Sonoma County participants share their Burning Man essentials

On the second and final Sunday morning at the end of the eight-day run of a recent Burning Man, a lone voice pleaded from one of the thousands of dusty campsites, “For the love of God, people, someone must have some horseradish!”

It was Bloody Mary time and the poor man had failed in his shopping.

But it's admittedly very difficult for anyone to feel certain before heading out to the mass celebration of art and human potential in the high desert northeast of Reno that he or she has packed up everything for which a need or desire may arise.

Remember, the only items available for purchase at Burning Man, which opens Sunday, is ice and a beverage such as coffee or lemonade.

As North Bay residents prepare for the annual pilgrimage to Black Rock Desert, they gather up prodigious amounts of drinking water and food, camping gear, a decorated and illuminated bicycle, goggles and masks for the fine dust that often enough rises up and some sort of handmade or purchased or edible gift - it might be a spritz of cool water - to confer on fellow Burners.

What else do locals take along?

Veteran Burning Man participant Michael Ellis of Santa Rosa carries in tins of breath mints to give away, and he urges everyone who goes to carry “small plastic bags to pick up MOOP on the playa.”

MOOP is Matter Out Of Place, known elsewhere as litter. The playa is table-flat earth, formerly a lakebed, on which the temporary Black Rock City rises.

Another Burning Man veteran, Sonoma County solar-energy broker Barry Cogbill, advises that along with gifts, costumes, lights for your bike and your person, good food, top-shelf beverages and “more water than you can personally drink in a month,” participants pack in also “remembrances of loved ones for the temple.”

The temple is typically a towering, graceful, wooden memorial shrine that the people of Burning Man fill with tributes to people and pets they have lost. Also written on the wood are expressions of gratitude, forgiveness, sorrow, rage.

On the last night of the gathering, thousands of people gather silent around the temple to watch it burn. It's a solemn counterpoint to the mass cheering that accompanies the torching of the nearby wooden effigy of a standing man the night before.

This will be the first Burning Man for Jayne Burns, an arts and agriculture advocate in Sebastopol. Having read up and consulted with old-times, she has packed up “lots of lights ... and lots of outfits, including a pink wig and a fur coat.”

Burns will take also ear plugs, an eye mask for daytime naps, a journal, “mystery bracelets” for giving away, tequila, a camera and electrolytes.

Multi-year Burning Man adventurer Steve Thomas, a retired Santa Rosa police commander, lists among the checklist essentials: “Openness, gifts and a desire to meet and connect with people from all over the world.”

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.