Exodus 2011

[AntiM]

We congratulated ourselves on our fastest camp pack up ever... left Terminal City at noonish. Perhaps we just had bad luck, or aren't complete lane-changing assholes, but it tool OVER NINE HOURS to the pavement. A personal worst time ever. Got into Reno at one in the morning.

And what was with all the trailers by the side of the road? We saw NHP with a couple vehicles towing trailers, and at least six trailers just left at the siode of 447. Weird.

[polyresin]

out of curiosity, when has leaving at noon on monday been a decent time to leave in years past? i've always left around dawn on monday and still waited at least 2-3 hours. 9 hours is a little much of course, but my understanding is that it has usually a been 6-7 hour wait if you plan on leaving midday on monday.

it was intense, though. i got in line around 8a and into reno around 5p.

[zeigen]

Just for data points: Started car on Sunday at 10:30pm, hit pavement 1:05am. Came up the 6:30 spoke, didn't change lanes. Another car that left at the exact same time as me but came up the 7:30 spoke didn't hit pavement until 3am. So, your time may vary no matter when you leave, depending on the merging going on.

[AntiM]

out of curiosity, when has leaving at noon on monday been a decent time to leave in years past? i've always left around dawn on monday and still waited at least 2-3 hours. 9 hours is a little much of course, but my understanding is that it has usually a been 6-7 hour wait if you plan on leaving midday on monday.

it was intense, though. i got in line around 8a and into reno around 5p.

For us, noon should have been better on the arrival time in Reno than the late afternoon departure we usually pull off. I am NOT saying it should have been a shorter time than experienced in the past. We expected the five~six hours, but not nine hours in line.

Our friends have reported a five hour time to pavement leaving immediately after the temple burn.

[bluesbob]

Left BRC around 11 pm Sunday night. Arrived in Fernley at 4:10 am. My only complaint is BMIR was playing the shittiest music for Exodus.

[16fcali]

We left around 1045 AM on Sunday morning and had a mere 15 minute wait between when we hit the line and when we hit pavement. Got back to SF at 8:00 PM including a stop for lunch. Not too bad.

[Miles]

Left at about 11am Sunday morning. Was in line for all of 10 minutes.

[Karma]

Left camp at 645 and I at 1:oopm sunday, hit the pavement a little over an hour later. Fastest out in 6 years.

[MrMullen]

Left camp Sunday, 5:30a and hit pavement at 6:10a. We were in an RV behind a bunch of other RV's and never hit the breaks while in line. Got to Fallon in couple of hours in lite traffic and home to San Diego at 9:30p.

[jkisha]

We left around noonish on Monday--7 hours till we hit the road. We decided that next year we will have several coolers of different soft drinks and snacks in the back of the truck and have a tailgate party on each pulse stop. Rather than a long, boring complaint filled day, might as well turn it into an event in and of itself.

[$tormy]

Left camp at 7:55AM Monday morning all proud that 90% of the packing and MOOPing was done prior to going to the temple Sunday night. Hit the exodus line and thud..... 7.5 hours to pavement!!!!!! Jkisha is right, next year it needs to be planned for. That many hours with no shade, no ice at 100 degrees is a potentially lethal scene. I have never spent more than 3.5 hours getting off the playa in my 5 previous burns. While from what I could see, "pulsing" kept the cars flowing onto the pavement, the issue seems to be that the individual lanes were not released or filled in any order. For an improvement, I recommend the following; say there were 8 exodus lanes each 2 miles long. If the lanes were filled 1 through 8 and released 1 through 8, there would be a correlation to when you got in que and when you hit pavement. Add this last element and I think "pulsing" would work. As it stands now with the random loading and discharging of lanes, I wouldn't call it effective at minimizing exodus time. I left the playa with people who qued up 2 hours after me!!!

On the positive side, I met some fantastic people at this, the world's dirtiest car show. With beverages, ice and some shade, it could have been an excellent party! I say we rename exodus, pre-decompression!

$tormy

[Turnip]

Left our camp a little after 11pm after the temple, rode up the 645 spoke and hit traffic before we even got on the outer rim. Was about 4 hours to pavement. Lots of assholes baha-ing their asses up the side lanes, causing the dust to kick up terrible. Then attempting to merge up at the head of the line, then getting pissed and shoutting out their windows when people wouldn't let them in. Yeah, like my grumpy ass is gonna reward you for driving like a moron.

Was anyone else's nerves shot from the Playa road? It seems thousands of times bumpier than I remember. Didn't know whether I should have sped up or slowed down. I was in tears before I was relieved of the wheel. All I could picture was the axle snapping and being stranded 2k miles from home.

