Good news!

The playa is “harder and flatter” than it was last year, and maybe harder and flatter than it has been for the past several years. That’s not just my opinion, either. I always seem to get a little too rhapsodic about playa conditions in my exuberance to be back in the desert. “Harder and flatter” is how D.A. his own self described the condition of Black Rock City. And of course D.A. should know, because he’s the person in charge of making sure the desert looks the same after the event as it did before.

There are still plenty of rough spots. The 3’oclock side of the city is, as is usually the case, more problematic. There are mounds and ridges and tire tracks, but the “serpents” don’t seem quite as daunting. You may even be able to stay on your bike instead of having to trudge through six inches of playa dust as you make your way to the Temple.

The placement of the city is a bit closer to Gerlach this year, somewhere between a quarter- and a half-mile closer. Burning Man takes place in the same general area of the Black Rock Desert every year, but inside the event closure area, the city’s footprint is moved around so it doesn’t wear out the same portion of the desert every year. The city is always laid out the same way, so you’ll always see the sun coming up behind the Man as you stand in Center Camp. But planners do have some flexibility with where they drop the spike that marks the center of the city.

This year’s city will be pretty much where the city was in 2012. And because it’s not possible to pick up every last bit of moop (matter out of place) after the event, you might find an “artifact” or two from 2012 half-buried in the dust (an anti-SOPA sticker, perhaps?). Grab the “artifacts” while you can. Fifty years from now, they’ll be designated as historic, and you won’t be allowed to remove them.

You’ll also notice a difference this year as you make your way across Route 447. The hills, at least as of this writing, are GREEN. It looks like Ireland, ferchrissakes. Here’s a picture Phoenix Firestarter took last week as she traveled to the Spike ceremony:

This is the desert, but it’s been raining. Not a lot, but often. In fact, it rained lightly in Gerlach last night. Not enough to cause any problems, but enough to tamp down the top layer of dust again.

It’s been raining intermittently all spring and into the summer. The Survey teams had to dance around the wet spots as they laid out the city, and trucks got bogged down a time or two.

And there’s another effect of the unseasonable wetness: Bugs. There are lots of bugs around, including mosquitoes. You couldn’t stand outside in Gerlach as the sun went down without getting bitten to death. We’re not sure yet how bad it will be out on the playa, but be smart and pack some lavender oil or bug spray or whatever you use.

With all the rain that’s been around, it’s surprising that we haven’t been hit by rain or hail or lightning or any of the other plagues that have haunted the build the past several years. So far, so good. The crews are making great progress. But as Coyote says, there’s no such thing as being ahead of schedule — you never know when a storm cell is going to pop up and slam you.

So far, though, it’s been dry. It’s hot, though, and it’ll get hotter next week. The wind kicked up in the afternoon, too. Silver Coon’s yurt was a casualty.

In other news: