.

Here is the slow traffic that took two hours to get through on I-80 due to construction. There was a motorhome that I had diagnosed with a flooding carb, sitting on the side of the road. Those guys were great. I meant to visit them but never got around to it.

Bill’s car had taken a nail in the tire at the truck stop near by. So we were lead to this tire shop across from Walmart in Fernley Nevada.

We arrived at 3 am in their parking lot and slept in our cars until they opened. The van in the background is Karly’s van. We met here at the same truck stop and she tagged along with us all the way to Burning Man. We never saw her after that. Although some woman came knocking on my Yurt at 5:30 am the next morning. I did not hear her with my earplugs in. Bill did hear her, that’s how we know. We are guessing that it was Karly.

Here is the dusty road into the playa. Those are cars in the background stirring up that dust. We were arriving about noon.

Here is the greeting sign at Burning Man.

Yurt pics installed at Burning Man at the end of the week. The door gaps were the only thing in the entire Yurt that leaked any dust. Granted, foot traffic carried some in as well. One suggestion I liked from the lady across the street was to lay down bed sheets on the floor so that just taking them outside and shaking them off would make for a cleaner environment.

Here is the table where I stashed everything. It was worth bringing the table. The clear totes become so clouded with dust on the outside of them that labels will be used next time.

Here I used my spare canvas cloth to push the roof up and help close the door gaps. The problem was that the poles and roof would settle a bit and the door gaps would open up again.

The next couple pics are of the interior seams that needed to be held closed with tape. They kept the dust out nicely.

After staking down the blue tarp to the ground, and assembling & staking the Yurt on top of it, I taped the walls to the tarp. The ground was not level and so there were gaps under the edges of the walls to the outside. The tape sealed it out nicely. This 6 inch wide tape had lousy adhesive, but held fine in this application. In fact, when it was time to remove the tape it came off easily in several long pieces. That was nice!

Here is the Yurt as it was installed. Bill and I made a nice corner for ourselves. The plywood for transporting the Yurt made for a nice wind and dust break. So did the wagon and trailer.

Here is our setup from the skating surface area.

I never though I’d let my new boots get so dusty. But it just became part of my surrender to the playa dust. The traction of the skating surface was insanely great.

I used Bill’s large light for a night light. It lasted all week without charging.

Here is the corner where some miscellaneous stuff was kept.

Here is a week’s buildup of playa dust on the anchors. The anchors never came loose. Using 10 and 12 inch nails angled into the ground 60 degrees apart worked nicely.

Here is one of the locations where a piece of tape was added to seal out the dust. It might make for a handy attachment point for lights and interior hanging cloths in the future. The canvas and weather stripping did a great job of sealing out the playa dust.

Here is a complete anchoring corner. With 4 long nails staking this corner into the ground, it’s hard to imagine it ever pulling up.

Not much of a gap to get into the wagon, but I just used the other side of the wagon instead.

Here are a couple of the pieces used for me to get into the scooter. The scooter is not pictured as I have already packed it into the car.

I used a small blue tarp as a front porch so that it would help keep dust from being tracked in as much. Not sure how much it helped in the end.

Here is how and where I stored almost everything. Notice how cloudy the outside of the totes became. I ended up doing far more searching that I wanted too. Next time they get labels.

Here are a couple of shots of our neighbors Yurt interior. She used this wire shelving to organize their stuff.

Here is the box that the wire shelving came in from Target.

Here is our great buddy Officer Ray, at the truck stop in Furnley Nevada where so much great conversation occurred. Ray took fantastic care of us when Bill had a flat tire and when I was ticked off about not getting to Burning Man on time. Ray also helped our new found friend Karry with advice about her druggy boyfriend. Ray is a huge asset to the community out in Fernley. We will definitely be looking him up when we go back to Burning Man or through the area for any reason. This pic was taken as we were leaving Burning Man. So I was able to catch Ray up on how things went during the week.

The was the right rear tire from the wagon. In Sacramento on the way home, I heard a bang. I had Bill drive around the wagon as we cruised down I-80. He didn’t see any issues. This tire went 120 miles, getting me home, before it went flat. I had no idea it was in this condition the whole time. Used tires show to be a bad investment once again. The next day I used the spare and it blew all of the tread off as it was actually a recap. No more used tires.

For detailed pics of our Burning Man adventure go here.

The wagon got 3 new coolant hoses and a radiator cap. They were toasted. The fan belt for the water pump was lose too. I put in too much coolant so now I am draining a little at a time and adding water to bring the ratio down. Then the air conditioning will get evacuated and recharged. The wiring for the trailer needs to be added and the tires need balancing.

The scooter still needs the cracked wheel changed and the 4th battery pack added. I doubt I’ll have time to add the lighting. It also needs some kind of cloth attached around the perimeter to keep the playa dust out.

Tonight I cut the front door opening in panel #3. That took some guts! Then I sewed up the zippers for the door. Some ground anchors will have to added to each side of the door to make the #3 panel more stable. All of the cutting has made it more unstable. But it has to have a front door. I went with a 6 foot tall front door.

Yesterday was the the first time the Hexayurt was assembled completely. It took maybe only 10-15 minutes. It sure felt like less. We did it in Bill’s back yard. The ladder was needed to hold the roof up initially. I thought Bill could hold it for me as I zipped the roof together. But since the walls are not hinged together as I had originally planned, they tend to float in and out freely and have to be held vertically so they keep the roof panels aligned while I zip the roof together. I could make a vertical post to temporarily hold the first couple of roof panels up. The ladder will strap onto the side of the trailer so we’ll probably just take it.

Here is the interior of the Yurt! We left one section out to be able to better photograph the insides. I purposely left all of the blue writing on the interior of the Yurt so that it would absorb as little heat as possible. You can see the black zippers on the ceiling. They are plenty strong enough in shear. The material used was just basic canvas duck. The adhesive was just Liquid Nails.

You can just seem my hand as I’m opening one of 3 roof hatches. With the door, this will be handy to ventilate the Yurt when it cools off after sunset.

I’m only a few feet in front of the Yurt. Bill’s lense makes the Yurt look a little smaller.