Solo Road Trips

[Tin Can]

Ah! Back seat removed. When I went to Burning Man 2000 alone, I removed the back seats and passenger seat in my Honda VX in order to pack more. At BM you must bring everything, including water that you will need for a week. That's a lot of water. I brought 20 gallons and had some left over.

I was glad I was shooting 35mm film and a cheap video camera, the alkaline dust was miserable, especially in a dust storm white out.

I was also hauling heavy desert proof interactive sculptures. Of course my car had rally car markings that read NOT ART. The art were human sized turntables that allowed dancing in the wind. The video is better, not much better...

You can almost see the inside of the car in Pic 3, big cooler in passenger area.

No way would I have used LF under the extreme conditions. Possibly during the few still hours we had that year.

The best part was, although I traveled solo, I met with an ad hoc group of 50 other solo Burners. We all met on the Internet in 1999 and formed our camp called 'The Solos'. Each solo brought something to share, like a keg of iced craft beer that wasn't opened until the night before the Burn.

I find I really like travelling solo. I meet way more people.

[Drew Wiley]

I'm getting new tires put on the truck today. Still need to replace the AC pump; it's working at only about 50% efficiency. I have zero interest in anything like
"Burning Man". It's gotten enough attention by now that there is a scandal over ticket scalping. Not my idea of a road trip destination.

[Tin Can]

I would never go again. But once was great and it seemed very honest in 2000. Now it's way done.

My most fun was the 100 mile dirt road backdoor drive, where my new tires were really needed. A very intense drive, that I did not attempt on the way out.

Drew, you don't like naked lady fire dancers? Perhaps Tesla Coil Man is better. It was a spectacular unannounced event. The guy had a semi truck with flatbed towing a giant generator with 2 Tesla coils sparking. He stood in the middle and caught lightning. This video in no way shows how unbelievable this performance was. He did it while moving to keep the crowd at bay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a3Wlo7kgU8

[Kirk Gittings]

I'm getting new tires put on the truck today. Still need to replace the AC pump; it's working at only about 50% efficiency. I have zero interest in anything like
"Burning Man". It's gotten enough attention by now that there is a scandal over ticket scalping. Not my idea of a road trip destination.

Me too. One of my best friends, photographer Karen Kuehn, has done 5 books on BM (http://www.karenkuehn.com/Burning-Ma...ning/1/caption). She is a hardcore burner and invites me year after year but it just doesn't look like my can of worms. My photo trips are a chance to get away from people.......

[Tin Can]

Me too. One of my best friends, photographer Karen Kuehn, has done 5 books on BM (http://www.karenkuehn.com/Burning-Ma...ning/1/caption). She is a hardcore burner and invites me year after year but it just doesn't look like my can of worms. My photo trips are a chance to get away from people.......

They used to try to keep media, TV and pro photographers out and required a permit and oversight.

When I was there, very few cameras were present and I can't remember if cell phones had cameras then. but cell phones really didn't work there, no network. Ham radio.

Now they allow fully catered million dollar camper buses.

Everybody sells out.

[Jmarmck]

When I lived in Mammoth Lakes I drove a 1980 Honda Civic for the first couple years. Quite a challenge at times when the snow was really flying but the little brute would go anywhere there was clearance. I took it down to Saline Valley a few times. I even have pics to prove it.

I also removed the rear seats from that car. I put in a fascia type board cut to match the floor of the car. I then added a carpet covered piece of custom cut plywood with hinges. Made for a great place to store things like chains, tow strap, small military shovel, water bag, med kit, and other survival gear. I could haul quite a bit of gear in it. Traded it for a '82 Datsun 4wd pickup. I wish I still had the Datsun.

Like BM Saline Valley was different back then.

[Drew Wiley]

Why would I want to go to some noisy rave combined with filth? If I'm going to get grubby out somewhere, I want to hear crickets and coyotes at night, not neo
hippies acting like the everyday schizos under the overpass behind this building! Now Saline Valley... what memories. ... broken down on a back road into there
when I was sixteen, stuffing a broken oil pan with sticks and sagebrush, and trying to figure out how to get out alive. Encountered a Navy Seal exercise where
some of them were searching for fellow members who had parachuted into the hills there, with the point of the exercise being to locate those paratroopers - and one they never did! That wasn't very reassuring. But at least they had some spare cans of oil. Got to the hot springs. Had some venison steaks frying on the Coleman stove on the tailgate, but a coyote sneaked up and stole one right off the hot burner. Then almost got trampled to death that night by a herd of wild burros while I was sleeping on the ground. Hiked around quite a bit, then broke down again after hitting pavement, having passed up the only two tow truck then operating in Inyo County, themselves both broken down! Some lost bikers came thru. Some more free oil. Finally made it to Bishop and some tubes of epoxy. That lasted the next 200,000 miles. But when I finally got home my dad sure wasn't very amused. The engine to that new station wagon (yeah, NOT 4WD) was
covered with clay, and the shocks were ruined. Back in Saline Valley the Seals were simply staring at us kids and asking how the hell we ever got down that
path in the first place in that Chevy!

[Tin Can]

No problem Drew, nobody is suggesting you do anything you don't want to do.

i like exploring many people, places and things.

I have camped alone in Mohave, mountains, swamp and North woods. Been to almost every state. Traveled EU alone. Nothing better than coyote yip and howl. Great to find a place no human is. I walk up to deer, watch bear, move by bird sign, look at wolf, rabbit and spider.

We only walk the Earth once, I marvel at it all and I have never met a person that could not teach or show me something. A homeless bum, a burn out hippie, a banker, all teachers.

Sometimes I steal their souls with a photograph. I feel guilt.

[Drew Wiley]

Sorry to be less than cheerful today. The potheads (literally) next door leave drywall screws all around the parking spaces when they illegally use them for fabricating shipping crates, and one of my tires picked one up. Then some drifter cleaned out his hippie-mobile and left heroin needles all over the place. Another flat tire opportunity. Burnt out hippies get a bit boring around here. But taking pictures of them at night is how Misrach got started, even though that first book and his first exhibition were basically bellyflops. In one of our cabinet shops across the st there's a mid-80's tenant who has a huge black and white print in there of him and his ladies taken on Telegraph Ave back in the 60's, up above his table saw and giant jointer etc. Let's just say he has only has about 2% of all his hair in that picture still left!

[Domingo A. Siliceo]

I'm planning for the next spring (maybe in the third or the fourth week in April) my first solo trip - three days walking about 90 km (60 miles approx.) divided in three stages. I'll also need a first day to arrive to the starting point and a fifth day to return home. My main idea is to do landscaping photography and, maybe, who knows, some portraits of the people I'll found in the road (but I'm not very optimistic about this).

I'll use my 4x5 Linhof carrying a 50 sheets Fomapan 100 box, plus an empty box to store the exposed sheets and four film holders (eight sheets every day). My budget is not well defined yet, but I'm thinking about a spend of 300 EUR for the whole trip (train, hostels, meal...).

Although this is Spain and not America (I can't take a gun, for example), your advice about what to take with me will be welcome.