What burners wish they'd brought

The water, the shade, and the goggles are the week. The regrets are smaller. Eye drops. A spray you can use without a kettle. A funnel. A marker. A roll of 1-ply that was actually in the basket. We read the wish-I'd-brought threads, the glad-I-had notes, the city's Survival Guide, and the first-aid booklet, and we kept the things that keep showing up and that we can point at a listing we checked.

We are an independent outfitter. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Burning Man Project. The event name is used so you know which week this gear is for.

The day bag

Goggles that seal still do the job. Dust gets past them when you lift them, and at the end of a bright day the eyes are dry. Lubricant drops live in the day bag. Keep the tip off the dust. Follow the label. If the eye does not settle, that is a medical tent, not another squeeze. Redness drops are a different bottle. We are not recommending those.

Nose, feet, and the bottle

A saline rinse at camp, with the packets and with water that is still clean, is the wash. A pressurized saline spray is what you can use in a line without setting up the kit. The first-aid booklet lists nasal saline and eyewash. Follow the label. Neither one is a treatment. If breathing is hard, go to the medical tent.

Feet are the slower version of the same dust. More socks than days. A merino hiker sock with some structure, bagged clean, beats a thin cotton pair that goes flat. The listing we use opens on one size, so pick yours. A collapsible basin at dusk, vinegar in it, and that water into the gray-water jug. Moleskin on the hot spot the hour you feel it. A self-adherent wrap holds when tape gives up in the dust. The Coban we link says it contains latex. If that is a problem for you, skip it.

The 3 a.m. problem

The porto is a walk, and a whiteout makes the walk worse. A rigid funnel is for people who cannot already pee standing. Practice at home, in the clothes you will wear. Rinse it. In a tent, use a jug with a screw lid. It is not a medical device, and it is not a requirement. People who already stand to pee can skip it. The first-aid booklet lists a pee funnel in the personal kit. Urine still goes in the porto or in the waste you planned. It does not go on the playa.

Shade you can carry

Camp shade is a frame. It does not follow you across the city at noon. The Survival Guide's should-bring list includes umbrellas and parasols for that walk. A compact umbrella in the day bag is that shade. A whiteout turns it into a kite. Close it. The goggles go on. It comes home. It is not a substitute for the lags and the cloth. We are not repeating wind-speed numbers from the listing.

The city's page is the Survival Guide. How the frame stays put is shade that stays put in the wind.

Labels, bags, and the porto

Write your name and camp address on the bike, the lamp, the bottle, and the basket before gate. Markers walk off, so a box is the right amount. One spray bottle is vinegar. One is water. The words go on the bottle in letters you can read when you are tired. Do not mix vinegar with bleach. Ask before you mist anyone.

Gallon freezer bags hold clean socks, the outfit for the drive home, and the porto wipes that have to come back out. The portos take human waste and 1-ply. A roll in the basket, inside a bag, is the roll you will have. Wipes still come home, even when the box says flushable.

If the sun got past the hat, a plain aloe gel is comfort after, on skin that tolerates it. Follow the label. It is not a reason to skip the sunscreen, and it is not a treatment. Blistered skin, or a burn with illness behind it, is a medical tent. We are not repeating purity claims from the tube.

The short first-year list is what to pack the first time. The things camps are glad they had, once shade and water are handled, are gear worth bringing. Feet, socks, and the dusk tub are playa foot care. The personal kit in the city's first-aid booklet is the longer medical version of this page. Their stations are for the real problems.