Well said, Dagny!

A. No such thing as too many knives.
B. Not only for payphones, which are as scare as virgins theses days, but also for vending machines.
C. Pffffttttt!!!

I went through a moik bugout where I not only carried my INCH but heavy BOB, vest, harness, extra weapons, bags, gear, water and clothing. And ran/jogged/ran jogged five miles on a dirt road for five miles, just to see if I could do it. (Full details will be on my site. It actually hurt, but I knoqw I could do it if I had to (and the nieghbors would leave me alone) irl. My thought was what if I had to carry my gear AND Bunny or Tomboy due to injuries? Five miles would give me room to work in and to be honest I was beat after the exercise. I just lay there in the ditch still wearing my gear and gulping powerade and letting my body tell mke that I was too old for such foolishness. I walked home and spent some time in the hottub with my old friends Aleve and and a muscle relaxant and saying never again. I plan the next one soon.

My problem is, there is no place within five miles that would do me any good to bug out to. Not within ten miles. Not within twenty miles. And I live right next to the mountains. 20 miles would put me in the foothills (heavily populated by escapees from surburban sprawl), 40 miles would get me to the actual high peaks (I guess I could homestead at one of the ski resorts in the area).

Unfortunately, "the mountains" are where everybody thinks they would bug out to, as if it's all unclaimed wilderness that would be some kind of easy living. In reality, you'd be bugging out to somebody elses private property and would probably be shot for trespassing in a mass survival situation. "The mountains" are not the unlimited wilderness people imagine them to be, with all kinds of game and wild plant edibles just waiting for you to run up there and grab for your 30 year survival plan. While we may dream of hiking on up to some remote and lavish corner of the Yukon to live out our days after a mass disaster, that just won't be the reality for 99.9999% of us.

If I have to bug out to somewhere (where?), it's going to have to be my good old Ford F150 4x4 that gets me there, not my Vasque hiking boots. The farthest I can image walking is the 20 feet between the truck and the campsite right next to the truck. To traverse that 20 feet, I may have to actually walk 50 feet to weave and navigate around the rest of the crowd at the campsite.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around any emergency scenario where heading off into the wild would be the best, or even a good, response. This is one of the main reasons I have such a hard time understanding the need for the type of BOBs we've been discussing that have such a wilderness focus.

In the last "MUSHY thinking" thread I said the following:


I stand by this position; I find this site to be highly practical in how it deals with preparedness.

Maybe I'll start up a separate thread to delve into the idea of bugging out to the wilderness further.

I don't have an issue with having a few posts now and then that explore options for scenarios that are so far out there that they are a little absurd. They do tend to focus the mind a little, at least mine.

I can't effectively plan for TEOTWAWKI. It is just impossible.

On another forum there are periodic posts from guys who post their bag contents and ask if it is suitable for a 30 mile hike home. I ask why they would want to do so, and generally it is something like there is a blizzard, hurricane, or tornado and my car is stuck so I have to walk home. Trying to focus them toward making better judgment calls about when a 30 mile hike home is a reasonable idea versus when it is just plain foolish is tough.

Plan for the likely and the same gear and tools for those still put you at an advantage for TEOTWAWKI



Or a better vehicle. I almost got stuck in a snow situation and decide the .5mpg different between 2wd and 4wd wasn't worth the savings.

One of the things I get when this question comes up is what about if you are low on gas and the electricity is off? My answer is 30 miles is 2 gallons of gas for most any vehicle. You are actually saying you let the gas tank in your car get below 2 gallons?

I just plain do not understand people who live in snow country that do not have 4WD or AWD. The gas mileage penalty is not that much. Having an appropriate vehicle for the conditions you will likely face is part of adequate preparations IMO.

The other answer I get sometimes is how they got stuck at work 30 miles away during a hurricane or blizzard. My response is how in the heck did a blizzard or hurricane manage to sneak up on you? You get several days of warning on such things.

This is very true Haeritig. Sorry if I misspelled your name again. We have a high sierra desert here, where I can hide people I have trained (Bunny, Tomboy, wonder buns, and a few others) while I go raise Hell with those causing the problem and find a way out. I have a cabin/homestead in the mountains, and a tiny retreat disquised as a micro farm out in the desert several miles from the mountains. Plus we have line shacks. Like I said before, my plan would be to just stay on the ranch. We have and can grow plenty of food. I doubt anything will happen, but it doesn't hurt to have a plan and be prepared.

one of reasons I like this board is the problem solving scenarios presented by the members....since retirement, I don't get the number of problems to solve that I once did...tropical weather is a yearly threat, and I have a shelter in place vs. evacuation plan tied to the Safir-Simpson storm categories and the anticipated land fall location... that is pretty finite... my most probable scenarios are centered around temporary interruption to my vehicle's ability to travel due to a mechanical failure where AAA can't be reached, or shut down of the highway itself ...therefore my GHB bag has morphed into a remain overnight (RON) bag, plus a milk crate containing additional and heavier equipment (machete, folding shovel, fuel, extra food) to make my stay in my small SUV a little more pleasant....the bag itself has a water bladder and I carry a case of bottled water, but it would be extreme circumstances for me to walk out... conversely, if I had to "live off the land" my source of protein is to the west... and I'm still pretty good with a cast net and "snatch hook"...