These trails can offer the chance to leave delevloped areas, pass through old growth redwood forest, past water falls, climb to ridge top vistas and hike all the way to the sea. Hikes can range from quick loops and half day hikes to all day adventures into the backcounty and multiday backpacking trips. For recommend hikes and current trail conditions, please click here.
From the very beginning on Baker Beach, to 1991 when Burning Man was set into its desert home, there was no real organizational structure to the city. Theme camps and villages often form to create an atmosphere in Black Rock City that their group envisioned. As Burning Man grows every year it attracts an even more diverse crowd. Subcultures form around theme camps at Black Rock City similar to what can be found in other cities. Michael Mikel, another active Cacophonist, realized that participants unfamiliar with the environment of the dry lake would be helped by knowledgeable persons to ensure they did not get lost in the deep dry lake and risk dehydration and death.
On September 3, 2017, a 41-year-old man, Aaron Joel Mitchell, fought his way past a safety cordon of volunteers and firefighters and threw himself into the flames of the Man. Mitchell died the next day due to cardiac arrest, bodily shock, and third-degree burns to 98% of his body. While a reputable member of the DPW claims this was the result of a dare to run through the flames, his death was huffy mountain bike ruled a suicide. By 1988, Larry Harvey formally named the summer solstice ritual “Burning Man”, by titling flyers for the happening as such; to ward off references such as “wicker man”, referring to the practice of burning live sacrifices in wicker cages. Harvey has stated that he had not seen the 1973 cult film The Wicker Man until many years after and that it did not inspire the action.
Of course the duration of the trip matters when choosing the right gear to go bike camping. Camping and bike touring go hand in hand, and camping is one of the fascinating aspects of traveling by bicycle. A bicycle needs no fuel, easy to repair and increases your speed and carrying capacity massively. It’s silent, durable, easy to hide and if you happen to lose or break it there’s millions of them laying about.
During the event there was also a paid shuttle between the event and the nearby towns of Gerlach and Empire, but this has been discontinued. Exiting and reentering the event requires an additional fee, and is highly discouraged. Black Rock City is patrolled by various local and state law enforcement agencies as well as the Bureau of Land Management Rangers. The local police issue $1,500 fines for drug use and serving alcohol to minors.
If you can get out and walk, hike or ride, then take advantage of it. It certainly helps with stress and anxiety during difficult times. Lastly, don’t forget to stay in close contact with friends and family, especially those isolated. If, like most of the bike tourers, you plan to ride and camp mostly at temperatures above 0°C (32°F) don’t invest too much money in clothing.
The terms of the Burning Man ticket require that participants wishing to use photo and video-recording equipment share a joint copyright of their images of Black Rock City with Burning Man, and forbid them from using their images for commercial purposes. Burning Man’s 2007 theme, “Green Man”, received criticism for the artwork Crude Awakening, a 99-foot oil schwinn bicycles derrick that consumed 900 gallons of jet fuel and 2,000 gallons of liquid propane to blast a mushroom cloud 300 feet high into the sky. Participants also share rides and hitchhike although walking or bicycling into the event is not allowed. There are prepaid shuttles, originating in Reno and San Francisco, that move participants to and from the event.
Click on the image above to find out where you can use your Adventure Pass at 19 participating state park units. Big Basin Redwoods SP, Big Basin Tent Cabins, Little Basin Redwoods SP, and the Backpack Trail Camps are Crumb Clean. Dispose of all trash properly and don’t leave it out in your campsite where animals can get to it.
I think you could haul quite a lot more with a bike, even without modifying it. For example, you could hang a full hiking pack to each side of the bike using straps/paracord/whatever. Two packs for yourself, or one for you and one for someone who possibly is injured and couldn’t carry a 50lb pack on foot. If you had an inexpensive bike trailer, such as the kind to tow children around, you could ride the bike with significant cargo, although towing does assume some amount of physical conditioning.