Brad Trapnell
Many things come to mind whenever someone mentions the over 30-year-old outdoor event known as Burning Man.
Besides the famous finale, where a giant man is burned in effigy, this Nevada-based desert festival boasts an assortment of costumes, art, and even lectures on things like yoga. However, this year, the nearly 70,000 attendees at this six-day event were also privy to a torrential downpour that left many of them stuck in the mud come Monday morning.
Things got so bad, this caravan of half stuck vehicles graced the national news almost like a scene from a modern-day Exodus, post event. One of the many witnesses who escaped a day before this scene took place was Fort Worthian and first time Burning Man attendee Brad Trapnell.
“I've wanted to go to burning man for over 20 years, but you know, life kind of gets in the way. So, I thought now that I’ve turned 50 and my son was off to college, it was now or never,” he says. However, this trip came very close to not happening for the What’s On Tap founder, since tickets to get into Burning Man are in high demand.
Brad Trapnell
“I began looking for tickets back in April,” he says. “I didn't get one then. They also have the last-minute opening in July. I didn't get that either. And at that point, I had given up on the possibility of going. Plus, all the online threads that I read said, ‘Forget it if you don't have a ticket by now, you're not going.’”
Trapnell says he remembered that he had signed up for a secure ticket program back in April, which gives people without tickets a chance to grab an already purchased ticket from someone who could not attend the event. And just like the lottery, his name was picked. With ten days to prep, Trapnell says he grabbed a few old pieces of camping gear, bought a pop-up tent, and mapped out his nearly 30-hour trek to Black Rock, Nevada.
“I actually got a late start,” he says. “I didn't leave until Monday morning and I drove straight through 14 hours each day. When I actually got to Burning Man — I remember it was dark.”
What stuck out in the darkness, almost like a beacon guiding him into the camping grounds, were the lights of the event, which he likened to seeing a city from afar at night.
“The cool thing is, when you get to the final gate, there's a welcoming committee there, and the first thing they say to everyone is, ‘Welcome home,’ which is really kind of cool,” Trapnell says. They'll get you out of the car. They'll give you a hug if you want, and then you ring a bell if you're a first timer.”
Trapnell gladly rung that bell.
After fumbling around in the dark to get his tent set up, Trapnell says he got just a little glimpse of what awaited him in the morning.
“I walked around and checked things out for a minute and was instantly in awe,” he says. “All the lights flashing, the costumes … it was like a sensory overload. I mean, there's so much to look at. Imagine Mardi Gras meets ‘Mad Max’ and it's all on the desert floor.”
Brad Trapnell
For the first few days, Trapnell says the weather was what he was told it was going to be — windy. Add to this the fact that Black Rock has a fine sand like talcum powder that can get in the smallest places like the tiny spaces in between a zipper on a tent. “I knew to wear eye covering and covered my mouth with a bandana,” he says. “This was all explained in the first timer’s guide to the event.”
To be a part of Burning Man, attendees are expected to be “radically self-sufficient.” After all, there is no running water at Burning Man; food is scarce, plus, although there are porta johns, this is an outdoor festival, you do the math.
It would be three days before Trapnell says he saw a drop of rain. Unfortunately, for him, the rain hit while he was having a beer far from his campsite.
“When the rain started coming down, I was actually on the other side of the city, which was close to two miles away,” he opined. “It was already overcast, but when the rain started coming, it started coming really heavy after about maybe 15 minutes.”
Since bikes are the primary mode of transportation at this event, Trapnell says he began riding his back to camp. However, the rain turned the powdery sand into so much sludge, his bike quickly became unusable. “I ditched it at this one guy’s camp and told him I would come back for it later.”
Come Friday evening, he says, everyone just hunkered down, doing their best to stay out of the rain and huge puddles. “By the time they told us to stay in place, they were telling us to conserve our food and water,” he verified. This was an ominous task for Trapnell who missed several major Nevada cities on his long trek. Instead, he says he stopped by a gas station, which was the last place to get supplies before hitting the desert. “I only got a few food items like beef soup and those weenies you get in a can,” he says. “I was dying for a hot meal by the time I got out of there.”
Brad Trapnell
By Saturday, the event organizers locked everything down. The prediction was to have all of the attendees stay on the Burning Man grounds until the following Tuesday. “Saturday, we were supposed to get more rain either Saturday night or Sunday early. Unfortunately, we did, there was a trace amount of rain that fell overnight.”
By the time Sunday morning rolled around, the sun revealed a muddy non passable mess. With more rain in the forecast, Trapnell says he’d had enough, he was going to get out however he could. “I knew if I didn’t get out now, it was going to be awful,” he says. “[There's] going to be catastrophic lines. I decided I was just going to make a run for it and try and see what I could do.”
But Trapnell didn’t make it far. After clearing the outside main camping area, his truck got stuck in a huge puddle. “Fortunately, there was a couple walking right by me that helped me dig my truck out for like an hour. They were up to their ankles in mud. We were all trying to push this thing out and we finally got it and they were just like angels,” he says.
After making his way back home to Fort Worth and getting some much-needed rest, Trapnell says he would do it again in a heartbeat.
“It, kind of reminds me of the first time I did a marathon, it was long, it was arduous, it was drawn out, it sucked at times, but would I do it again? Absolutely," he says. "I can't wait to do it again. The event itself was just everything that I imagined it would be.”
