Outline
One of the common questions when we discuss evacuating to a bug out location is how can anyone afford this option? When making rent is hard enough, owning a bug out location with a nice cabin and food stores is a fantasy. After all, the landlord or deputies aren’t likely to come and try to evict you for late rent during the active aftermath of a horrible disaster. The reality is that most people may not ever be able to afford a bug out location of their own, but they still may need to bug out in an emergency when their survival depends on it. In this video, we will look at several considerations you will have to make when planning to bug out after a disaster and places you can go where you can survive if you know what the new location’s dangers are.
1- Type of Disaster
However, a disaster on a national or global level would not allow you to simply move temporarily to a nearby region. Disasters of this larger type require you to assess where you are starting from and where you can find the resources you need to sustain yourself. The environment you are in at the time disaster strikes may not contain the resources you need for long term survival. Your long term survival may require you to travel to a safer area. If this isn’t feasible, you may have to bug out of your location but remain in the area somewhere.
Any bug out location will have to have these same basic requirements: food, water, and shelter. When it comes to food, you will need to consider if you can harvest and forage from nature or grow small quantities of food to sustain you. When it comes to water, you ideally want a replenishable natural supply that may require boiling to drink but is plentiful. Regarding shelter, you will need to think of the tent or tarp or lean-to structure you might build and whether you can defend that location if others try to rob you of your resources. Do you have a nice tent but no way to protect it? Likely in an SHTF situation, you will not have that tent for long. Will you need a structure, or do you already know of one you can occupy with relative safety?
You will have to consider how you will get to the location. If you have a vehicle, your engine noise will let people know you are traveling through, making you a target. If you are on foot, you can keep a lower profile, even traveling by night if that is the safest means, but you will expend thousands of calories, and progress will be slow. There are many coves and bends around many lakes and rivers and coastal regions almost entirely inaccessible by land if you travel by waterway. And though sound travels further and clearer across waterways, large bodies of water provide a natural barrier between you and would-be thieves.
When it comes to traveling, realize that fires, the discharge of firearms for hunting and defense, and vehicle noise all tip off residents that you are moving through their land or on their ground. Wherever your final destination is, and all along the way, you will have to consider who owns the land, thinks they own the land, asserts their power over the land, or who may be passing through like you. Conflicts could arise from any interactions with these people. When laws cannot be enforced, you may have to pay a toll to pass through some areas safely, or it could cost you everything of value you have.
Once you have considered all that, you can turn to the locations. Here are the best bug-out places when you can’t afford a bug-out location, but you have to head out.
2- Abandoned Buildings
In an abandoned building scenario, you have to consider whether you can defend the structure. You will either be practicing OPSEC by keeping fires low and smokeless and keeping silent, or you are going to be part of a small group that can look out for one another.
3- Off the Road or Under It
Traveling under bridges will allow you to access brooks, creeks, streams, and river banks. When you are ever directly under a bridge, realize that people may still be traveling on the bridge above you. Many abandoned bridges may provide a safer long-term environment. Going under a bridge can take you to the banks and animal trails you can traverse to reach more secluded areas, free from others’ prying eyes and sometimes inaccessible but by the same path you traveled.
4- Down or Up River
Your primary consideration when bugging out up or down rivers is that they are natural ways of travel. People may be floating through to get to other locations as well. It is doubtful that they will be traveling against the current without you knowing, as they would require an engine. If they are traveling down the river, they would be coming from a particular direction and floating silently down the river. If you found the spot because it had a nice bank where you could put in, or you walked in, and there’s a nice beach or inlet where others could come ashore, make efforts to conceal it with brush or debris that blends in with the rest of the banks. Covering your trails and hiding your shores will provide you a little extra security.
5- Caves and Mines
You have an added layer of safety concerns with any mine or cave that range from falling rocks to gasses to wild animals. Still, it worked for early man for thousands of years, so it makes the list here for bug-out locations when you can’t afford or get to anywhere else.
6- Into the Woods
You will have the added security of isolation since most won’t be able to get to you in the deep woods or forest, but genuinely being off-grid and ultimately providing the food you need from hunting and foraging is a considerable challenge. Many find it easier to do with experience and practice, but you will likely just find yourself in the border regions of wooded areas if you’re new to it.
7- Boats and Coves
Yes, pirates would probably be a thing after an SHTF situation, so being prepared to defend yourself is necessary. Even with that problem, navigating waterways allows you to travel by floating five to seven miles per day. That gives you an excellent opportunity to find the hidden spot, perhaps up an unused tributary, to set up a long-term camp and wait for safer times. If things turn ugly where you are at, you can always travel another five to seven miles the next day to find someplace safer.
Conclusion
Bugging out is never a great option, but sometimes we are out of options. Your survival is the most important thing. When choosing a bug out location, give credence to the considerations and locations discussed in this blog. We would love to hear what some of your bug-out locations will be.
As always, please stay safe out there.