Why "you" won't bug out.

Well....From personal experience. 2 days before Y2K my wife and I had loaded up a trailer with 55gal of fuel, 200 gal of water and food, water, cooking supplies, Guns, ammo and the list goes on. We lived in Vegas during Y2K and there was a huge hype about all the chaos that was going to happen when the computers crash. Riots, lutting, FEMA camps, and on and on. So we bugged out to my wife (now ex) grandpas mine in the New York Mountain Range in Ca/Az dessert. We had everything there to survive for over a year. It was like a walk of shame coming back to Vegas the 3rd of January 2000. neighbors laughing at me, boss laughing at me. That was the last doom and gloom mongering I will ever listen too. And what is sad is the church we were going to was promoting this doom and goom. WOW

I would only leave here if it was a must, but my BOB is mostly kept in the event there is a natural disaster, martial law or a bunch of idiots from the city invading the area after a disaster and making it unsafe for me and my 2 girls by their lack of knowledge.

My two girls and I had to bug out 3 years ago during a massive ice storm. Two trees crashed down on the house, the road going into town (nearest neighbor is 2 miles away) was glare ice and riddled with downed trees and powerlines making it impossible for me to drive. We got our gear and out of the house in about 5 minutes (for fear of the roof coming all the way down) all the while me hoping my BOB actually was well prepared. It took about 10 hours in the ice storm to get to town and everything went great. The only thing I have added to the winter gear is yaktrax ice grippers for my boots and some poles. My two teenage girls fell alot.

If you guys have any doubt if a woman and kids can't do it without you, you are so wrong.

reply to post by tovenar


If something big did happen, you bet I would bug out.

I know my desert, I know where to go and be relatively comfortable, and I have the people and equipment to help me get it done.

reply to post by yourmaker

Blimey mate, i hear you about the insanity of the people in Vancouver!

My wife and i went backpacking right across Canada back in 96.

Couple of rucksacks, a tent and walking boots, and we covered thousands of miles.

Had a month long Greyhound bus pass, and a couple of internal airline passes (Canadian regional) and that got us all the way from Toronto to Vancouver Island in the West, Queen Charlotte Islands in the North, and Niagara falls in the South East.

We spent an hour in Vancouver, and that was long enough before we hoped on the first flight out to Vancouver Island!

I'd guestimate a good 70% of people we came across in the city were nuts. One young woman, sitting on a bus going downtown, was a maniac...she literally screamed obscenities at an old guy (very old guy) with a zimmerframe walker, for taking too long to get off the bus! And more or less shoved him off to get by him!

Couldn't believe our eyes.

I would NOT want to be anywhere near Vancouver in a SHTF situation, the crazies would get ya long before the 'S' would i reckon!

reply to post by facewhatly


You need to scratch the surface bro!
If there are squirrels, there are nuts too, and wood!

Plus if the folks bug out of my area, I'ma gonna grab all their canned and dry foods to supplement mine.

This is why it is important to have a 22 cal pellet gun, good hit, low velocity, no sound.

reply to post by 8ILlBILl8


Agreed, for the first few weeks the woods will be more populated than the cities.
Well, until the ammo runs dry from constant fire fights, then the crowd would thin out abit.
Then some of those "commandos" who survive being shot by absolute luck will start to make their way back to the cities in hopes that fema has set up a camp.
Oh the irony!

reply to post by liejunkie01


Make a deal with your boy, if he shoots it, he has to eat it and follow through.
It gives him respect for life and balance, just my 2 cents though.
I have a buddy that plinks all of his squirrels off and puts them in the trash can.
Good guy just not bright in some corners.

Originally posted by spikey
reply to post by yourmaker

 

Blimey mate, i hear you about the insanity of the people in Vancouver!

My wife and i went backpacking right across Canada back in 96.

Couple of rucksacks, a tent and walking boots, and we covered thousands of miles.

Had a month long Greyhound bus pass, and a couple of internal airline passes (Canadian regional) and that got us all the way from Toronto to Vancouver Island in the West, Queen Charlotte Islands in the North, and Niagara falls in the South East.

We spent an hour in Vancouver, and that was long enough before we hoped on the first flight out to Vancouver Island!

I'd guestimate a good 70% of people we came across in the city were nuts. One young woman, sitting on a bus going downtown, was a maniac...she literally screamed obscenities at an old guy (very old guy) with a zimmerframe walker, for taking too long to get off the bus! And more or less shoved him off to get by him!

Couldn't believe our eyes.

I would NOT want to be anywhere near Vancouver in a SHTF situation, the crazies would get ya long before the 'S' would i reckon!

sounds like a lovely vacation, sorry it had to be ruined by my hometown, I assure you we are all not that insane, though it would seem the vast majority are, which is true. I take it you never saw Downtown eastside or i'm sure that would have been front and centre in your story, unless that's where you were.

yes I completely agree, Vancouver is a danger zone. why I learned a lot of martial arts and have no fear of people.

