Interesting Idea Mike.

I live downtown in a city of about a million. If everybody were trying to get the hell out of town, I'd be stuck unless I got on my bike or started walking...but the city isn't really dense and that would take a while just to get to the city limits.

On the other hand I can walk to the North Saskatchewan River in 15 minutes. If I had to, I could carry a River Kayak (or a small canoe?) that far. It's the biggest river system in Canada and is navigable for almost 1300km. Could get pretty far from the city if one had to...or to another city.

Damn. Makes me want to take up kayaking!

Thanks, Hacksaw-I prefer canoes to kayaks-more capacity, less claustrophobic, and no necessity to eskimo roll if the going gets rough-you just get out. They seem to carry better, and are lighter-my kevlar solo weighs 22 pounds, 450 pound capacity. I don't think that the rivers will be crowded , and even if they are, they'll be crowded with kindred spirits. Silent, pleasant way to travel, except for the bitter citizens on the bridges, stuck in gridlock as you go quietly paddling by. They might be inclined to throw stuff.

My issue with canoes is that they seem to command a crazy price these days while kayak prices are going down continuously...and small canoes are a rare find. After your post I looked for used ones and couldn't find one anywhere in the area for less than $1200...too much and they're all heavy and/or leisure models so no good for what I'd want anyhow.

Mind if I ask what make/model you have? 22 lbs is a great weight.

http://www.hornbeckboats.com/index.htm
Usual no relation to vendor disclaimer.
I spent most of my life 30 miles south of this guy. I was content with the 70 pound skow until I blew out some discs in my neck, and needed something lighter. The prices are daunting, but the product is great, nearly indestructible-several have left the roof racks at highway speeds-broke the wooden gunwales but left the kevlar intact. The lower priced kayaks are usually roto-molded polyethylene, which, I suspect, eventually sustains enough UV damage and loss of solvent to become brittle.(of course, I too am sustaining UV damage and becoming brittle, so the yak might outlast me). The builder is a retired teacher, the boats are, or were, being built by hand in the barn. Chances are that there is someone closer to you making kevlar boats. There are DIY plans available (http://absolutelyfreeplans.com/Boat%20Plans/boat_plans.htm) My brother bought some old wood-canvas canoes, peeled off the canvas and recovered them with fibreglass cloth and resin. Heavy, but pretty.

Ah!

I've seen his site before while researching Nessmuk and his gear. The prices are a bit high for me but I'm crazy over that carbon fiber canoe...under 12 lbs! Wow!

Yeah, 12 lbs is sort of amazing. The flip side of the ultralight canoe is that it doesn't just sit there in the water or on the ground. Doesn't have the stability/inertia of a big clunky fiberglass boat, so I can't walk around in it on the water, and any little wind will blow it around on the ground. Plenty stable when I sit in it, but a little dicey on the way in and out. Hornbeck's barn is an official boat-building facility, inspected by NYS according to the same standards as places where they build steel-hulled merchant ships- inspections are apparently quite complicated. We suggested that he redefine his product as being hats, with an incidental use, upside down, as boats.

I can see no downside to a BOB. Better to have something than nothing. But were I ever to have need (and opportunity, please God) to bug out among the critical items I'd take are a few very informative books on survival. That and a trailer full of gasoline would be very helpful.

Living in a major metropolitan area on the east coast (Washington, D.C. in my case) certainly provides a perspective on the prospects of bugging out (and on living in a major, the major, terror target). Even a normal evening rush hour is instructive and on occasion when sitting still in I-66 westbound traffic jams on Fridays while trying to get away for a weekend I have considered what a mass evac of DC would look like.

Pretty grim. Even if everyone remained civilized (on 9/11 when there was much uncertainty for hours, DC did empty out in terms of commuters within a few hours, in a remarkably orderly and polite manner).

Cannot even begin to imagine a mass evac of a large portion of the east coast. There are 100 million people in the DC-Boston corridor.

I came to this website via camping gear and to preparedness awareness via a week of rolling blackouts during a succession of early 1990s ice storms, Y2K and 9/11.

Agree with the observations that it seems silly to have Armageddon gear without first building the capacity to cope with garden variety natural disasters.

My BOB is set up for a week or more of self-sufficiency (depending on how much food I toss into the top) but the tools I carry in it would enable me to make, build, forage, trap or snare whatever I would need to live for several months and probably a year or more. (even with our Wisconsin winters). Add the debris and detritus of our society after a pandemic or such and I'll get along quite comfortably for the rest of my life. I seriously doubt that someone who has made no preparations would last through the first month unless they happen to hook up with someone who has prepared.

Going back to the original scenario...

"... could having a short-mid term BoB actually prevent one from adapting to the new environment?

Would you be able to repair a roof without a hammer? How long would it take you to reshingle with a rock? How long would it take you to make a serviceable hammer? And while you were doing this job, what would you be doing about water, signaling, and food? Having a tool for likely jobs is a plus, not a minus.

"While sitting around the campfire (started with your keychain firesteel) you start showing off the skills you have learned.
Who is going to have more to show?"

The one who didn't have to reinvent the wheel under stressful survival conditions.

"... the adrenaline is simply not going to be there."

Adrenaline is short-term. It's to get you from an immediately-dangerous situation to a less-dangerous situation where you can start thinking instead of reacting. Constant adrenaline is exhausting. Why would this be valuable?

Sue

Not to be a jerk but if you didn't have a hammer, would you have shingles?

Seriously though it's a good point...without a certain level of resources and skill, you're stuck in the stone age.