We did a bug out/camping trip this weekend, but had to end it early.
Short version, daughter started getting a runny nose earlier in the week and would wake up in the night crying. Kids get that way a lot as you pick up stuff from being around other kids so she could have caught something at a the play place at the mall or story time or elsewhere. Well Friday night it got down to about 40 and that didn't go to well with her already being sick so we stayed at my parents hours Sat night then packed up and came home Sunday.

Ok long version.

Background:
My parents farm in is WV and I live in OH. Farm has been in the family for generations, they dug the trees out and picked rocks by hand to make the fields on top of the mountains. Parents and three other brothers live in the valley and work my parents and one brother works the farm part time after they work a full time job. With no real jobs in WV, I had to move to the city. Growing up myself and one of my more distant cousins started camping on the farm, parents had built a cabin up there and we would load up the 4 wheeler and three wheeler and some extra gas and food and camp out on the weekends. My parents tore the cabin down after I moved away and I lost track of my cousin/friend. We caught back up with each other and found he lives and works around Deep Creek MD and my wife and I stayed down there for our 5th anniversary (we will be married 13 years this year) and we have been visiting with them when we go down and was telling our wives about camping for years and they thought it would be fun. Well we finally made it in 2006, my son was 6 months old then, we stayed in a hay field two days. We went again last year but my wife was pregnant so we only stayed one night. So this was our third trip and I wanted to stay three nights to make the trip and setting up worth it.

Prep related:
Now since we have the farm and my parents there I have a dedicated bug out location. They purchased some land from my grandfather before he passed away and his was split between his seven children so my parents have the largest amount totaling nearly 100 acres. So if we had to leave our home for some situation thats where I would go long term, I don't plan on bugging out to a tent, the tent camping is partly for fun, partly to test my gear and skills and partly because if something really bad happened it could take some time for me to get there so we may need to setup camp along the way. So the gear I buy has multiple purposes, part bug in our out gear and part camping fun gear. Long term I think I may just sell my parents house and the woods south of it and keep the north side, there is a county road right in front of their house dividing it up and there isn't much on the south side and their house isn't anything special so I plan on building a small cabin/house on the farm. We just bought a three room tent. The side rooms are small but the pack and play portable cribs fit just fine.

The trip:
We got off to a late start and didn't make it there until around 5:00 or so. We went up on top the hill and sat everything up and roasted some hot dogs on our camp fire. We have a small fire ring that used to be a coal truck wheel and cut up and burn old fence posts and such. Didn't do much else that night but visit and go to bed. It got cold that night and my daughter work up around 1am so we fed her and kept her in bed between us. I peeked over at my son and he had buried himself under his blanket face and all so he knew how to keep warm. Daughter woke again around 5 and decided it was play time and giggled and made silly noises until we heard my cousin out starting the fire again around 6 so we gave her another bottle and she and my wife fell back asleep. I got up and helped with the fire some more and then heard her making noise again so I got her up and outside to let my wife sleep some more. I grabbed the camera and took a shot of the moon against the perfect blue sky.


Here is our new tent with the little rooms on the sides for the kids and my son's little tent beside it.


Another view of our tents with the mountains in the background


We camped next to a small patch of trees between the fields


Here you can see some of the mountains around us


Another pic of the camp site showing my cousin's trailer and the shower


Here's the camp dishwasher scrub scrub scrubbing in the camp kitchen.


We brought a little swing and 100' of rope to hand it from a tree branch


Here is the tent with the rain fly pushed off the back and you can see one of the pack and play's through the screen.


My son peeking out of the tent when he was supposed to be napping

Must be a limit on size of a post, here are the rest

My daughter testing out the kid tent


Parents have a John Deere Gator which my son has claimed as his.


Here is another view of the mountains


By the timestamp on this picture turkey season ended 2 hours and 19 minutes prior.

