In past years we considered the disturbing number of hippies appearing on the playa,and decided to do something about it. The result:THE HIPPY TRAP. Our goal was a modest one —trap,identify,tag,and release hippies back into the wild. In this we were successful,and as you can see,there was no shortage of hippies. More images can be found in [Eve's album] and elsewhere in the CO2 gallery.
Construction was done by Erika,Scott,Benji and Emily.
Here the trap,constructed out of materials deemed attractive to hippies:natural wood sticks tied with jute;baited with patchouli,tie dye,a bong (until we were by kindly Rangers that it would attract stinging police more than hippies),and other hippy goods.
Hippies wandering through Black Rock streets would stumble,seemingly so innocent,and would find our baited trap.
Attracted by the natural scent of the hippy (patchouli oil),a hippy would find themselves unavoidably inside the trap.
A waiting Carbon Dioxide Camp staff member would pull the string tied to the stick propping up the trap,trapping the hippy inside.
Here Terry calms the hippy before we begin our tagging and release portion of the program.
Josh interviews the hippy,shown here pre-release,records vital statistics and collects a hair sample (really).
When the stream of hippies would slow,Erika would refresh the patchouli oil attractant.
(Our real goal was to turn hippies into bacon,but we failed in that regard. Maybe next year.)