I maintain a predatory mindset living here, always aware of my surroundings and ready to fight whoever, because it happens, more then people realize. so many murders the last couple years, stabbings, shootings and random strangers getting jumped for literally nothing.

I honestly feel like I already live in a despondent city in a post-SHTF scenario.
only my house feels like a fortress which I am truly fortunate for. I have everything I need.
Just need a gun for defensive purposes, only the criminals and cops have them.

Most people would be better off staying put the advantages to this are numerous knowledge of the area know where potential supplies will exist and where safe water and locations are going to be.

The added benefit to buggin in as it is the ability to stockpile and another important one is security for storage the worst happens they are going to be too many unprepared fools and when they get hungry and desperate that isn't going to turn out pretty.

Depending on the specific shtf scenario a well built home will have a better chance of surviving most things right now Tornados,hurricane two of the most destructive forces on this planet and yet a home can survive them.

Running around is a very bad idea unless you have prior knowledge of the area and the skills to make it go and that isn't going to fit most people.

I dred the shtf it will be the hardest thing we will ever do in our entire lives and not everyone is going to make it through planning and prepping and training and knowledge will give everyone a fighting chance and of course luck won't hurt.

a concrete home that is next best thing is a basement.

People have been told to prepare a bug-out bag. I think it really is a valid strategy for a few localized scenarios. Examples are hurricane, earthquake, flood, or chemical spill; and "personal" emergencies like the power out in your neighborhood or grass fires.

People have been told to prepare a bug-out bag for those scenarios. The trouble is, some folks think that bugging out is thus the magical answer to every problem.

I think it happens most often to urban males who visit a rural area on annual camping or hunting trip. They have an idyllic memory of life in the woods. They had a good time, plenty hot meals and plenty of adventures. They figure that if they could live like that for 5 days, that they could just as easily do it forever.

In this type of person's imagination, they are the toughest creature in the wood. They watched someone dress out a buck, or repair a tent with simple tools, and so they imagine they could live forever in the woods, especially if uncle bill or whomever it was comes with them.

Trouble is, they forgot all about the long journey in a working car to get to the woods, driving on highways patrolled by government officials, and well-stocked service stations and hotels they relied upon to complete the trip.

A guy like this figures his hunting gear or his camping bag doubles as a bug-out bag, so he has nothing to worry about. If there is ever any problem, he'll just jump in his vehicle and head out to the deserted woods, where no-one will notice or care that he and his friends are building a permanent settlement.

But, as soon as a REAL crisis occurs, he will quickly wake up to reality, and hunker down right where he is, with nothing more than a bag full of camping gear by way of actual preparation.


sad, that..

Originally posted by facewhatly
i aint goin anywhere. i pray that squirrel meat will be enough

MMMMMMM!!!!!!!! squirrel and dumplin's. Any who Im not going any where Im already so far back in the woods I have to get the sun shine pumped in.

Originally posted by g146541
reply to post by facewhatly

 

This is why it is important to have a 22 cal pellet gun, good hit, low velocity, no sound.

When I was young I would hunt squirrels in the front lawn of the local hospital with a 22cal RWS no one even knew I was around.

We are survivalists. We are surrounded by one million square miles of wilderness to the east and north. BWCA.
And we will not bug out, unless forced to. Makes no sense. Wilderness is brutal, especially depending on what time of year it is. Most people who try to escape to the woods will die quickly enough, mostly because your margin of error is gone. We have all of our food put up, know how to get the water, hunt and fish, lots of seeds to plant, gardens all developed, live off grid. And not leaving. Getting too old anyway. Most people should just stay home if they can , however city people will fail badly. No sustainability, none. No one can have it all, do it all, you are always going to come up short somewhere, especially given any length of time. Buts my hats off to anyone who is trying, keep it up!

reply to post by tovenar


Regarding hurricane warnings, I have to disagree... Most of the governments I'm aware of issue them well in advance of the event, for the sole purpose of advising the population to either evacutate or dig in. There is also the issue of evacuating visitors/tourists that almost every country wants to consider. Sadly, every year there seems those who are advised to evactuate and do not do so. I don't blame them -- there are other issues of looters and general security that a person has to measure against their general safety. There is also the issue of not being allowed back into your turf AFTER the event, should you happen to heed the warning and evactuate.

The rest of your view, I agree with, for the most part. A group or family needs a pre-determined place to go to -- a retreat. I would guess that not very many folks have such a place, and it would only makes sense to bugout to such a place if it had be previously developed and maintained. I do know people who have family farms that they have outfitted as a hedge against future high strangeness, and those folks might well stand a chance, IF they choose to move in time.

I will not be bugging out. I live on a smallish island, and there is no place to go; the world goes wonky and I choose to cast my personal dice on the U.S.??? Nope. M'Bride and I will stay here and weather whatever happens, or die trying to survive. There's a certain piece of mind that comes with knowing you won't go. I've lived a good ol' life, full of adventure/fraught with peril/full of joy and wonder in my 53 years. We won't sell our lives cheaply, but we will strive to endure, and to share and to help out and benefit those around us if/when TSHTF occurs.

