Planning Bug Out Routes.

This gets touched on every so often so I thought we'd make the discussion a little more dedicated.

I've been all chat for a while over making plans on GOOD. It's no secret that I live in London, U.K. and so today I've had a more serious look at bugging out.

Story so far:-

Transport currently available: Shanks' Pony (look it up), Public Transport, Company flatbed van (if I choose to steal it).

Closest distance from edge of London (as defined by the M25): Approx. 12.5 miles.

In the event of TSHTF I think we can safely assume that all roads are going to turn into car parks. So...

I had a look at two routes. One (thanks to the weather I'll investigate at a later date) runs pretty much along a river. This means it has a lot of footpaths running alongside and some fairly clear routes marked. A few locks en route so not a lot of use for a canoe. Also this route runs through some high population areas. Yes, London is all high population I hear you say. But to paraphrase George Orwell, some areas are higher than others. On this point alone I'm prepared to ignore it and look elsewhere.

Moving on to two. I had a look at this today. The first 110 minutes is mostly urban. Two major arterial routes bisect it and part of it runs along a major commuter road. Now I know why cyclists wear those masks. With tweaking I think some of these roads can be swapped for streets. Yes, more housing but less traffic and potentially less visibility. Part of my route today was past a fairly large police station; no offence to our illustrious Met but I might want an alternative route just in case your station's under siege.

So after 110 minutes I hit woodland (yes, it exists). On this occasion I stuck to the road. There's still a lot of snow around and it was bad enough dodging lorries, slush and ice than traversing the woodland. This has potential as there is a fair amount of it. The downsides I can see are that it is used by a lot of people and there's essentially only one road in and out of here (easy to block). Deer if you get hungry too, though I don't think you'd be sticking around that long.

So after 3 hours and 20 minutes I reached my destination. I was travelling light, but some snow underfoot hampered my progress. What happens next? Well, I would hope to slowly make my way avoiding as many urban centres as possible. Planting rations along the route won't be easy as I have to actually make it to the location first. This I can see is going to be a real problem.

Something else I learned today. Make sure your boots are up to the job! Thought mine were proofed against the weather but alas. After 30 minutes my heels were wet, after the 12 miles my feet were soaking. Imagine if this was the real thing I would be right-royally hoisted by my own petard!

So today I have learned that it's possible but potentially dangerous and also peppered with many "what next[s]"?

So for the experts and amateurs (armchair and otherwise), time to throw in your 1/50th.

Discuss...

[edit on 5-2-2009 by Nirgal]

Me and my buddy have our route fairly planned.
We have converted a kids bike trailer into our bob.
We have to travel 100 kms through the forest.
It is converted for snow as well and we have food for a week if needed.
The trailer has snowshoes,food,blankets and our basic needs.
We planned for a week but have done this trip in summer in about 5 hours by bike.We haven't done it in winter so we planned a bit more for it.
It is complete with a hobo stove and many homemade dehydrated soup packets and some dried fruits.
I am ready bring it on.

You and I must think alike because for a large part of today I have been revuing my bug out routes, and I found something quite useful in helping me plan...............Google Earth.

Using GE I was able to look from an overview position of the topograpghy of the area. I found that I could increase the amount of routes available to me to use by 5 !!!!, Yup scanning the earth from above I found a series of what I believed were farms tracks and short drainage ditchs, which are actually quite an extensive ( say 99% complete) set of rural paths and tracks. The drainage ditchs are actually all interlinked leading to the river.

I can now encorporate these new paths onto my maps giving me more usuable escape routes.

Now just for a few minutes I have had a very very brief look at Landan on Thames ( nnit John) And the variety of extra information available to a chap like yourself looks useful, Canal routes, Pylon lines, rail lines, LUL tubes, even back alleys are their in very useful detail. I honestly think that if you couple some visual searchs of GE to a spot of research on SUB BRIT ( to identify underground tunnels, paths, lines sewers, escape routes etc you could develop a very useful underground highway system unaffected ( hopefully) by sheeple. Sub Brit = Subterainia Britanica, A website devoted to tunnels, rail systems, bunkers etcunder our cities..

reply to post by Northern Raider


I never thought of that.
I am going to make a few routes to have instead of just the 2 i know of.
Star for you.

Originally posted by DrumsRfun
reply to post by Northern Raider

 

I never thought of that.
I am going to make a few routes to have instead of just the 2 i know of.
Star for you.

I was taught to believe that ideally where possible you need to try and find four or more routes, all preferably going in different directions, and also preferably using different modes of transport. Naturally for most of us its impossible to meet that criteria. But at least looking into cycle paths, farm tracks,tow paths, storm drains, power line routes, rivers and streams, subteranian routes etc on top of our normal vehicular methods is prudent. The more I look at GE and compare it with the info on my maps the more I realise theres lots more options available to me. For example one of my bug out routes passes near a town to my east, all my current routes involve roads or old railway lines to get past that town. But just today looking at GE I can clearly see and follow a set of ancient tracks, farm track,lanes etc that bypass the town in between both of the major road networks and totally out of site of the old railway line. in fact a good part of this track passes through woodland which is always a plus.

[edit on 5-2-2009 by Northern Raider]

Reading your post i couldn't work out which bit of london you're in or which direction you're heading, it did sound like you're east, north-east and heading towards me (essex) along the Thames?