(I can't see a beard in the pic so it wouldn't have been legal anyway)

Daughter in the swing


It takes a lot of work to pack up a couple young kids, if you haven't tried it and have kids you need to before your house burns down or the tornado rolls through. I keep some gear in the truck at all times and we keep some travel gear in tghe suitcases ready to go at all times but it still took a lot of packing.
If you take anything in coolers with ice, you need the ones with the drain plug, we had two without and the ice wouldn't last more than a day or two. The cooler with the drain plug I still had lots of ice after we came home. But the new cooler is tall and we need to be careful about packing order as everything I wanted seemed to be on the bottom which meant I had to chip away at the ice and dig for it and then the ice would fall down into the open hole and whatever we put back had to sit on top. You have to plan meals in advance and pack in that order.

We've been coming up the Upper Miss & Illinois Rivers this weekend, drooling @ the sight of hundreds of people camping out on the islands and river banks.

And the weather has been perfect!!!!

I'm burning up with ENVY!!!!

Thanks for sharing!!!

A shower! I want to camp with you!!!

That's the truth. Bugging out (or even just camping) with kids takes a whole new level of logistics.

-Blast

Looks like a good time

I don't know if I could have slept in your tent. Based on the photos, the ground was sloped across the tent. Man, I have trouble sleeping that way - I have to pitch the tent so my head is uphill, or else I go nuts. The worst is when you have to pitch it with your head downhill - I'll turn around in the tent, and sleep with my head to the door before I do that

The tent was level side to side but was on a wlight hill with our head at the top. These trips help me to see what is needed should we need to leave or even be without power for a few days at home. I update packing checklists after each trip, for example we stayed overnight at a state park lodge a bit ago and forgot formula since my wife just recently had to quit breast feeding so we had to hunt for a store and the only one was a WalMart so we had to pay nearly double the usual price for a can of baby formula so thats been added to my checklist.

Gorgeous pics! Reminds me a lot of where I grew up around the Pocono Mtns of PA. Lots and lots of mountains and woods.

Boy, I really want to get away camping in the mountains for a while now!

Good times.

How long did it take you to get the stuff together and leave?

I keep a few items in the truck at all times but spent most of Thursday evening packing and then a few hours Friday morning. I improve my packing technique a little each time. It completely filled the back of my truck, three suitcases, a container with drinks, a container with food, a container with tp and diapers and such, two containers with sleeping bags and camp supplies, the tent bag, kid toys, the water jugs and sink, two coolers, chairs, grill, propane, clay thrower and clays, shotgun, my bob, first aid kit, porta potty, etc.

We have a small grill and 1lb propane, chairs, water jugs, first aid and GHB all stay in the truck as well as various tools and supplies, maps, etc. I'm going to get a nice tarp and make one of those roll out awnings to attach to the top of the cap eventually for more shade/shelter then make some other tarps for sides to make the shower/potty room.

I really like how you emphasize the shower/potty aspect of bugging out. For many on this forum, the bugging out trip may stall in an urban morass-- long before it's feasible to dig a latrine/wash in a stream. Having a good potty/shower setup is critical to stave off many refugee diseases. And, if it really gets bad, that's what we will be, refugees.

I figure, if history is any indicator, most evacuation orders give one a small window of about 2-3 hours to get ahead of the mass hysteria. But I've never been in one. Does anyone else have a good time frame for getting out of dodge? For hurricanes, I'm assuming pack the night before?

The problem w/hurricanes & evacuation orders is that it is usually too late to evacuate if you wait for the order. You will be part of the herd.

I watch the predicted path/cone, weigh the predicted strength for landfall, make a decision at HurCon IV (72 hours from possible landfall) as to go or stay. I'll normally start packing when the decision to go is made and then we will leave the following morning.

Along w/packing, we will complete the checklist preparations for HurCon's III, II, & I for the home and for the evacuation. We will normally head out on a west-northwest vector.

The weekend before Mem. day weekend I finally took my crew camping. My crew is 6 people (me, wife and 4 daughters). It was a very interesting experience in logistics (fortunately the youngest are out of diapers). Between sleeping bags, pads, tents (I pack 2 Big Agnes Big House 4's, rather than one large tent), food (one large cooler, one rubbermaid box of dry goods), and other equipment I'd filled the van - and still had not packed the clothing! That includes the car top carrier.

We also had to cut our trip short due to incoming flash flood warnings. We're on our way tomorrow to try again.

Remember that old military axiom:

"Amateurs speak of tactics,
Professionals speak of logistics."

Proper logistics is the most important part of any endeavor or operational plan.