I'll tell ya though........ I'll never be that frog slowly boiling in the pot. We are prepared for what we can imagine. Nature has a way of mixing things up. It's been a good life. Tomorrow the seas will calm down, and we may dive for conch.

Originally posted by 8ILlBILl8

Originally posted by AzureSky
If you have a quad you're better off, fire back into the woods and you're fine, chance are people will remain on the main roads, while you zoom through the forest paths to get where you need to go.

I hate how people think that they can just go to the woods like no else has the same idea. Every one and their grand parents think they can just go to the woods and survive by escaping the city but half the city will move to the woods.

If half of them do that Darwin's law will have a field day!
Nah, most urban denizen's will sit tight at home, home comforts are home comforts.
When they aren't there plenty will expect the welfare system to come and fix everything for them...

I've been thinking alot on this. If the shtf I know my brothers and their families will come up here if they can, but I have to have a contingency plan if something happens and they can't. I live really deep in the woods and my life style is already very simple. My little place abuts the AT and a land owner but with no neighbors close by. If anybody stumbled upon my place it is going to be of interest. I know the AT is going to be loaded with people trying to survive. I can't keep watch 24 hours a day and as wishful as my thinking is let's face it, a woman and two kids is going to be easy prey to a hungry and cold group. I can breeze right through peaceful times but the shtf it'll be a whole other story.

I'm just not sure if I'd bug out or not. A part of me wonders if I'd be better off to join the people on the AT and just appear to be a pathetic woman in hopes they'll leave me alone, or hope I can find a group to help protect my property.I am a fantastic wildcrafter and know herbal medicine and health care but I'd have to triple my supplies anyway...
It's honestly a tough call. You guys have any thoughts on this for me?

I can tell you one thing, if I did bug out I'd do a damn good job hiding the stash on my property. The thought of someone else looting my hardwork is unacceptable.

reply to post by tovenar


I would stay at home until I had to move to survive. I would hide and attempt to make the home look abandoned for a time. If I had to move, I would move, and not cry over material things. The things in my life that mean the most to me, can and would be carried on my back. People, can come along if they can keep up.

In a shtf situation, things that once meant something to you, will no longer hold any value.

Originally posted by Evolutionsend
In a shtf situation, things that once meant something to you, will no longer hold any value.

I agree completely.

And I'd go even further, to say that some of your possessions that you previously had not valued very highly may turn out to have a completely different importance in your life.

I can think of several examples.

Basic gardening tools. Most garages in America have a shovel, a hoe, and a rake. Honestly, if someone stole yours, it might be months before you noticed. Even then, you'd probably wonder if you had misplaced it, or the neighbor borrowed it, or something. But after a catastrophe, the warehouses and superstores will empty out, and not be refilled. And there will be lots of digging to do. Everything from replanting the yard as a garden, to burying the dead.

Large pieces of wood, like the dining room table, or the bottom of a bunk bed or crib. Once the local inventory of plywood is exhausted, you'll have to fix broken windows with whatever wood you've got. Suddenly that picture window in the living room is a huge liability---best to board it up before somebody throws a brick or a molotov through it and tries a home invasion on you. that's where old furniture like entertainment centers and ping pong tables become really, really valuable.

Specialized tools that you have in your home, but that will never be put in a bug out bag; things like teflon tape, electronics testing equipment, radios and electronics, etc.

Loads of spare fabric. Once commerce falls apart, there will be no more cheap clothes from the gap. Or even China. You old sheets and towels will begin to increase in value, the longer we go without the convenience of fully stocked and manned stores. The clothes you outgrew can be bargained at the ad-hoc flea market for things you really need, like flour.

Bugging out, even when vital, means turning your back on a whole house, a whole lifetime, of collected stuff. Some of that stuff is stuff you could use...

Most homes have those things, but don't really value them at all....yet.

the canadian north is the perfect bug out place. the amount elk, deer, moose, grouse, pheasants, wild turkey, geese, ducks, beaver and boar to hunt will leave you with enough food to last 100 lifetimes.

not to mention the endless upon endless amounts of untapped and remote fresh water lakes that will provide you with fresh clean spring water to drink when ever you please.

and the unpressured brook trout, salmon, lake trout, perch, bass, walleye, pike, muskie and arctic char will be so easy to catch you'll be having shore lunch everyday of your life.

the sheer amount of millions and millions of acres of forest and pine trees will give you lumber to the day you die.

with a little bit of planning and tools you could build yourself a log cabin and have firewood to last you thru every winter.

just take with you a good hunting rifle with thousands of rounds. in 5-10 years the world should be back to normal.

you'll probably be a little insane or you think you're insane, but its just the deprogramming your going thru. but you'll be a tank.

reply to post by tovenar


You probably have a point for those who have those luxuries and live in a 'metropolis'.

Some of us have been preparing for a very long time and have chosen to live where we don't have to deal with just highways as means of egress or so many damn people.