I expect there will be 500 of these posts in the coming days, so if the mods prefer a mega-thread, I'm happy to repost there when it exists.

As the title implies, went to my first burn and had a fantastic time. I also do a reasonable amount of long distance hiking, and I think it helped me prepare (or at least helped me lock in a decent packing list). Took the burner express last sunday and set up camp at Hoverlandia. Lots of variety there in Black Rock Tent City, but our neighbors were all fantastic, kind and fun.

I started every day with coffee, beignets, and the morning wordle, then explored the endless camps and art - sometimes ducking into shade or AC for an afternoon nap. Not going to re-hash the entire week, but I did everything I wanted to do, and I'm ok knowing that there were a million other things I could have done but didn't get to.

Despite my planning, I did make one big fuck up - I didn't bring a bike. Before you jump to reply and tell me how dumb I am, *I* didn't mind not having a bike at all. I love walking. I walked to the eye and from one end of BRC to the other a few times. I didn't miss not having a bike at all...but my partner was pretty annoyed. They had a bike, and wanted me to ride with them - which is fair, and I should have thought of that ahead of time, and will fix it next time (depending on who I go with).

What I found interesting is that while you probably can see more with a bike, I found that I often missed things when riding that I only found when walking. It's probably different for everyone, but wanted to share my experience.

And finally, a note on the yellow bikes. It's really a fantastic service to have community bikes available - but I think they would work better if burners were a little more focused on sharing. I saw yellow bikes locked up all across camp. I saw yellow bikes hidden behind dozens of tents and campers. The bike hoarding was abundant. They are community bikes - to be shared, which caused me other problems. On Wednesday, I rode to the temple with my partner (me on a yellow bike), and did a quick in and out peek, and my bike had been reclaimed before I could get back (which is fine - it's a community bike), but my partner was certainly annoyed. I told them I'd walk back (which i did), but they insisted on walking their bike next to mine. On Thursday, I stopped to take a picture (somewhere near 4:00 and D), and someone grabbed my bike when I was right next to it. I told them I was still using it and was planning on getting back on after a photo, but they informed me it was a community bike (they were right) and took off. If he would have asked, I probably would have given it to him, but still thought it was weird. By this point, so many of the ybs had been hoarded away, that the bike next to me was probably the only one anywhere near that part of BRC. TL;DR is that yellow bikes are a great idea, but need the community to buy-in to make it better.

Overall though, 95% of the people I met were kind and self-aware - which is a much better ratio than I get back here in the real world.