North Texan back home after Burning Man, covered in mud but safe
NORTH TEXAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) - Only a few inches of laces sticking up out of two mounds of tan, gravel-encrusted mud, gave away there might be shoes buried somewhere in the mass.
They sat in the back of a dirty pickup truck Tuesday, next to a similarly mud-laden bike, and borrowed camping gear that was expected to come back dusty, but not covered in sludge.
After spending the summer seeing no rain in Texas, it was only fitting Brad Trapnell said, that he would go to the desert and end up stuck in a flood.
"When somebody tells you you're stranded and stuck somewhere, there's a switch that flips in your head," the 50-year-old said, now safely back at home after an arduous adventure at the annual Burning Man festival in Nevada.
Trapnell drove out of the event early Sunday, one of the first to leave after organizers had warned people they may need to wait until Tuesday for the desert north of Reno, Nevada, to dry out sufficiently to drive out.
The 80,000 annual attendees know to prepare each year for wind-kicking up clouds of fine dust, but monsoon rains flooding the makeshift city was a new challenge and one that Trapnell hadn't counted on when he packed for the solo trip. It was a last-minute decision to attend after receiving notice just a week prior that he had been selected to purchase a ticket.
The first two days were as advertised he said, describing it as "Mardi Gras meets Mad Max."
In the remote location, however, with limited phone coverage, there was little notice of the approaching storms outside of a text that made it through from his mother.
As the rain started falling, and two miles away from his campsite, he said it became clear quickly the rain was going to be a problem.
"I made it about 50 feet before the wheels completely caked up and were not moving at all," he said. "And at that point, I realized there was no way I was going to get the bike all the way to my camp."
Pictures and video of the event don't accurately convey the difficulty of simply moving in the mud he said. Even the 10 feet from his tent to his truck, became a challenge.
Initially, the general communal attitude of the event led to little concern from those there, he said. Then came the warnings to conserve food and water; and the heads up that the trucks couldn't get through the mud to serve portable toilets.
Trapnell started receiving concerned texts from friends and family. He watched vehicles get stuck trying to leave on Saturday, but by Sunday decided he needed to try to get out.
His 2-wheel drive pickup though, found a mud puddle it couldn't quite manage. With the help of two people walking by, an hour later he somehow spun his way out and was back on the road, just ahead of massive traffic jams of people trying to make the same escape.
The In-N-Out he stopped at for his first meal post-storm was welcome enough to take a picture of. And safely back home, showered and rested Tuesday, he compared it to running a marathon.
"It was long it was arduous, it was painful at times and I can't wait to do it again."