[bubbavic]

Wow, we left camp at 4am Monday and didn't hit the blacktop till 8am. Bypasses Reno and took the alternate route down through Palmdale and detoured to Thousand Oaks eventually arriving in SD at midnight. 20 hours. yeesh.

[pchops]

To add perspective, drove away from camp along D and then down 6 @ 8pm on Sunday and hit 10 minutes of traffic before pavement. @ Reno by 11pm where I made the classy move of the week and slept in the Wendy's parking lot for 2 hours, was home in SF at 4am. 6 hours driving (fast) and 2 hours napping. was a dreamy, both literally and figuratively, ride from home to home. Was a tough decision to not see that beautiful Temple burn, but keeps the week going in my mind easier.

[vargaso]

Left on Sunday at 3pm (same as usual for me), hit pavement at 3:50, Gerlach at 4:50, home in Lincoln by 9:30. Smoothest exodus ever. I think more people than usual stayed for the temple burn since the temple itself was so incredible this year. That's my theory, anyway, because I couldn't believe how sparse the traffic was on Sunday afternoon. I was prepared for a 4 hour exodus.

Also, my entry was amazingly smooth, an hour tops. I arrived at the playa road on Tuesday around 6pm. Of course, none of this means anything for next year, ha.

[nncoco]

For the first time in 7 burns, I stayed for the temple burning. Sunday was a great day spent going from bar to bar with three of my best friends and helping theme camps finish their booze. What a great day!

Left camp at 4AM and hit pavement 3.5 hours later. Not bad I guess. My buddies left 1/2 hour after me and spent 5 hours in line.

It is a bummer that the 8 lanes move at different speeds. I feel like I chose poorly as the lanes to me left seemed to be moving a lot faster.

[RedHeaven]

I left BRC at about 11;30 am Monday and got to Reno at 10pm. Phew! I like the tailgate party idea. I drive alone so its kind lonely but I was well prepared with cooler access, lots of bevs left, a mister, a sarong I dipped into cooler, snacks and a journal I wrote in. Thats another thing thats nice about the pulse is it allows you to do something on the side. I talked to hubby for a couple hours too on the phone. The heat was brutal though yes...However I arrived on Tuesday 2pm and that took less than an hour so I wasnt too pissed. Im going to try to stay til Tuesday next year even tho the playa dust starts to sting. Yeow baby! Cant believe I survived that XO Dust without getting too irritated. Must of been the best year ever for me or something

[tamarakay]

We left Tuesday morning, at 3. That road out was awful. Somehow the fire extinquisher was knocked down and activated. So, cleaning up the playa dust has been the easy part. Anyhoo, hit pavement at like 3:15, Got behind a very drunk/sleepy box truck with another box truck tailgating him. They finally pulled over and got tacos somewhere.

Campmate had left camp Monday noonish, when we got to the rv park/hotel in Fernley, there she was. Yep, i'm staying till Tuesday every year.

[ygmir]

I left at 5 ish am today.
drove right out.........but, it was really rough!!!!

I was working perimeter on exodus Sunday and Monday, noon to 6.

WHAT A MAD HOUSE!!!!
It was like herding cats, people cutting out of line, cutting the ropes, wanting "special privilege" because "They" had to be somewhere........or, were frustrated, or, "are special", or, or, or, or........

Thing is, getting that many cars, to flow out one lane of a two lane highway, through a few small towns.....well, it'll only go so fast.....Add to that tired, altered, hung over drivers.

Tuesday morning, is starting to get traffic, too........But, it's still way better than Monday afternoon.

I did especially love the drivers, who, decided after getting into the line, to just turn around and drive against traffic, sometimes in a dust storm, to "go back and wait".........now, that's exciting, watching them play "chicken" with the folks going the right way............

One lady, when we busted her for stealing a sign (well, stopped her, no ticket or anything), tried to steal a bike parked along the road, and, when we stopped her from that, decided she "wanted to go to the airport" and just turned around, and drove right at oncoming traffic, making them dodge, etc........as we chased her with flashers on, until we stopped her, and she said "what's wrong?, I just wanted to get to the airport"..........

The fun never stops......

[headquarters]

Absolutely brutal!

I haven't been since 2005. And had gone in 2002, 03 and 04. Each year leaving the morning after the temple burn. ~8am. And never waiting long or it never seeming like I waited at all to get out.

This year we tried to leave a little earlier and left camp at 6:30am Monday morning. Didn't see the pavement until 1:15pm. What always kills me is that I go to Seattle so I don't even have to go as far as Gerlach before we turn off the road. I'm heading north on 447 at that Transfer station road. Oh well.

