Looking at the more likely disasters for your residential area, how far away should you go to establish a place to which you bug out?

think about it realistic:
every 'survivalist' and their dog want/have a 'retreat'.
the country is crawling with camo clad nutcases with guns shooting at everything.
do YOU realy think the locals
(wherever area you want to 'bug out' to( will just let you screw up their area with your bunkers w.h.y. and b.s.?
why not stay where you are and IF there is a natural desaster follow the orders of local/state/fed authorities?
getting free food and care packages to booth?

My back yard. Since I only have one acre, it's not far. Don't need gas, don't need extra pairs of shoes.

Sue

During an evacuation I'd stay as close to home as is safely possible. Depending on the situation, my options are staying with friends/family, a hotel, or campsite. As far as having a 2nd home as a retreat goes, I'd probably save that money in a rainy day fund and "retreat" to Tahiti for the duration. I'd rather be drinking martinis on the beach instead of Tang in the boondocks.

Likely disasters, in the backyard with a tent if need be.
Unlikely disasters, 4-700 mi.

Simple question, complex answer.
Here are a couple of thought provoking, good references to start on getting the answer:
-James Wesley Rawles - How To Survive The End Of The World As We Know It http://www.survivalblog.com/writings.html
-Ragnar Benson - The Modern Day Survival Retreat http://www.scribd.com/doc/20580967/Ragna...ry-and-Practice
-Ragnar Benson - Urban Survival http://www.scribd.com/doc/32246591/Urban-Survival-Benson

I don't have a set bug out location/retreat, but I was thinking about likely hazards and wildfires came to mind since we've had some wild and woolly ones lately in Southern California. The problem with wildfires and bugging out is that they can come from different directions, or even just the smoke can come from different directions. In that sense, makes it hard to pick a fixed bug out location.

We had thick smoke pouring down over my house for about 5 days straight a couple fire seasons ago, so just being downwind of any large fire could be enough to bug out. I haven't had asthma in 20 years but a few days of that was making my asthma return (and I wore an N-95 mask as much as I could), so I certainly could've bugged out just for that.

Actually, in some ways, it's easier to bug out from the flames than the smoke, since smoke can affect you from farther away, even if you're no where near the fire. Just a few miles can be enough distance to be safe from the flames, but many more miles might be necessary to reach clear air. If you have kids with asthma or elderly family with respiratory problems, even a little smoke can be problematic.

For us, we have several options. Assuming that we're bugging out instead of bugging in, my first choice would be to find a hotel away from the unpleasantness. If that can't work for some reason, we have smart, well-armed and well-prepared friends ten miles away. My wife's parents live fifty miles away. Another set of good friends who would take us all in live 500 miles away, and my mother lives 800 miles away.

The key is having enough information to make an intelligent decision.

The trees behind the Rannoch Station Hotel would make for a pretty good bugout location being within a days bicycling range.

Especially if there was a well-concealed cache of stuff nearby.