Working in London and living in essex i've considered this route quiet alot, i think it's a good one because massive areas of the bank are old industrial areas long since disused and it's riddled with footpaths. Recently they announced that they're turning the entire strip into a massive nature reserve and adding even more footpaths.

It's fairly common for displaced people to travel along riverbanks in huge numbers however and the distance between the center of the city and the country is often further along the river. Plus if you have the river to one side of you your escape routes are limited if attacked, etc.

My plan would be to travel in the industrial strip which goes along the river keeping it between a few hundred meters and a mile to my right until i get to the kink in the river by Wennington at which point i will head NE over the country towards home to regroup and retool ready for the next phase.

Of course this is only my best choice route, for all i know the river could be the source of the problem! It's of course impossible to plan when you don't know what's going to happen but still worth it

As you don't have a final destination it's important to have plans to get to a few different sections of the nation, the south coast and east anglia could be totaly different environments depending on what's happening and may be either safer or far more dangerous than say the north or west. I would assume that the north west would be the best direction to run in most events but it comes with it's own problems too.

would be interesting in hearing your thoughts on this

Originally posted by NatureBoy
Reading your post i couldn't work out which bit of london you're in or which direction you're heading, it did sound like you're east, north-east and heading towards me (essex) along the Thames?

Working in London and living in essex i've considered this route quiet alot, i think it's a good one because massive areas of the bank are old industrial areas long since disused and it's riddled with footpaths. Recently they announced that they're turning the entire strip into a massive nature reserve and adding even more footpaths.

It's fairly common for displaced people to travel along riverbanks in huge numbers however and the distance between the center of the city and the country is often further along the river. Plus if you have the river to one side of you your escape routes are limited if attacked, etc.

My plan would be to travel in the industrial strip which goes along the river keeping it between a few hundred meters and a mile to my right until i get to the kink in the river by Wennington at which point i will head NE over the country towards home to regroup and retool ready for the next phase.

Of course this is only my best choice route, for all i know the river could be the source of the problem! It's of course impossible to plan when you don't know what's going to happen but still worth it

As you don't have a final destination it's important to have plans to get to a few different sections of the nation, the south coast and east anglia could be totaly different environments depending on what's happening and may be either safer or far more dangerous than say the north or west. I would assume that the north west would be the best direction to run in most events but it comes with it's own problems too.

would be interesting in hearing your thoughts on this

Bit confused I'm getting old, if your question was for me I am not in Landan, I was looking in relation to Nirgals post. But i have just been downloading the Canal route map of london which is very useful, as is the rail line system, and I am now trying to find a copy of the storm drain network. I also reccomend you start chewing your way through Sub Brit.

Methinks if i lived near a canal or waterway system an inflatable and outboard would be handy, or a packaway kayak.

[edit on 5-2-2009 by Northern Raider]

reply to post by NatureBoy

Yeah I was intentionally vague but it wouldn't take much to figure it out.

One of my original thoughts was the waterways as there are several quite close to me. A lot from what I could see (GE) had decent pathways. As I alluded to earlier I don't think they'd be that good for boats/canoes etc as there are quite a few locks en route. The footpaths would be better, but again these routes run through some pretty population dense areas. I'm not suggesting that the more affluent areas will be any more friendly than these but, actually... yes this is exactly what I'm saying!

From what I saw there are some crazy sections (the North Circular, both North and South approaches) but once you're past it (about 3 miles) you can disappear to a certain extent.

NR, again, my cap well and truly doffed. I'll look into those tunnels toot-sweet.

reply to post by Northern Raider

Just a quick word about GE. Bear in mind some of these shots are outdated.

Go to 51 32 41 N on the Meridian. There's a half built stadium there now and all the surrounding waterways are verboten.

Originally posted by Nirgal
reply to post by Northern Raider

 

Just a quick word about GE. Bear in mind some of these shots are outdated.

So am I but I'm still useful , I keep inadvertantly annoying the mods on this forum so they leave everyone else alone

reply to post by Nirgal


My primary route if needed is canal-based which IMO offer the best way to get out of town in a flash and unseen whilst avoiding overland congested routes.

There are some decent inland waterway maps available online such as this one canal and waterways map (UK)

Our weather here in Vancouver BC is similar, and my bug out routes (I have a few depending on damages, who I have with me and weather/season which is relatively easy as it's almost always raining).

From my location we head East by North east toward the most suitable mountain range...avoiding the higher population areas as much as possible (which adds extra travel time and a lot more ground to cover but is much safer).

Three weeks at a steady pace to reach the range and another week to trudge deeper.

depending on the disaster Vancouver will also be a giant parking lot (car park LOL you English are so funny ) All of the highways out will be jammed for hundreds of miles so it requires some skirting around and cutting down south (if it isn't under 20 feet of water).

We had tossed the idea around about heading to Montana...but well I figure that's a bad idea for many reasons so we scratched it off the list of possibilities.

I get to redo my entire plan when we relocate to the east this year. Should be a bit easier in some ways and more difficult in others. Climate wise it's a LOT easier...4 actual seasons are much easier to plan for and cope with than endless damp cold and rain.

I have field maps (from forest services) and also have road maps as well as used google maps a little. Would be nice if google updated as most areas in the East have grown and spread out quite a bit.

Vancouver can only go straight up so it changes very little road wise and water way wise.

It is a lot of work and estimating the timing is difficult unless you actually walk it with a full BOB which isn't practical. Though it might be interesting to try it...hmmmmm looks at video camera.....

cheers