We usually drive right back to Seattle but arriving in Portland at 12:30am Tuesday I couldn't do it. Had to get a hotel for a few hours. Ended up only getting the truck back a few hours late.

I know it sounds like I'm complaining, I'm really not. The way it ended up the hotel in Portland was very comfortable. And I prefer to drive during the day anyway.

All that being said, I'm staying till Tuesday and cleaning or something next time. Waiting in line is for suckers!

Did the procedure for exodus change in the years between 2005-2011? Obviously I'm aware there is a larger population, but the difference in population to time waiting to get out doesn't seem proportional to what I remember.

32k in 2005 and I get out in less than an hour. 52k+ and it takes 6+ hours? Again this is more of a curiosity to me? Did the NHP or BLM force BM to make changes to the way they let people go? Are there hourly quotas that they are unable to go above in letting people onto 447? When I was about to hit the pavement BMIR was saying that gate road was 100% capacity. I read on twitter of people getting in line on Gate road at 12:30pm Monday and having over an 8 hour wait.

I'm very interested in knowing more about the exodus. I havnen't really poked around for any info yet, as this was my first stop after getting home to see some other peoples experiences.

I'd rather clean moop for a whole day then do that again!

[weather man]

Left BRC at 8am on Monday. Seven hours to pavement.
Awesome.
I finally got to listen to BMIR and was able to give away my 200 remaining freezer pops.
I like to think of it as a mini decompression

[motskyroonmatick]

Left Monday at 7:45am from 8:20 and D in Box Truck pulling Travel Trailer. It was 6 hours exactly of the most fun exodus ever before hitting the pavement. The pulse created some good community time that was a really nice way to leave the city.

Kudos to the Pulse System. I think it makes sense.

Booo!!! to all the people passing and changing lanes. Next year I will be recruiting fellow vehicle drivers for a 5 mph rolling road block to combat your defaultia ways.

Right ON!!!! to the people jump starting and towing broken down vehicles.

It was my longest exodus ever but definitely the best one that involved a wait.

[Bob]

Left at about 11am Sunday morning. Was in line for all of 10 minutes.

About the same here.

Don't tell anybody.

[TinkerMom]

We left Mon. 3 am and hit pavement by 630 am. Saw a beautiful sunrise. My son was driving,
and I fell asleep with my head hanging out the window ( yes, that hurt later) Some lady
gave us sandwiches. Thank you, who ever you were!

[theCryptofishist]

According to BMIR (or, more accurately, to campmates listening to BMIR more closely than I was) there were accidents on 447 and I80 that slowed down traffic between BRC and I80, not just out of the city. Does anyone know if this is true?

Anyone planning on staying behind on Labor Day next year going to volunteer at Exodus? It seems they could use extra hands.

I suppose we have some sort of trifecta here--first day of ticket sales, first sell out, very long exodus.

Good to spot you at Love's AntiM!

[headquarters]

According to BMIR (or, more accurately, to campmates listening to BMIR more closely than I was) there were accidents on 447 and I80 that slowed down traffic between BRC and I80, not just out of the city. Does anyone know if this is true?

Anyone planning on staying behind on Labor Day next year going to volunteer at Exodus? It seems they could use extra hands.

I suppose we have some sort of trifecta here--first day of ticket sales, first sell out, very long exodus.

Good to spot you at Love's AntiM!

Yeah I heard about 12:45pm Monday that there was accidents on both directions of I80 somewhere west of Reno that shut the freeway down. That backed traffic up onto 447 pretty bad.

The other crap news I remember hearing was all California Zephyr trains from Reno east to Chicago were canceled for at least 2 weeks. Brutality!

[jobi]

Left 30 minutes before Temple Burn. Wait was under 5 minutes.

[Sail Man]

Left Sunday morning around 1145 and took 1.5 hrs to get out to pavement. Not bad, though it was annoying to see people moving from the back of a non moving lane to one being pulsed out. I watched as one lane would move forever, while on the other side they would move 2 lanes in the same time. Would be nice to see if they lane switchers could be id'd and held up once they reached the end of the pulsing? section.

[Bob]

There were at least six disabled vehicles on the roadside midday Sunday.

Then us, though we coasted into a wide turnout. Loose fan belt and drained battery, fixed in Fernley.

[$tormy]

We hit pavement at 3:30pm Monday and I counted 13 burner related automotive issues on 447 and 80. All were tire or axel related except for 1 roll over and 1 jack knifed trailer on 80. This tied my 2006 count. Obviously maintenance and safe driving are not burner strongpoints